Daylight Savings Time ends November 3: When clocks are turned back an hour in the early morning on November 3rd workers on the midnight shift at that time will actually work an extra hour. Assuming that these workers are nonexempt employees, meaning that they are governed by the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), they must be paid for all hours worked. The end of daylight savings time can have overtime pay implications as well. Generally, nonexempt employees are entitled to overtime pay for all hours in excess of 40 worked during the week. Employees who work an extra hour during the conversion to standard time may go over the 40-hour mark for the workweek and are thus entitled to the higher overtime pay rate for that time. For a copy of the ASE end of daylight savings time poster, click here.

USCIS Extends Validity of Expired Permanent Resident Cards from 24 Months to 36 Months for Renewals: On September 10, USCIS further extended the validity of Permanent Resident Cards (PRC, or Green Card) from 24 months to 36 months for lawful permanent residents who have filed Form I-90, Application to Replace Permanent Resident Card, to renew their PRC.   Individuals newly filing Form I-90 will receive a Form I-797, Notice of Action, receipt notice with the 36-month automatic extension. Individuals who have a pending application will receive an amended receipt notice with the 36-month automatic extension before the initial 24-month extension period expires.   When completing Form I-9, Employment Eligibility Verification, new employees may present an expiring or expired PRC with this receipt notice as a List A document that extends the PRC for 36 months from the Card Expires date on the front of the card.  Employers may not reverify current employees who presented this document combination with the original 24-month extension when they originally completed Form I-9.  Source: USCIS 10/28/24

Federal Contractor Minimum Wage rises to $13.30 per hour: The Department of Labor (DOL) Wage and Hour Division is announcing in the Federal Register the updated applicable minimum wage rate for workers performing work on or in connection with federal contracts covered by Exec. Order No. 14026 and Exec. Order No 13658 for 2025. For work on or in connection with contracts covered by Exec. Order No. 13658, the minimum wage will increase to $13.30 per hour, while the required minimum cash wage that generally must be paid to tipped employees will increase to $9.30 per hour. For work on or in connection with contracts covered by Exec. Order No. 14026, the minimum wage will increase to $17.75 per hour for both non-tipped and tipped employees.  Source: CCH 10/1/24

Do your employees feel safe reporting misconduct? According to Violation Tracker, the top 100 regulatory fines, criminal penalties, and class-action settlements for U.S. corporate wrongdoing since 2020 amount to an astounding $221.9 billion. According to Ethisphere research, up to 75 acts of employee misconduct per 1,000 employees go unreported every year. Ethisphere maintains the largest data set of employee culture survey responses of its kind, and of the millions of employees spoken to, 97% of employees say that they would be willing to report misconduct if they witnessed it. But at the moment of truth, only 50% of employees who witness misconduct actually report it. Again, when we put that in perspective, a company with 10,000 employees should expect between 500 and 1,500 misconduct incidences a year, yet half of which will likely go unreported. When asked why they didn’t report misconduct, 48% of employees said they were afraid they would face workplace retaliation for it. Another 48% said that they were afraid that corrective action wouldn’t be taken. And these numbers persist, even though 83% of employees are aware that their employer prohibits retaliation against employees who report misconduct or participate in an investigation, and 87% of employees believe their manager will uphold anti-retaliation policies.  Source:  Fast Company 9/25/24

What are top insurance concerns for employers in 2024? Cyber risks are the top concern for businesses, according to the 2024 Travelers Risk Index by Travelers Cos. Inc., with 62% of those surveyed reporting online exposures as their greatest risk.  This was the fourth time in six years that cyber threats ranked as the top concern, Travelers said in a statement.  Following cyber threats as top concerns among business leaders were medical cost inflation, 59%, which held the top spot in 2023; increasing employee benefits costs, 59%; broad economic uncertainty, 59%; and the ability to attract and retain talent, 54%.  Hart Research conducted the national online survey of 1,202 U.S. business insurance decision-makers June 20 to 30. Despite cyber threats topping the risk index, almost 30% of the respondents said their company did not have a cyber insurance policy, Travelers said.  The 65% of respondents who said their business did have a policy was up from 60% last year and just 39% in 2018. The year-over-year increase from last year was seen across businesses of all sizes: small businesses jumped to 41% from 34%; midsized companies increased to 77% from 74%; and large businesses rose to 78% from 72%.  Source:  Business Insurance 9/24/24

More flexibility with 401K match for employees in the future? A new IRS ruling could ultimately give employees more power to choose how their employer match is contributed to their benefits — such as adding to their 401(k), health savings accounts, or helping with student-loan repayments. While the ruling currently applies to only one company, experts called it significant and expect it to open the path toward wider use in the future.  Under the private-letter ruling, at the beginning of each year, workers can choose where their employer contributions will be applied. Employees can’t get the funds in cash, but they have a choice of where their employer’s money goes. Employees can choose from these four areas for the contributions: the employees’ retirement plan, their health savings account, student-loan repayment, or a retiree health-reimbursement arrangement. If no choice is made, funds would automatically go into the worker’s retirement account.  It may take a while for this approach to take place within organizations, but it gives more flexibility to workers.  Source:  MarketWatch 9/27/24