The Importance of the I-9 Form

February 8th, 2012

For business owners and employees, the I-9 form is one of the single most challenging forms to complete in the U.S.  It contains 185 items that can be incorrect and thereby result in fines to the employer ranging from $110 to $1,100 PER EACH INCORRECT ITEM.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) audited an estimated 3,000 businesses last year.  The average fine was $100,000!  Audits of restaurants alone have increased by an estimated 500% in the last 5 years.

If  businesses are audited, they are required by law to produce I-9 forms for all employees within 3 days.

There is a 70 page booklet containing advice on how to complete the I-9 form correctly.  In addition, ManageStaff has created a training program for completing the I-9 form, addressing general questions/errors that typically arise when completing the form.  If you would like to participate in this training or receive a refresher course, please contact your HR Representative.

Posted in Compliance, Payroll, U.S. Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE), Uncategorized | No Comments »

House Votes to Repeal CLASS Act

February 2nd, 2012

The House of Representatives has voted to repeal the Community Living Assistance Services and Supports, or CLASS Act, a long-term-care insurance provision of the 2010 health care reform law.

In a 267 – 159 vote, including support from 28 Democrats, House members approved the bill that was introduced a year ago.  This bill, the Fiscal Responsibility and Retirement Security Act of 2011, overturns the CLASS act, a voluntary, public-supported long-term-care insurance program.

In a written statement, House Speaker John Boehner praised the bill’s passage and reiterated his position that the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act is making it harder for small businesses to hire new workers and provide insurance for their employees.

ManageStaff offers several insurance plans to meet the needs of employees and employers.  For information, please contact Julie Conn at: julie@managestaffinc.com or your HR Representative.

Posted in Insurance, Uncategorized | No Comments »

Employee Pay Requirements

January 10th, 2012

The State of Arizona requires every employer in the state to have at least two regular pay days each month, not more than 16 days apart.  Employees must be paid no later than 5 days after the end of the pay period.  If an employee is involuntarily terminated (fired for any reason or laid off for lack of work, for example), the employer is required to pay final wages no later than 72 business hours after termination.

Employers may pay more often than twice per month (semimonthly).  Other options are biweekly (every 2 weeks), weekly, or even daily.

The pay schedule will make a difference in salaried employees’ individual check amounts, but not the total yearly salary amount.  For example, an employee earning $35,000 per year would receive $1458.34/paycheck on a semimonthly basis (24 checks per year), and would receive $1346.16/paycheck on a biweekly basis (26 checks per year). 

If there are hourly non-exempt employees being paid on a semimonthly or biweekly basis, remember that overtime is calculated by the workweek, so any time worked over 40 hours in a workweek would be required to be paid at one and 1/2 times the employee’s regular rate of  pay.  An employee who worked 82 hours in a biweekly pay period would not automatically receive 2 hours of overtime.  The employee may have worked 37 hours the first week of the pay period, and 45 hours the second week, entitling the employee to 77 regular hours and 5 hours of overtime.

If you have any questions regarding employee pay requirements, please contact your HR Representative.

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2012 Minimum Wage Increase

December 28th, 2011

Arizona is one of eight states that are raising the minimum wage on January 1, 2012.  Arizona’s new minimum wage will be $7.65 per hour.  Tipped employees may be paid $4.65 per hour, however if the employee does not earn enough tips to bring the rate up to $7.65 per hour, the employer is responsible for paying the difference as “tips to minimum”.

The other states that will have minimum wage increases are:

  • Colorado ($7.64/hour)
  • Florida ($7.67/hour)
  • Montana ($7.65/hour)
  • Ohio ($7.70/hour)
  • Oregon ($8.80/hour)
  • Vermont ($8.46/hour)
  • Washington ($9.04/hour)

The federal minimum wage will remain at $7.25 per hour.

Posted in Compliance, Payroll, Uncategorized | No Comments »

Holiday Toy Drive

December 16th, 2011

As part of our commitment to involvement in our community, ManageStaff is hosting a holiday toy drive for the Child Crisis Center in Mesa, Arizona.  The children staying at the Center are there temporarily for emergency shelter because they have been abandoned or taken from their family for safety reasons.  They eventually go into foster care or are hopefully adopted.  The Center provides many different programs for the education and well-being of these children, but always needs help, especially at the holidays.

The Center is accepting donations of toys, arts and crafts, games, and other gift items until December 21st, allowing them time to wrap and distribute the gifts to the children for the holidays.  Other general needs items such as toiletries, baby items, clothing, towels and sheets are always appreciated any time of year.

The children currently at the Child Crises Center range in age from 3 months to 11 years.  If you would like to make a donation, please contact ManageStaff at: 602-431-8424, or call the Center’s Community Relations Department directly at: 480-969-2308.

Thank you!

Posted in Community Support, Uncategorized | No Comments »

Employee or Independent Contractor?

December 9th, 2011

As a business owner, do you think you will be able to save time and money by classifying workers as independent contactors instead of employees, placing the responsibility on them to report their own taxes?  You may want to give that thought a little more consideration.

It is critical that you correctly determine whether a person providing services is an employee or an independent contractor.  If you classify an employee as an independent contractor and you have no reasonable basis for doing so, the IRS may hold you liable for employment taxes and possible penalties for that worker.

In general, as an employer you must withhold income taxes, withhold and pay Social Security and Medicare taxes, workers’ compensation, and unemployment tax on wages paid to an employee.  You do not generally have to withhold or pay any taxes on payments to independent contractors.  (Remember, as your PEO, ManageStaff calculates, withholds and pays taxes on your behalf, since we are the employer of record for the employees we lease back to you.)

In determining whether the person providing service is an employee or an independent contractor, all information that provides evidence of the degree of control and independence must be considered.

Common Law Rules

Facts that provide evidence of the degree of control and independence fall into three categories:

  1. Behavioral: Does the company control or have the right to control what the worker does and where and how the worker does his or her job?
  2. Financial:  Are the business aspects of the worker’s job controlled by the payer? (These include things like how and when the worker is paid, whether expenses are reimbursed, who provides tools/supplies, etc.)
  3. Type of Relationship:  Are there written contracts or employee type benefits (for example, a pension plan, insurance, vacation pay, etc.)?  Will the relationship continue and is the work performed a key aspect of the business?

Businesses must weigh all these factors when determining whether a worker is an employee or an independent contractor.  The keys are to look at the entire relationship, consider the degree or extent of the right to direct and control, and finally, to document each of the factors used in coming up with the determination.

If you have questions regarding how to classify your workers, be sure to contact your HR Representative.

 

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Posted in Compliance, Payroll, Unemployment Tax, taxes | No Comments »

Reporting Hours Worked

December 2nd, 2011

When it comes to payroll, there is a difference between submitting time in hours and minutes, and submitting time in hours and hundredths of an hour.

Submitting payroll by hours and minutes looks like this:

30:30 (for 30 hours and 30 minutes)

Submitting payroll by hours and hundredths of an hour looks like this:

30.5 (for 30 1/2 hours, or 30 hours and 30 minutes)

Think of an analog clock (pie shape).  A clock is divided into 60 parts, each part equaling 1 minute.  If that same clock is divided into 100ths, there would be 100 parts, so each part would be smaller than if there were only 60 parts.  But both clocks equal the same amount of total time.

If hours are submitted as 30.30, but should actually be 30:30, there will be a difference in the employee’s pay amount:

30.30 at $10/hour would equal $303.00

30:30 at $10/hour would equal $305.00

 

ManageStaff payroll checks are issued in hundredths of an hour.  However, hours may be submitted either way because our payroll system can automatically convert minutes to hundredths of an hour.  *Just let us know how you will be submitting hours, and be sure to be consistent so we can ensure that employees are being paid correctly.

If you have any payroll questions, please contact your HR Representative.

*Payrolls submitted via the web have certain requirements.  Please contact your HR Rep for instructions before submitting your first payroll online.

Posted in Payroll, Uncategorized | No Comments »

2012 Social Security Benefit Increase

November 18th, 2011

Monthly Social Security and Supplemental Security income (SSI) benefits for more than 60 million Americans will increase 3.6 percent in 2012, according to the Social Security Administration.

The 3.6 percent cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) will begin with benefits that nearly 55 million Social Security beneficiaries receive in January, 2012.  Increased payments to more than 8 million SSI beneficiaries will begin on December 30, 2011.

Some other changes that take effect in January of each year are based on the increase in average wages.  Based on that increase, the maximum amount of earnings subject to the Social Security tax (taxable maximum) will increase to $110,100 from $106,800.  Of the estimated 161 million workers who will pay Social Security taxes in 2012, about 10 million will pay higher taxes as a result of the increase in the taxable maximum.

The cost-of-living adjustment is the first since 2009.

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FMLA for Veterans and Armed Forces

November 11th, 2011

The Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) provides certain employees with up to 12 weeks of unpaid, job-protected leave per year.  It also requires that their group health benefits be maintained during the leave.

On January 28, 2008, President Bush signed into law H.R. 4986, the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA).  Among other things, it amends the FMLA of 1993 to permit a “spouse, son, daughter, parent, or next of kin” to take up to 26 workweeks of leave to care for a “member of the Armed Forces, including a member of the National Guard or Reserves, who is undergoing medical treatment, recuperation, or therapy, is otherwise in outpatient status, or is otherwise on the temporary disability retired list, for a serious injury or illness.”

The NDAA also permits an employee to take FMLA leave for “any qualifying exigency (as the Secretary of Labor shall, by regulation, determine) arising out of the fact that the spouse, or a son, daughter, or parent of the employee is on active duty (or has been notified of an impending call or order to active duty) in the Armed Forces in support of a contingency operation.”

FMLA applies to all public agencies, all public and private elementary and secondary schools, and companies with 50 or more employees. 

Employees are eligible for leave (for certain reasons) if they have worked for their employer for at least 12 months, or at least 1250 hours over the past 12 months, and work at a location where the company employs 50 or more employees within 75 miles. 

Under the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act of 1994 (USERRA), a service member returning to work would be entitled to FMLA leave if the hours that he or she would have worked for the civilian employer during the period of military service would have met the FMLA eligibility threshold.  A service member who is reemployed is entitled to the rights and benefits that he or she would have attained if employment would have been continuous.  (However, a service member would not be entitled to rights and benefits that are considered as a form of short-term compensation, such as accrued vacation.)

Recognition of the rights and responsibilities established by USERRA will facilitate reentry into the workforce by those who stood ready to serve our nation.

If you have any questions regarding FMLA, please contact your HR Representative.

On this Veterans Day, a huge thank you to all members of our Armed Forces, past, present, and future.  And a special thanks to my dad: veteran of WWII and Korea, retired Reserves and National Guard.  Your service is appreciated, more than you will ever know.

 

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Posted in Compliance, FMLA, NDAA, USERRA | No Comments »

Holiday Pay Requirements

November 4th, 2011

The FLSA (Fair Labor Standards Act) does not require payment for time not worked, such as vacations or holidays (federal or otherwise).

If an hourly, non-exempt employee works on a holiday and surpasses 40 hours during that work week, any hours worked over 40 would be considered overtime, and payable at 1 1/2 times the employee’s regular hourly rate.

If a holiday falls on the scheduled pay day, ARS (Arizona Revised Statute) 23-351 requires employers to pay on or before the scheduled pay day. 

Holiday and vacation pay are generally a decision of the individual employer, and should be addressed in the company’s Employee Handbook.  ManageStaff provides customized Employee Handbooks as part of our service.  If your company does not have an Employee Handbook, please contact your HR Representative.

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Posted in Compliance, Payroll | No Comments »

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