News

With absenteeism a major drain on productivity, more employers are using a trick from the third grade—perfect-attendance awards—to motivate employees to come to work. Here’s why such awards probably aren’t the best carrots.

It’s essential for supervisors to document poor performance at the time it happens. Don’t wait until you’re ready to terminate a worker to start building a paper trail. You won’t get away with it in court. The path needs to be laid early, step by step.

You may need to spend some quality overtime hours trying to figure out exactly what the overtime exclusion in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act means and Payroll’s role in it. Because the more we read, the more questions we have.

We have an employee requesting FMLA leave for elective cosmetic surgery. She has the appropriate physician certification paperwork because there will be a surgery and recovery period. Is elective cosmetic surgery covered under a serious medical condition? Do we have to grant FMLA leave, or should the employee take vacation time for this?

Jonathan Segal, a partner at Duane Morris LLP, tells HR professionals to stay cognizant as he witnesses “an explosion and evolution” of antisemitic views. He advises them to condemn antisemitism as they would other workplace -isms.

If your employees were born in the U.S., they’re probably OK (for now). If they’re naturalized U.S. citizens, watch out. The Department of Justice is embarking on an aggressive campaign to denaturalize certain naturalized citizens.

The DOL announced on July 7 that it was withdrawing a proposed rule to stop issuing certificates allowing some employers to pay workers with significant physical or mental disabilities a subminimum wage.

Employees who file internal discrimination or whistleblowing claims are protected from retaliation for doing so. To prove retaliation, they must show that the employer took some form of adverse action against them after they complained. That’s one reason employers must document all personnel decisions.

The One Big Beautiful Bill Act includes some changes to health benefits and tax credits that employers need to know.

Under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, a worker can shelter $12,500 in overtime earnings from federal taxes. The new law defines tax-exempt earnings as overtime that is “required under the FLSA.”