by editor | Aug 14, 2024 | Compliance and Regulatory - Directors, Human Resources, Payroll
As a manager in hospice care, your role goes beyond overseeing patient care and managing staff. It includes ensuring that your team feels valued and fairly compensated. Pay transparency is becoming a hot topic, and understanding its implications can help you effectively navigate this evolving landscape.
What Is Pay Transparency?
Pay transparency refers to the practice of openly sharing information about compensation within an organization. This can include posting salary ranges in job listings, discussing pay openly among employees, or providing detailed breakdowns of how pay is determined. The goal is to ensure that employees understand how their pay is calculated and that there are no disparities based on gender, race, or other factors.
What is the status of pay transparency regulations in the U.S.?
The U.S. is starting to experience a trend in adoption of pay transparency regulations. Several states have introduced laws that require employers to provide salary ranges in job postings or upon request. For example:
- Colorado: The state’s Equal Pay for Equal Work Act requires employers to include salary ranges in job postings and provide pay information to employees upon request.
- New York City: The city requires employers with four or more employees to include salary ranges in job advertisements.
- California: As of January 2023, California employers with 15 or more employees must include pay scales in job postings.
It is likely that more states will follow and that the laws with transparency requirements will continue to be more comprehensive.
Why Is Pay Transparency Important?
- Fosters Trust and Engagement: When employees understand how their pay is determined and believe it is fair, they are more likely to feel valued and engaged in their work. In a field as emotionally demanding as hospice care, high employee engagement is crucial for maintaining a positive work environment and delivering high-quality care.
- Reduces Pay Disparities: Pay transparency helps to identify and address pay disparities that may exist within your organization. In healthcare, where women and minorities are often overrepresented in lower-paying roles, transparency can be a tool for promoting equity and ensuring that all employees are paid fairly for their work.
- Compliance with Regulations: Some states in the U.S. are implementing laws that require employers to provide pay ranges in job postings or share salary information upon request. Staying ahead of these regulations by adopting pay transparency practices can help your hospice avoid legal challenges and demonstrate a commitment to fairness.
How to Implement Pay Transparency
- Review Current Pay Practices: Start by conducting a thorough review of your current pay practices. Ensure that salaries are consistent with market rates and that there are no unexplained disparities among employees with similar roles and experience levels.
- Communicate Clearly: If you decide to move towards more transparency, communicate clearly with your team about what information will be shared and why. For example, explain how pay ranges are determined and what factors influence individual salaries.
- Train Managers: Provide training for all managers to ensure they understand the principles of pay transparency and are equipped to have open and honest conversations about pay with their team members.
- Update Job Postings: If your state requires it or if you choose to do so, include salary ranges in job postings. This not only meets regulatory requirements but also attracts candidates who appreciate transparency and fairness.
- Regularly Review and Adjust: Pay transparency is not a one-time effort. Regularly review your compensation practices and make adjustments as needed to ensure ongoing fairness and compliance with any new laws or guidelines.
Challenges of Pay Transparency
- Managing Expectations: One of the challenges of pay transparency is managing employee expectations. If employees see that their pay is lower than a colleague’s, they may feel undervalued, even if there are legitimate reasons for the difference. It’s important to be prepared to explain these differences clearly and fairly.
- Confidentiality Concerns: In some cases, employees may prefer to keep their salaries private. It’s important to balance transparency with respect for individual preferences and privacy.
- Complexity in Pay Structures: Healthcare organizations often have complex pay structures with various factors influencing salaries, such as certifications, years of experience, and additional responsibilities. Transparency requires clear communication about these complexities, which can be challenging.
The Future of Pay Transparency in the U.S.
It is likely that the U.S. will continue to see increased pressure for transparency in the coming years. The healthcare industry, including hospice care, may need to adapt to more stringent regulations and expectations around pay disclosure.
As a manager, staying informed about these trends and proactively implementing transparent pay practices can position your hospice to lead in this area. Not only will this help in complying with potential future regulations, but it will also foster a more equitable and supportive work environment for your team.
Conclusion
Pay transparency is an important and evolving issue. Adopting transparent pay practices now can help foster trust, promote fairness, and ensure compliance with current and future regulations. By being proactive in this area, you can create a more equitable and positive work environment for your team, ultimately leading to better care for your patients.
Where Can You Find Out More
- Gallagher: How managers can respond to pay transparency
- SHRM: How Companies can Respond to New Pay Transparency Laws
- Payscale: How to implement pay transparency
- World at Work: Pay Transparency – Risk, Rewards, and Regulations
- Harvard Business Review: Complicated Effects of Pay Transparency
by editor | Oct 30, 2022 | Human Resources, Payroll
What is an exempt employee?
Exempt workers are paid on a salaried basis. Salaried employees receive a prespecified amount of compensation each pay period. Their salary may not be reduced because of changes in the amount of work performed or because of changes in the quality of work performed. Learn more about exempt employees here: Exempt vs. Non-Exempt Employees
May pay be deducted from an exempt employee’s wages?
Under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), employers may not deduct wages from an exempt employee’s wages due to partial day absences. However, an employer may deduct time from an exempt employee’s accrued Paid Time Off (“PTO”) or accrued vacation time for partial day absences. State laws may differ from the federal guidelines and each state may have its own regulations.
In general, if a salaried employee performs any work during the workweek an employer must pay the employee their full salary amount. However, there are a few situations where deduction from an exempt employee’s salary is permissible under federal law:
- A workweek where an employee performs absolutely no work
- The initial or final week of employment (where the employee did not work the full workweek)
- Absences of one or more days due to personal reasons, other than sickness or disability, including vacation
- To offset amounts the employee receives from jury or witness fees
- For leave taken under Family Medical Leave Act (“FMLA”)
- Unpaid disciplinary suspension of one or more days in accordance with documented workplace policies
Where can you find out more?
by editor | Oct 30, 2022 | Employee Onboarding, Human Resources, Payroll
The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), enacted in 1938, has four major provisions: regulations for minimum wage, overtime pay, record keeping and child labor law. It also introduced standards for exempt and non-exempt employees. As it relates to the FLSA, exempt means free from an obligation of overtime pay. Note that FLSA regulates the Federal standards; the states may have different regulations in each of these areas.
What is an exempt employee?
Exempt employees are not eligible for minimum wage, overtime regulations, and other protections that are extended to non-exempt employees. Exempt employees receive a set salary every pay period. Exempt employees are typically salaried workers and often fill executive, supervisory, or administrative positions.
Which employees are covered under the FLSA law?
Enterprise Coverage: If a business is covered then all employees of the business are entitled to FLSA protection. What businesses are covered under enterprise coverage?
- Business has at least two employees and does sales of at least 500,000
- Named enterprise coverage: Hospital, business providing medical or nursing care for residents, school, preschool, or public agency, whether private or non profit
Individual Coverage: Individual employees in an organization may be entitled to FLSA protection even if the entire organization is not entitled to FLSA protection
- Individual is engaged in activity that involves working across state lines (interstate business) on a regular basis
- Domestic service workers (e.g., housekeeper, cook, babysitter)
Should an employee be classified as exempt or non-exempt?
- An employer should consider all employees as non-exempt and overtime eligible unless they can meet a specific exemption under federal or state law
- An employee who remains in the same job position should not move back and forth between exempt and non-exempt. Further, an employer cannot decide that they want to make an employee exempt. The regulations determine FLSA classification.
- Job title does not determine classification
Employers must correctly classify their employees as exempt or non-exempt or they run the risk of accruing compliance violations.
Can any worker qualify as an exempt employee?
An employer may wish to classify all employees as exempt employees – in this way avoiding the requirement to pay time and a half for overtime hours worked. However, not all employees are eligible to be classified as exempt employees.
The Department of Labor (DOL) has established guidelines to determine who is eligible to be considered exempt. The qualifications generally fall into three categories: salary exemption, nature of payment, and job duties. An employee must pass the tests in all three categories to qualify for exempt status.
Exempt employees test #1: total earnings
The first test to qualify an employee for exempt status is that the employee must earn the salary threshold set by the FLSA to be exempt. The minimum salary threshold of the FLSA changes every year. In 2021, the required minimum employee compensation to have exempt status was $684 per week ($35,568 per year). This salary threshold must be met regardless of being part time or full time. If the salary threshold is not met, the employee may not be classified as exempt (with an exception for teachers, doctors, and lawyers).
Exempt employees test #2: nature of payment
The second test to qualify an employee for exempt status is that the employee must be paid on a salaried basis, where compensation is not reduced due to quantity or quality of work.
Exempt employees test #3: job duties
The third test to qualify the employee for exempt status is whether the employee meets the job duties that qualify for exempt status. There are only certain job duties that qualify an employee for exempt status. These job duties involve a higher level of expertise or knowledge or require the employee to hold certain professional roles. There are several categories of job duties exemptions:
Executive exemption: employees who would qualify for an executive exemption would
- Regularly supervise employees
- Be responsible for managing part of the business
- Play a role in hiring employees or in delegating tasks
Administrative exemption: employees qualifying for an administrative exemption would
- Perform office jobs directly related to business operations or management of the organization and its customers
- Exercise independent judgement over business decisions
Professional exemption: employees qualifying for a professional exemption would
- Perform job duties that require specialized education
- Have a college degree or higher in their field
Computer exemption: employees with this exemption would
- Have a computer related role
Outside sales exemption: employees qualifying for this exemption would
- Have a primary duty of making sales or securing contracts or orders
- Conduct their work outside of the business’ premises
Where can you find out more?
by editor | Oct 29, 2022 | Human Resources, Payroll
How should an employer handle unclaimed wages?
An employer may find that an employee fails to cash a paycheck. Most often, this occurs with the final pay check. These “unclaimed wages” may not be treated as “found money.” When an employee fails to pick up a final check or fails to cash a check these unclaimed wages may become a form of “abandoned property.”
When is property considered abandoned?
Each state has its own definition of what it specifies as the abandonment period. That is, the time that each state requires that property must lay dormant before it is considered abandoned varies from state to state.
Once the unclaimed wages are considered abandoned, the employer must pay these unclaimed wages over to the state where the person last worked. The state steps into the shoes of the “lost owner” and takes ownership of the property until the rightful owner is found.
The state laws governing abandoned property are known as esheat laws because the property “escheats,” or reverts to the state and is not kept by the employer. Escheat laws are intended to give the employee an opportunity to claim the funds without having to track them down through corporate mergers or relocations,. Instead, the employee can go to the state to locate and claim the funds.
How long should an employer retain the funds?
Before an employer does anything with the unclaimed wages, the employer should check state laws to see how long the wages must be held, the employer’s obligations for locating the owner, when the employer must report the unclaimed wages to the state, and where the report must be sent to. In some states the wages are sent to the treasurer’s office. In other states the wages are sent to the attorney general’s office. States generally require that the employer holds the funds for at least one year.
Trying to locate the employee
Once an employer identifies unclaimed wages, the employer cannot simply transfer these funds to the state. The employer is obligated to make efforts to locate the employee. Employers must demonstrate that they have taken steps such as sending a tracked mailing (e.g., certified letter or UPS) to the employee’s last known mailing address or other method of contacting the employee using their last known contact information.
Most states require the employer to wait a minimum of six months after making these attempted notifications. Once the employer has complied with the statutory requirements – and can demonstrate that in the filing with the state – the funds may be returned to the state.
Reporting and remitting funds to the state
States have different reporting deadlines in the year. Some states use a date early in the following year after the dormancy requirement is met. Other states have a more accelerated deadline which would require advanced planning to ensure the deadline is not missed.
State unclaimed property laws also have detailed requirements, that vary by state, for remitting the funds to the state and for required supporting documentation.
Summing it all up: What is required of the employer?
Each state has its own unclaimed property rules and requirements.
Step 1: Document every contact you made with the employee
Most states require employers to show due diligence that they made all efforts possible to reach out to employees and give them the funds that they are owed in an attempt to keep unclaimed wages from becoming abandoned property
Step 2: File an annual report with your state
States typically require the employer to file an annual report including the employee’s name, last known address, amount and payment date of the unclaimed check, and the date of last contact with the employee
Step 3: Send the unclaimed wages with the report
With the report, the wages must be sent to the state. The state holds the money indefinitely (until claimed). The employer’s responsibility for paying the wages ends once the employer submits the wages and the report to the state.
Where can you find more information?
Recall that these laws vary by state and each state has its own requirements.
- National Association of Unclaimed Property Administrators (NAUPA) webpage has links to state websites: https://unclaimed.org/
- Search by state name and word “escheat”
by editor | Oct 28, 2022 | Employee Onboarding, Human Resources, Human Resources, Payroll
When should a worker be classified as an employee versus as an independent contractor?
What is the difference between these two types of workers? Why is it important for a hospice agency to properly classify the workers who are providing services? Why is it important to determine whether the workers providing services are independent contractors or employees?
Why would an employer want to classify workers as independent contractors instead of employees?
A business must withhold income tax, withhold and pay social security and Medicare, and pay unemployment taxes on the wages paid to employees – but not those paid to independent contractors. By classifying workers as independent contractors, an employer can avoid payroll taxes, unemployment insurance and workers compensation coverage. The employer can also save on the cost of all the benefits that are offered to employees but are not offered to independent contractors.
Are there consequences to misclassifying workers?
The IRS is increasing its efforts on auditing companies, with a particular focus on worker classification. The liability from an employment tax audit that identifies misclassified workers may be quite significant. A business that classifies workers as independent contractors instead of employees may be subject to retroactive tax withholding, penalties, and interest.
How can an agency differentiate between an employee and an independent contractor?
An employee is typically a person who is providing services where the employer controls what services are provided and how the services are provided. Specifically, the employer has the right to control the details of how the worker performs the tasks. There are three key areas to consider when evaluating whether a worker is an employee or an independent contractor:
- Behavioral control: Is the worker free from control or direction over performance of the tasks? Or, does the employer have the right to control how the worker performs the tasks?
- Financial control: Is the worker engaged in independently established business or occupation? Or, does the employer control the financial and business aspects of the worker’s job? For example, does the employer control how the worker is paid? Does the employer provide the supplies and the tools that the worker requires to complete the tasks?
- Relationship between the parties: Does the employer provide the worker with benefits such as insurance, vacation pay, or pension plan? Are the services that are performed a key aspect of the business?
By considering the different aspects of behavioral control, financial control, and the relationship between the two parties, and employer can determine whether a worker is more appropriately classified as an employee or as an independent contractor. Each of these three key areas involves multiple factors. Determination of whether a worker is an employee or an independent contractor is not an objective test and some of the factors are more important than the others, depending upon the industry and type of independent contractor being evaluated.
Where can you find out more?
by editor | Oct 12, 2022 | Employee Onboarding, Human Resources, Payroll
A Form I-9, also known as an Employment Eligibility Verification form, is a form required by the U.S. government for each employee. The information on this form and its supporting documentation:
- Verifies the employee’s identity
- Verifies the employee’s eligibility to work in the U.S.
When must the Form I-9 be completed?
The Form I-9 is completed as part of the new hire paperwork provided by an employer during the hiring process.
Each new employee must complete and sign the Form I-9 employee section by the end of their first day of employment. The employer must complete and sign the employer sections by the end of the new employee’s third day of employment.
The employer must verify the employee’s eligibility and identification documents and record the document information on the Form I-9. Employees must present original documents, not photocopies, for verification.
Who is required to complete an I-9?
An employer must fill out and retain an I-9 form for all employees, whether or not they are U.S. citizens.
Are there instances where an I-9 form is not required?
A Form I-9 is not required for an independent contractor. A Form I-9 is also not required for employees hired on or before November 6, 1986.
What should you do if you do not receive an I-9 form?
A Form I-9 is required for continued employment. An employer that does not maintain these forms may face fines or criminal penalties.
If an employee fails to provide his employer with the necessary documentation or receipt for a replacement document within three business days of start of employment, the employee can be terminated. If an employee provides a receipt for replacement of missing documents, he has 90 days to present the replacement documents.
Must an employer retain the I-9 form?
An employer must store the Form I-9 and supporting documents together. The employer must ensure that only authorized personnel have access to the stored forms. The forms must be available within 3 days of an official request for inspection.
The forms must be retained for either three years after an employee’s start date or one year after their termination, whichever is later.
Where can you find more information?
Additional resources are available here:
