Help employ military spouses: The U.S. Department of Defense launched the Military Spouse Career Accelerator Pilot, or MSCAP, program in 2023, where spouses are matched with participating companies, and DOD pays the salaries of the spouses during the 12 weeks.  The hope is that companies will hire them full-time as a result of the fellowship, but there’s no guarantee. This program is one of a number of DOD initiatives to tackle the issue of military spouse unemployment, exacerbated by a lifestyle that involves frequent moves. The military spouse unemployment rate has remained persistently above 20% for over a decade. The pool of employers hosting spouse fellows has nearly tripled over the last year, from 129 to 370. The number of spouses who have completed applications has also tripled, going from 1,000 to over 3,000. Of those, 807 have been placed into fellowships. The pilot is slated to continue through 2026, so officials encourage military spouses to continue to apply. MSCAP is open to spouses of currently serving members of the Army, Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force, and Space Force, to include active, reserve, and National Guard components. Source:  Military Times 9/23/24

ACA affordability threshold increases to 9.02% for 2025: On September 6, 2024, the IRS issued Revenue Procedure 2024-35. It announced that the Affordable Care Act (ACA) affordability threshold is increased from 8.39% for 2024 to 9.02% for 2025. This is important news for employers subject to the ACA employer mandate because it potentially increases the cost at which a self-only coverage option must be available under a group health plan to avoid the possibility of a penalty on the employer. The ACA "formula" provides that an applicable large employer must offer each full-time employee and his/her dependents the opportunity to enroll in minimum essential coverage that satisfies a "minimum value" standard and is "affordable" or be potentially exposed to penalties.  ACA affordability is based on the lowest-cost, self-only coverage option under a health plan. This requires an analysis of the employee-required contribution for the lowest-cost, self-only coverage to make sure it does not exceed a specified amount. In addition, employers must take into account wellness plan incentives and opt-out payments for purposes of affordability.  Under the ACA, the specified amount is a percentage based on the employee's household income (initially set at 9.5% in 2014, adjusted for inflation).  Source: CALFEE 10/10/2024

Union petitions to NLRB grew 27% and ULPs 7%: From October 1, 2023, to September 30, 2024, the National Labor Relations Board received 3,286 union election petitions, up 27% since FY 2023, when the Agency received 2,593 petitions. This is more than double the number of petitions received since FY 2021, when the NLRB received 1,638 petitions.  Likewise, from FY 2023 to FY 2024, unfair labor practice charge filings increased 7% (from 19,869 to 21,292 cases). In sum, the NLRB’s field offices received a total of 24,578 cases, the highest total case intake in over a decade.  The increase in cases filed in the NLRB’s field offices also caused an increase in cases for the adjudicative side of the Agency. In FY 2024, the Board received 393 unfair labor practice and representation cases, up 22% from 321 cases last year. The Board increased its productivity in FY 2024, issuing 259 decisions—a 5% uptick from FY 2023. As has been the case for the last several years, however, the Board’s case processing achievements were overtaken by a significant jump in case intake, ending FY2024 with 288 pending cases—46% more than the 197 pending cases at the end of FY 2023.  Source: NLRB 10/15/24

How well do you communicate your organization’s value proposition? Only a third of employees believe their organization consistently delivers on employee value proposition (EVP) promises amid communication challenges, according to a new report.   The Gartner report, which polled more than 1,000 employees, found that only 33% say their employers consistently deliver on EVP promises.  HR leaders are aware of this communication barrier, with 75% of them admitting that they're not doing a good job of internally communicating their EVP.   To address the issue, Gartner suggests communicating the EVP at the "most relevant moments in an employee's experience."   A variety of channels exist for HR leaders to communicate EVP, including job descriptions, career websites, job interviews, onboarding, team meetings, the company intranet, employee working groups, among others. HR leaders are also urged to show that they are responsive amid doubts in the workforce that their concerns are taken seriously.  Meanwhile, employees are also turning to their managers to communicate their organization’s EVP, but Gartner notes that this group of workers might already be overburdened and do not have the capacity to communicate EVP to their direct reports.  Source:  HR Director 9/19/24

Is return to office the new trend? Amazon Chief Executive Andy Jassy set CEOs abuzz with envy—and white-collar workers with fear—with a surprise memo calling corporate staffers back to the office full-time.  Now, long after hybrid work seems a settled matter at many companies, it may not be settled. A tougher labor market, especially for white-collar professionals, is now changing the calculus. With jobs harder to find and more companies willing to cut them, the balance of power is shifting from workers to bosses. Many of those bosses still worry that productivity and innovation suffer when people aren’t together in an office. With Jassy laying down the law at Amazon, some executives predict more full-time office mandates will now follow. In a KPMG survey of 400 U.S. CEOs, nearly 80% said that they expected corporate employees to be in offices full-time within the next three years. That’s more than double the 34% who said so in April.  Source:  Wall Street Journal 9/20/24