Hot Tips for Staying on Top of HR Issues

Cash is King
Mileage allowance for 2012
Key items to know in 2012
Holiday Scheduling for 2012
NLRB Poster Requirement Delayed

New series:
Your employees--retention, do's & dont's on job descriptions
 

Mileage Reimbursement Allowance to 55.0 cents effective July 1, 2011
(Announcement 2011-116, Dec. 9, 2011)

 

The IRS announced on December 9, 2011 that the business mileage reimbursement allowance of 55.5¢ per mile (made effective July 1, 2011) will remain unchanged for 2012. The IRS reimbursement allowance is set as an upper limit of what is allowable under federal tax law and most employers use the IRS standard as a benchmark for their own policy.

 

2012 (effective 07/01/11) No change, remains 55.5 cents per mile

2011 (effective 07/01/11) 55.5 cents per mile
2011 (effective 01/01/11) 51.0 cents per mile
2010 (effective 01/01/10) 50.0 cents per mile
2009 (effective 01/01/09) 55.0 cents per mile
2008 (effective 07/01/08) 58.5 cents per mile
2008 50.5 cents per mile
2007 48.5 cents per mile

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Key items to know in 2012

 

The FICA employee's share for 2012 is back to 6.2% of gross compensation
on the first $110,000 of gross wages (see http://www.irs.gov/publications/p926/index.html).

The employer share remains unchanged at 6.2% for calendar year 2012.

 

MA Minimum wage is $8.00 / per hour (effective 1/1/2008). No change.

 

Federal Minimum Wage (effective 7/24/2009) remains at $7.25 / per hour. No change (yet) announced for 2012.

 

2012 Merit Budget increase projections range 2.9% - 3.1%
(per The Survey Group, 09/07/11)

If you have any questions about this tip or any other human resource issues, send your request to RuthL@hrinsourcing.com
or call (617) 719-5636.

 

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Holidays Schedules for 2012

If you have not yet issued your 2012 Holiday schedule, we support our client companies in establishing this and communicating it to all employees as early in the 4th quarter of the previous year as possible.

In 2012, both Christmas Day and New Year's Day (2013) fall on Tuesdays and July 4, 2012 is on a Wednesday. In this instance, some organizations may choose to declare December 24, 2012 (Monday) a perdetermined holiday or specify it as one of the organization's "Floating" holidays for 2012.

The Massachusetts Secretary of State holiday guidelines can be found at http://www.sec.state.ma.us/cis/cishol/holidx.htm.


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NLRB delays (again) Poster requirement for January 31, 2012 to April 30, 2012 due to ongoing court challenges

A second delay to a posting requirement informing employees of their basic rights under the NLRA was announced in December 2011 due to ongoing legal challenges. (Previously the Board had postponed the effective date from November 14, 2011 to January 31, 2012). There continues to be controversy about recent changes to the NLRB and the Obama Administration’s perceived liberalization of union-organizing policies visa vie employers’ rights.

It continues to be in employers’ best interests (prior to union-organizing activities) to:

• Adopt and enforce valid policies that limit when employees may solicit and distribute literature in the workplace, and that prevent unauthorized visitors from gaining access to employers’ facilities;
• Be sensitive and proactive relative to concerns of employees;
• Train supervisors, managers and other relevant personnel how to recognize and how to respond appropriately to possible union organizing activities; and;
• Develop a plan for regularly communicating the employers’ position on unionization and related issues, both internally and externally.  

Source:  Schwartz-Hannum PC E-Alert 12/30/12 entitlexd : “NLRB Delays New Poster Requirement Until April 30, 2012

 

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