IRS mileage rate increases to $.70 per mile:  The Internal Revenue Service announced that the optional standard mileage rate for automobiles driven for business will increase by 3 cents in 2025, while the mileage rates for vehicles used for other purposes will remain unchanged from 2024. Beginning January 1, 2025, the standard mileage rates for the use of a car, van, pickup or panel truck will be: 70 cents per mile driven for business use, up 3 cents from 2024; 21 cents per mile driven for medical purposes, the same as in 2024; 21 cents per mile driven for moving purposes for qualified active-duty members of the Armed Forces, unchanged from last year; and 14 cents per mile driven in service of charitable organizations, equal to the rate in 2024. The rates apply to fully electric and hybrid automobiles, as well as gasoline and diesel-powered vehicles. Source: IRS 12/19/24

Healthcare costs jumping double digits in 2025: Insurers are projecting medical costs will increase globally in 2025 – by about 10.4%, according to WTW’s 2025 Global Medical Trends Survey.  Specifically in the U.S., insurers project a 10.2% increase in 2025, up from 9.3% this year.  Notably, WTW researchers said that public healthcare systems worldwide have been overwhelmed due to high demand and low resources, which has led to people turning to private providers. In the U.S., in particular, the face of employer-sponsored healthcare continues to shift, especially as GLP-1 coverage remains a hot topic. A Mercer report found that coverage for obesity drugs ticked up 44% among companies employing 500 or more workers, similar to the 41% increase of the year prior.  Source:  HR Dive 11/21/24

More women impacted by workplace stress:  51% of working women in the U.S. report feeling stressed a lot of the day (vs. 39% of men). Additionally, 42% of working women say their job has had a somewhat or extremely negative impact on their mental health over the last six months (vs. 37% of men). The consequential ripples of women's wellbeing affect organizations as declines in wellbeing are associated with lower engagement, higher burnout, and increased participation in job-seeking behaviors.  Women who report feeling stressed a lot of the day are 46% more likely to be actively looking or watching for new job opportunities. For many working women, trying to find balance between work and life feels like a perpetual tug-of-war with each side demanding an increased level of presence and attention. About one in six women (17%) report having to address personal or family responsibilities at work daily or several times a day (vs. 11% of men). Similarly, 18% of women say they need to address job-related responsibilities outside of working hours at least daily (vs. 15% of men). Women are also more likely to think about work during their personal time each day (39% of women vs. 37% of men).  In addition, traditional hours aren’t working for them in today’s world.  Source: Gallup 12/4/24

Presence of older women in the workforce is steadily increasing:  The labor force participation rate for women older than 55 was 33.6% in 2023, a more than 7 percentage point increase from 2000, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That jump is even more pronounced for women in their 60s and 70s. More than 10% of U.S. workers as of 2021 were women 55 or older, according to the Labor Department.  Multiple studies from the past decade have shown that many women work longer because they genuinely want to. For decades, family duties and discrimination pushed women out of the workforce earlier than men, but today’s older women are staying on the job longer than previous generations. Some seek career satisfaction, but others work longer because they feel they can’t afford to retire. A 2018 Harvard University study found that older women workers were more likely to have invested in their education and career earlier in life, and often had more savings. It also found that 85% to 90% of employed women aged 59 to 63 enjoyed their work six to eight years earlier, indicating that job satisfaction factors heavily into the desire to delay retirement.  Source: The Seattle Times 12/3/24

Looking for a labor pipeline?  Think returning citizens:  Small and large employers alike are tapping into a long-overlooked talent pool that they say is full of dedicated, loyal, hardworking staff – people with criminal records.  AT&T, Bank of America, Deloitte, JP Morgan, Mastercard, and Microsoft have all created hiring programs for people with criminal records, via their membership with the Second Change Business Coalition (SCBC), which works with dozens of private-sector employers to create such programs. Being formerly incarcerated, or simply having a criminal record, remains a major deterrent to employment. About a quarter of Americans have criminal records, and they face unemployment rates up to 10 times higher than those who don’t, according to the SCBC. Despite remaining barriers and stigma, over 80% of HR professionals report that staff with criminal records perform the same or better than those without records, and over 80% of managers say the value second chance employees bring is as high as – if not higher than – workers without records, according to a report from SHRM.  Source:  WorkLife 11/29/24

FMLA can be used for clinical trials:  On November 8, 2024, the Wage and Hour Division of the U.S. Department of Labor (WHD) issued an Opinion Letter clarifying that eligible employees may take leave under the FMLA to participate in treatments that are offered in clinical trials for serious health conditions. The decision comes as a boon to many employees who suffer from conditions for which clinical trials provide a potential cure or avenue of relief. The decision also achieves the important policy goal of incentivizing diverse pools of candidates to participate in clinical trials, particularly when the trials target diseases that disproportionately affect historically underrepresented groups. As WHD noted, clinical trials are research studies in which persons are assigned to interventions to evaluate the effects of those interventions on health-related biomedical or behavioral outcomes. Many employers had speculated that employees could not take FMLA leave for clinical trials because: (a) by their nature, clinical trials are intended to determine whether a particular intervention serves as a treatment (meaning that at the time of a trial, the employee is not receiving a "treatment"); and (b) there is usually no guarantee that the employee would actually receive the intervention under study rather than a placebo. With the clarification provided by the WHD's Opinion Letter, employers should take care to avoid denying leave to employees otherwise eligible for FMLA based on their involvement in a clinical trial.  Source:  Foley & Lardner 12/6/24