Kronos helps to manage complex worker compliance needs

28 Feb '14

3 min read

With wage and hour lawsuits on the rise, minimum wage controversy sweeping across the U.S., the challenges of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), and a variety of new labor regulations being introduced, 2014 is shaping up to be full of compliance-related issues for employers. With added complexity and an increased focus on enforcement, employers - regardless of their size - need to protect themselves from paying significant penalties for being out of compliance.

Some of the major compliance issues facing employers today include:

Wage and hour lawsuits on the rise - In 2013, the Wage and Hour Division of the U.S. Department of Labor recovered nearly a quarter of a billion dollars in back wages for workers around the U.S. whose employers improperly denied them pay they had earned.

Increased enforcement at the federal level - The President's 2014 budget includes $3.4 million for increased enforcement of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) and the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA). The budget also provides $5.8 million for developing an integrated enforcement and case management system that will allow investigators to better employ data analysis in identifying violations.

The Affordable Care Act - With the deadline for ACA compliance pushed out until January 2015, some organizations think they have time to figure things out, but in actuality, the pressure is still on. Many affected organizations have already started to conduct their "lookback" monitoring to see what hours employees have worked over a historical period, and those that haven't need to.

Likewise, all employers must be sure that workers are classified correctly and that there is a clear record of hours worked.

Minimum wage - More than 20 states have taken matters into their own hands and raised their minimum wages above the federal minimum wage level and several more are expected to follow suit in 20143. Employers with multi-state operations must keep track of these changes and ensure that they are paying employees properly.

The Family and Medical Leave Act - The U.S. Department of Labor's Wage and Hour Division will publish a Final Rule to implement statutory amendments to FMLA which will expand the military family leave provisions and incorporate a special eligibility provision for airline flight crew employees, as well as making some additional regulatory changes.

Effectively managing all of this complexity with outdated systems, spreadsheets, home-grown reports, and manual calculations is nearly impossible.

Organizations of all sizes should consider workforce management solutions that provide complete automation and high-quality information for driving cost-effective labor decisions.

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