by admin | Jul 11, 2019 | Employee Benefits, Group Benefit Plans
Recently, the “Happiest Place on Earth” wasn’t living up to its name for many families. For almost a full year, malicious software had been installed on point-of-sale systems at several Earl Enterprises restaurants. This software then captured debit and credit card numbers, expiration dates, and cardholder names of users purchasing food at these venues. Identity theft has become too commonplace in our day and age and we need to become better educated on where we are most likely to encounter threats as well as ways to avoid becoming victims.
How many people are truly affected by identity theft? According to IdentityForce.com, here are some basic numbers:
- In 2017, 6.64 percent of consumers became victims of identity fraud, or about 1 in 15 people
- That equals 16.7 million victims last year, an increase of 1 million from 2016
- Over 1 million children in the U.S. were victims of identity theft in 2017, costing families $540 million in out-of-pocket expenses
- There’s a new victim of identity theft every 2 seconds
- Identity theft is one of the most common consequences of data breaches, as 31.7 percent of breach victims experienced ID theft
- There were 1,579 data breaches exposing 179 million records last year
- It takes most victims of identity theft 3 months to find out what’s happening, but 16 percent don’t find out for 3 years
How do you protect yourself from identity theft? Experts agree that there are several basic steps to take to help prevent theft from happening.
CHANGE PASSWORDS REGULARLY
If you are anything like me, you frequently forget the passwords you have for the numerous online accounts you manage. One way to manage those passwords, and help you remember to change them, is an online password manager like LastPass. Enter the passwords into this secure account and then you’ll just need to remember one password to access them all. Was there a security breach at your gym? Just log on to LastPass and in one click, you can have a new password for your account and can go along with your day.
AVOID PUTTING PERSONAL INFO ON SOCIAL MEDIA
In an era of “over-sharing” you must be cautious about giving away personal information on your social media accounts. Thieves are smart and can mine your accounts for information. When you post about being out on vacation, you open the door for thieves to come rob your home. The same holds true for identity theft. Be careful about posting sensitive information online like maiden name, age, birthday—even your high school! All it takes is one crafty thief to take the background info you’ve posted on social media and open a new credit card in your name. Use caution when you share this sensitive information online.
CHECK YOUR ACCOUNTS REGULARLY
Gone are the days of getting a bank statement in the mail every month that you reconcile with your checking account ledger. With almost all of our banking transactions occurring online, many people never check the detailed statements for their accounts. This is exactly what the identity thieves want to happen. Check your bank statements for transactions you didn’t make, medical bills for care you didn’t receive, and credit card statements for cards you do not have. Also, make it a practice to check each of your three credit reports at least once a year—and the best part is that this is free for you to use!
ID THEFT INSURANCE
One last way to protect yourself against identity theft is to enroll in ID Theft Insurance. While ID Theft Insurance does not protect against the actual monetary theft, it does cover the costs you, as the victim, will incur while rebuilding your identity. The coverage may include:
- Phone call and photocopying charges
- Postage fees for mailing documents
- Salary loss due to uncompensated time away from work while repairing one’s identity
- Legal fees
- Access to a fraud specialist who can assist in restoring good credit and protecting one’s identity again
- Help with preparing documents, filing police reports and creating a fraud victim affidavit
Taking these steps will help protect you and your family from identity theft. While it doesn’t guarantee you will be protected all the time, it does make it harder for the thieves to gain access to your protected information—and this can make your identity stay in a happy place—with you!
by admin | Jun 4, 2019 | Employee Benefits, IRS
On May 28, 2019, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) released Revenue Procedure 2019-25 announcing the annual inflation-adjusted limits for health savings accounts (HSAs) for calendar year 2020. An HSA is a tax-exempt savings account that employees can use to pay for qualified health expenses.
To be eligible for an HSA, an employee:
- Must be covered by a qualified high deductible health plan (HDHP);
- Must not have any disqualifying health coverage (called “impermissible non-HDHP coverage”);
- Must not be enrolled in Medicare; and
- May not be claimed as a dependent on someone else’s tax return.
The limits vary based on whether an individual has self-only or family coverage under an HDHP. The limits are as follows:
- 2020 HSA contribution limit:
- Single: $3,550 (an increase of $50 from 2019)
- Family: $7,100 (an increase of $100 from 2019)
- Catch-up contributions for those age 55 and older remains at $1,000
- 2020 HDHP minimum deductible (not applicable to preventive services):
- Single: $1,400 (an increase of $50 from 2019)
- Family: $2,800 (an increase of $100 from 2019)
- 2020 HDHP maximum out-of-pocket limit:
- Single: $6,900 (an increase of $150 from 2019)
- Family: $13,800* (an increase of $300 from 2019)
*If the HDHP is a nongrandfathered plan, a per-person limit of $8,150 also will apply due to the Affordable Care Act’s cost-sharing provision for essential health benefits.
Originally posted on ThinkHR.com
by admin | May 14, 2019 | Employee Benefits, Human Resources
While more and more perks — catered lunches, on-site gyms, immunizations programs — are about employee health, wellness, and happiness, they ultimately are also designed to keep workers at work. A recent article in Quartz at Work points out that more than anything, employees want more time off and out of the office. Unlimited time off, to be exact.
Once the perk of tech firms and startups, more companies are beginning to explore unlimited paid time off. And, though still rare at only one to two percent of companies, it’s a popular request in part because workforce demographics continue to shift. Nearly half of employees are Millennials, whose priorities are changing the benefits conversation. For this group, finding more balance and having more control of their time are key. In part, this may be because time off has fundamentally changed. Well and Good looks at the fact that, with near-constant connectedness, vacation days often still involve checking email and getting other notifications.
Add to that cultural and workplace expectations of accessibility and availability, and workers are at risk for burnout. One in four workers report feeling burned out all the time and almost half feel burned out sometimes. This burnout can cost employers in lost productivity, and employees in terms of health and happiness. Today, someone doesn’t need to psychically spend 90 hours a week at the office to be working 90 hours. With our always-on lives, restorative time off is rarer but still as important to prevent burnout.
That doesn’t mean every business is jumping on the unlimited time off bandwagon. Want other ideas? A writer for The Guardian suggests a middle ground, with more days off the longer an employee has worked at a company. And, while rollover sounds generous, it may make employees less likely to use it. Want to give it a try but concerned about misuse? Business Management Daily suggests it’s also more than reasonable to consider limits on unlimited and critical to set sound guidelines around pay as well as whether days off can be all in a row.
For many employees, unlimited time off offers the extra flexibility for life’s challenges and can aid satisfaction and retention. Before HR Departments worry the system will be abused, research shows that people take significantly less time off when it’s unlimited. In fact, what may be more impactful is a minimum number of days off may be required so as to ensure employees take advantage of a benefit meant to restore and replenish their energy, creativity, and engagement. To work, it needs to be modeled by managers and other higher-ups, as a CEO details in a Chicago Daily Herald article.
By Bill Olson
Originally posted on ubabenefits.com
by admin | Apr 12, 2019 | Compliance, Employee Benefits
Summer internships offer students opportunities to gain real-world experience and hands-on career development. Conversely, internship programs give employers access to highly motivated and educated young workers and give junior managers more experience training and supervising. There are benefits for everyone involved.
However, there are some people risks that many employers overlook. One of the largest issues is determining what interns should be paid – or not paid.
The Department of Labor issued new guidance on January 5, 2018, that gives employers more flexibility in deciding whether to pay interns. A seven-criteria test is now used to determine if an internship may be unpaid, but the biggest change is that not all factors need to be met – no single factor is decisive, and the determination is made on the unique circumstances of each case.
If the job training program primarily provides professional experience that furthers a student’s educational goals, a student may not be considered an employee entitled to compensation. However, if students are doing work usually done by employees and are not receiving training and close mentoring, they should be paid wages. If there is any doubt, the best approach is to pay the student.
4 Reasons to Pay Interns
However, while it’s now legally permissible to classify more interns as unpaid, there are still compelling reasons to pay interns even when the internship does meet the criteria for unpaid status.
Unpaid internships tend to exclude students from lower- and middle-income backgrounds, who cannot afford not to work at paid jobs during the summer. In addition, they may need to pay up to several thousand dollars for course credit, in addition to coming up with funds for housing, clothing, and transportation related to the internship. This can put internships out of reach for some of the students who can benefit from them the most.
Unpaid internships may devalue the work paid employees are doing. After all, interns are working alongside regular employees — often doing some of the same tasks — and not being compensated for that work. This may send the message to employees that their work, or time, is not valued.
Unpaid internships can create a negative impression of your company. Customers or the community may see you as taking advantage of these students, which is not the message you want to portray. It’s a good community relations move to offer youth paid opportunities.
The work the unpaid intern is doing may actually be work that should be compensable. Improperly classifying an internship and not paying the student could result in wage claims that include back pay, penalties, and fines. To mitigate those risks, once again, the best approach is to pay the student.
Hiring summer students is a great way to help youth learn what it takes to be successful in business while helping employers get special projects completed. Plan ahead and structure your program so that your summer internship program is a great experience for everyone.
by Rachel Sobel
Originally posted on ThinkHR.com
by admin | Oct 30, 2018 | Benefit Management, Employee Benefits, Flexible Spending Accounts, Group Benefit Plans
Trying to decide which of the many employer-sponsored benefits out there to offer employees can leave an employer feeling lost in a confusing bowl of alphabet soup—HSA? FSA? DCAP? HRA? What does it mean if a benefit is “limited” or “post-deductible”? Which one is use-it-or-lose-it? Which one has a rollover? What are the limits on each benefit?—and so on.
While there are many details to cover for each of these benefit options, perhaps the first and most important question to answer is: which of these benefits is going to best suit the needs of both my business and my employees? In this article, we will cover the basic pros and cons of Flexible Spending Arrangements (FSA), Health Savings Accounts (HSA), and Health Reimbursement Arrangements (HRA) to help you better answer that question.
Flexible Spending Arrangements (FSA)
An FSA is an employer-sponsored and employer-owned benefit that allows employee participants to be reimbursed for certain expenses with amounts deducted from their salaries pre-tax. An FSA can include both the Health FSA that reimburses uncovered medical expenses and the Dependent Care FSA that reimburses for dependent expenses like day care and child care.
Pros:
- Benefits can be funded entirely from employee salary reductions (ER contributions are an option)
- Participants have access to full annual elections on day 1 of the benefit (Health FSA only)
- Participants save on taxes by reducing their taxable income; employers save also by paying less in payroll taxes like FICA and FUTA
- An FSA allows participants to “give themselves a raise” by reducing the taxes on healthcare expenses they would have had anyway
Cons:
- Employers risk losing money should an employee quit or leave the program prior to fully funding their FSA election
- Employees risk losing money should their healthcare expenses total less than their election (the infamous use-it-or-lose-it—though there are ways to mitigate this problem, such as the $500 rollover option)
- FSA elections are irrevocable after open enrollment; only a qualifying change of status event permits a change of election mid-year
- Only so much can be elected for an FSA. For 2018, Health FSAs are capped at $2,650, and Dependent Care Accounts are generally capped at $5,000
- FSA plans are almost always offered under a cafeteria plan; as such, they are subject to several non-discrimination rules and tests
Health Savings Accounts (HSA)
An HSA is an employee-owned account that allows participants to set aside funds to pay for the same expenses that are eligible under a Health FSA. Also like an FSA, these accounts can be offered under a cafeteria plan so that participants may fund their accounts through pre-tax salary reductions.
Pros:
- HSAs are “triple-tax advantaged”—the contributions are tax free, the funds are not taxed if paid for eligible expenses, and any gains on the funds (interest, dividends) are also tax-free
- HSAs are portable, employee-owned, interest-bearing bank accounts; the account remains with the employees even if they leave the company
- Certain HSAs allow participants to invest a portion of the balance into mutual funds; any earnings on these investments are non-taxable
- Upon reaching retirement, participants can use any remaining HSA funds to pay for any expense without a tax penalty (though normal taxes are required for non-qualified expenses); also, retirees can use the funds tax-free to pay premiums on any supplemental Medicare coverage. This feature allows HSAs to operate as a secondary retirement fund
- There is no use-it-or-lose-it with HSAs; all funds employees contribute stay in their accounts and remain theirs in perpetuity. Also, participants may alter their deduction amounts at any time
- Like FSAs, employers can either allow the HSA to be entirely employee-funded, or they may choose to also make contributions to their employees’ HSA accounts
- Even though they are often offered under a cafeteria plan, HSAs do not carry the same non-discrimination requirements as an FSA. Moreover, there is less administrative burden for the employer as the employees carry the liability for their own accounts
Cons:
- To open and contribute to an HSA, an employee must be covered by a qualifying high deductible health plan; moreover, they cannot be covered by any other health coverage (a spouse’s health insurance, an FSA (unless limited), or otherwise)
- Participants are limited to reimburse only what they have contributed—there is no “front-loading” like with an FSA
- Participant contributions to an HSA also have an annual limit. For 2018, that limit is $3,450 for an employee with single coverage and $6,900 for an employee with family coverage (participants over 55 can add an additional $1,000; also, remember there is no total account limit)
- Participation in an HSA precludes participation in any other benefit that provides health coverage. This means employees with an HSA cannot participate in either an FSA or an HRA. Employers can work around this by offering a special limited FSA or HRA that only reimburses dental and vision benefits, meets certain deductible requirements, or both
- HSAs are treated as bank accounts for legal purposes, so they are subject to many of the same laws that govern bank accounts, like the Patriot Act. Participants are often required to verify their identity to open an HSA, an administrative burden that does not apply to either an FSA or an HRA
Health Reimbursement Arrangements (HRA)
An HRA is an employer-owned and employer-sponsored account that, unlike FSAs and HSAs, is completely funded with employer monies. Employers can think of these accounts as their own supplemental health plans that they create for their employees
Pros:
- HRAs are extremely flexible in terms of design and function; employers can essentially create the benefit to reimburse the specific expenses at the specific time and under the specific conditions that the employers want
- HRAs can be an excellent way to “soften the blow” of an increase in major medical insurance costs—employers can use an HRA to mitigate an increase in premiums, deductibles, or other out-of-pocket expenses
- HRAs can be simpler to administer than an FSA or even an HSA, provided that the plan design is simple and efficient: there are no payroll deductions to track, usually less reimbursements to process, and no individual participant elections to manage
- Small employers may qualify for a special type of HRA, a Qualified Small Employer HRA (or QSEHRA), that even allows participants to be reimbursed for their insurance premiums (special regulations apply)
- Funds can remain with the employer if someone terminates employment and have not submitted for reimbursement
Cons:
- HRAs are entirely employer funded. No employee funds or salary reductions may be used to help pay for the benefit. Some employers may not have the funding to operate such a benefit
- HRAs are subject to the Affordable Care Act. As such, they must be “integrated” with major medical coverage if they provide any sort of health expense reimbursement and are also subject to several regulations
- HRAs are also subject to many of the same non-discrimination requirements as the Health FSA
- HRAs often go under-utilized; employers may pay an amount of administrative costs that is disproportionate to how much employees actually use the benefit
- Employers can often get “stuck in the weeds” with an overly complicated HRA plan design. Such designs create frustration on the part of the participants, the benefits administrator, and the employer
For help in determining which flexible benefit is right for your business, contact us!
by Blake London
Originally posted on ubabenefits.com
by admin | Sep 12, 2018 | Employee Benefits, Workplace
Understandably, some employers (and employees) have mixed feelings about the gig economy. While many enjoy the freedom gained and overhead saved, others miss office camaraderie and routine. No matter your position, research shows that the trend isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. By 2021, 9.2 million Americans will work on-demand jobs, and so employers need to start asking themselves how they plan to keep employees of all stripes engaged in office work and culture.
As HR Technologist cautions, employee engagement goes both ways.While employers should be concerned about the reliability and loyalty of their freelance pool, they must also maintain strong relationships with their current full-time employees. Best practices for addressing this include providing similar perks to all workers, using in-depth onboarding services and training, and maintaining meticulously open lines of communication.
It is also important to remember that integration like this can’t happen overnight. Building a strong and diverse team, whether fully remote or mixed, takes time. Many companies are engaging “future ready” practices, so that hybrid workforces can be available whenever a particular company is ready to consider open options. Such practices are rooted primarily in savvy digital platforms, allowing for collaboration and innovation, as well as clear conversations about benefits and salaries. Not only do such techniques strengthen the current team, but they also position organizations as solid competitors for rising digital talent. Finally, remember that talent management isn’t merely an agenda item. It’s also a driving tool for strategic decisions about innovation, growth, and performance ability.
While there is no one established way forward, it’s clear that employers who are cognizant of the growing gig economy trend are able to both deepen and strengthen their current talent pool while looking toward the future.
by Bill Olson
Originally posted on UBAbenefits.com
