Human Capital Management Blog

While changing Flex Spending Account Administrator's in the middle of your plan year is not ideal, it is certainly possible.

Simplify HR and keep my costs low—has a nice ring to it. Managing employees and their benefits can be expensive and tedious, and the problem only grows as your expand. A Professional Employer Organization (PEO) is certainly an option for employers looking to offboard HR tasks and find some possible savings on health insurance. The question—is a PEO a good fit for you? Here are a few pros and cons to consider, as well as some topics that most PEOs like to avoid discussing in their sales presentations. Joining a PEO is a big commitment, so the following tips will help you walk into the discussion with eyes wide open.

In the United States, 86% of health care costs are spent for people with chronic conditions. While High Deductible Health Plans (HDHPs) have been a popular plan offering for employers seeking reduced health care costs for employer-sponsored plans, the high up front deductibles were often a deterrent to participation from employees with chronic conditions. In HDHP's participants can receive copays before paying their full deductible for services classified as "preventative care." But for people with chronic conditions, it was almost guaranteed they would be paying their entire deductible. However, on July 17, 2019, the IRS released a notice which added a number of chronic conditions whose treatment would fall under that definition of "preventative care."

When Governor Cuomo signed the 2018 Budget Bill, one of the provisions was a prohibition against employers including any written clause in employee’s contracts or company policy requiring sexual harassment allegations to go through mandatory arbitration prior to outside courts. The only exception would be where this provision was inconsistent with federal law.

A Section 125 plan, AKA a cafeteria plan, allows employers to give employees the option of taking cash or make a pre-tax contribution to their employer-sponsored health plan. This is a great benefit to employers (reduced payroll and FICA tax) and employees (reduced taxable income and paying health premiums with pre-tax dollars). While cafeteria plans have been around for decades, we still run into employers who deliver their plans on a post-tax contribution basis and miss out on the savings for their business and employees. A simple $300 plan document can save thousands of dollars year-over-year. But that aside, there are stipulations to gaining the tax benefits of a Section 125 plan, and the IRS imposes strict testing to make sure that an employer's plan does not discriminate in favor of highly compensated employees.

It’s common around election time for employees to request time from their employer to vote. On April 12, Governor Cuomo signed legislation S.B. 1505 as part of the 2020 New York State budget package, impacting employer requirements for voting accommodations. The changes are as follows:

Today's Q&A covers a common question surrounding FMLA designation. At times employers choose to deliver generous leave benefits that extend beyond those mandated by FMLA (i.e. beyond 12 weeks). But does that mean that the protections of FMLA are extended as well?

Question: What are the differences between NYS and NYC Sexual Harassment Laws?