New Developments in MA Earned Sick Leave Law

This week Attorney General Maura Healey announced a safe harbor provision for the  Massachusetts Earned Sick Leave law, providing for a delay in compliance until January 1, 2016.

The safe harbor provision includes:

1.    Employers who had a time off policy (put in place prior to 5/1/15) offering ALL employees 30 or more hours of paid time off in 2015, and

2.    Employers must also ensure that the sick leave is job-protected and abides by the law’s non-retaliation policies.

Those employers who are operating within the safe harbor provision, along with all other employers, will eventually need to be fully compliant with the Earned Sick Leave Law by January 1, 2016.  If your sick leave policy does not follow the guidelines above, you will need to create a policy compliant with Massachusetts’ Earned Sick Leave Law by July 1, 2015.

Ipswich Bay Advisors will keep you updated on any changes to the Earned Sick Leave Law. If you need help determining whether or not your company is in compliance with this law or for help with creating a policy, please contact our office at 978-777-6554.

Thank you.

Massachusetts Establishes The Parental Leave Act

A new piece of Massachusetts legislation similar to Maternity Leave was signed into law in earlier this month. The new “Parental Leave Act” will become effective on April 7, 2015 and will allow both males AND females who work for a company with more than 6 employees to take an 8 week job-protected leave for the birth, adoption, or placement by a court order of a child.

This time off can be paid or unpaid depending on the employer’s policies and must be available to utilize after the employee has been employed at the company for 90 days. If feasible, the employee should inform their employer at least two weeks in advance of their intended parental leave.

However, in the event that the mother and father both work for the same company, the employees would have 8 weeks to split between each other.

Employees must be informed of the addition of this act to their company’s leave policies. This can be done via a written notice or by a posting an announcement in a common work area. If you need help developing a notice or adjusting your employee handbooks, please feel free to contact Ipswich Bay Advisors.

Massachusetts Minimum Wage Increase Reminder

This is a reminder that on January 1, 2015 the Massachusetts minimum wage was raised by a dollar, from $8 to $9 an hour for eligible employees.

Employees who are not eligible for the wage increase to $9/hour are those who are:

v  Being rehabilitated in an educational, religious, or non-profit organization

v  Service industry workers (their minimum wage increased to $3/hour on January 1, 2015)

v  Members of religious orders

v  Agricultural workers (their minimum wage increased to $8/hour on January 1, 2015)

v  Outside sales reps who do not travel to their office daily

There will be a dollar increase to the minimum wage for eligible employees every year on January 1^st until 2017. Service industry workers will also see an increase every year in their hourly wage until 2017. These increases are illustrated in the charts below:

                               

Minimum Wage Increases for Eligible Employees
Year	Hourly Rate
2015	$9.00
2016	$10.00
2017	$11.00

Service Industry Wage Increases
Year	Hourly Rate
2015	$3.00
2016	$3.35
2017	$3.75

It is important that employers abide by these wage laws or they risk facing civil and criminal charges. If you have any questions about the recent wage changes, please contact Ipswich Bay Advisors at 978-777-6554.

Thank You.

The Tax Increase Prevention Act of 2014 (H.R. 5771)

What this legislation means for your company’s commuter benefit plans

Last month, President Obama passed the Tax Prevention Act of 2014. Although it contains an array of different tax provisions, this regulation will affect employers who offer commuter transit benefits in particular. The transit and parking pre-tax limits will be retroactively extended to the end of 2014 and set to $250/month limit for 2014 (NOT the previous $130/month transit limit). This will not affect pre-tax parking limits which were already set to $250/month.

According to the IRS, employers can expect to see the pre-tax transit limits return to $130/month in 2015. Parking limits will remain at $250 for 2015.

No changes are necessary for employers, unless employees had elected post tax deductions in amounts beyond the $130/month limit.  If so, these deductions can now be revised to be pre-tax.  If employees had only elected $130/month pre-tax, then no adjustments to their election are permitted retroactively.  This adjustment to the 2014 transit benefits will affect your employees’ pre-tax savings on their W-2 forms.

If you have any questions regarding this legislation change, please feel free to contact Ipswich Bay Advisors.

Thank You.

What You Should Know About Earned Sick Time

Last week at the polls, voters in Massachusetts approved the right for employees to earn and use up to forty hours of sick leave in the workplace each year. Listed below is what you should know about Earned Sick Time:

v  Beginning on July 1, 2015, this new legislation will allow employees who work for larger companies (11 + employees) to be paid for sick leave, as opposed to those who work for smaller companies (< 11 employees) whose sick leave will be unpaid.

v  This leave can be used in order to care for his/her self, spouse, children, parents or spouse’s parent in the event of a routine medical appointment, injury, physical illness or mental illness. An employee may also use the leave to deal with the effects of domestic violence.

v  An employee can only request sick leave after the first 90 days of employment with a company.

v  Employees are required to earn a minimum of 1 hour of sick time per every 30 hours that they work.

v  Although employees may not use more than 40 hours each year, they can carry over hours that are unused from previous years. These hours are not “paid out” when the employee resigns or is terminated.

v  Employers may request proof of illness if the hours used by an employee for an illness exceed 24 work hours in a row.

v  A notice/handout explaining Earned Sick Leave must be posted where employees can see it.

Further details regarding the administration of the law are still being worked out.  Ipswich Bay Advisors will provide updates as they are released.  If you have any questions regarding the recent legislation or would like our assistance in reviewing how the Earned Sick Time law coordinates with your current leave policies, please contact our office.

Thank you.

Health Plan Identifiers Upcoming Deadline

In an effort to make the healthcare system more streamlined across the United States, The Department of Health and Human Services is now requiring insurers and employers to obtain Health Plan Identifiers for any fully, or self-insured health plan. Health Plan Identifiers are distinct, ten-digit numbers used by HIPAA-governed entities during electronic transactions such as billing.

Employers and insurers are required to attain their distinctive HPID’s for each plan that they provide no later than November 5, 2014. The number of Health Plan Identifiers necessary for a company is reliant upon the number of plans that the company provides. However, smaller health plans (those with yearly proceeds of less than $5 million) are granted an extended deadline of November 5, 2015 to obtain their HPIDs.

For all fully insured health plans, the carriers will take the responsibility of registering the HPID’s.  Please check with your third party administrator for self-insured plans.  Health plan providers are able to register for their Health Plan Identifiers on the Center of Medicaid and Medicare Services website directly. If you need help acquiring your Health Plan Identifier/s or if you have questions, please feel free to contact Ipswich Bay Advisors at (978) 777-6554.

New laws provide employer guidelines to help victims of domestic violence

In September, the issue of domestic violence – and how employers should respond in such cases – exploded in the national media and into the public consciousness. 

On September 8, star running back Ray Rice was released by his employer, the Baltimore Ravens, and indefinitely suspended by the NFL  after a second video surfaced of his February assault on his then-fiancée (and now wife) Janay Rice. A few days later, Minnesota Vikings running back Adrian Peterson was deactivated by his team after being indicted for abusing his four year-old son.

Fortunately several states, including Massachusetts, are beginning to institute laws regarding how victims of domestic violence should be treated in the workplace, and are establishing guidelines for their recovery leave.

On August 8, 2014, Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick passed “An Act Relative to Domestic Violence” (ARDV). The new law requires all employers who have over 50 employees to grant up to 15 days of leave per 12-month period to an employee who is a victim – or whose immediate family member is a victim – of domestic violence, stalking, kidnapping, or sexual assault.  The ARDV does not apply to the aggressor; it only applies to the victim of the attack.

The decision about whether the time away is a paid or unpaid leave is solely at the discretion of the employer. In addition, the employer can require the individual to use all other available forms of leave first.

An employee who requests a Domestic Violence Leave must use the leave time to focus on issues directly relating to the abuse. This includes activities such as seeking different housing, legal or law enforcement assistance, medical attention, or counseling. Under the ARDV, employers can require supporting documentation for an employee’s domestic violence leave request. Court documents, police reports, or medical documents are examples of sufficient supporting documentation.

If possible, the employee must provide his/her employer with appropriate notice of ARDV leave. There is an exception to this if the victim is facing immediate risks to his or her well-being. If this is the case, the victim, a family member, or a creditable medical professional has three business days to inform the employer that the time off was a result of domestic violence.

It is important to note that here in Massachusetts, employees who use the ARDV leave law are also legally covered under the state’s anti-retaliation law. They may not be terminated, receive reduced employment benefits, and may not be penalized for the leave time so long as the employee provides the supporting documentation of the domestic violence within 30 days of returning to work.

Once the employee returns to work, the individual is entitled to return to the same or comparable position within the company. In addition, the employer must keep all information about the employee’s domestic violence leave strictly confidential.

Employers are obliged to notify employees of their rights under the ARDV. An efficient way to do this is by sending a notice of the new law and its provisions to employees or by making revisions to the company’s leave policies.  If an employer suspects misuse of the Domestic Violence Leave, it is recommended that the company contact the state Attorney General’s office for further investigation.