The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has released the Emergency Temporary Standard for mandatory COVID-19 vaccinations. The ETS applies to employers with at least 100 employees or more. The standard requires employees to get vaccinated by January 4, 2022. After January 4, 2022, any employees who have not received the necessary vaccination will be required to produce a verified…

What is 'The Great Resignation'? The nation is now enduring one of the biggest shockwaves since the COVID-19 pandemic began: The Great Resignation. That’s the new term dubbed for the mass migration of American employees after this global health emergency triggered a shift in their priorities. According to CNBC, 4.3 million Americans left their jobs in August of 2021 alone.…

If You’re Planning on Hiring in the State in 2022, consider this: The Washington State Long-Term Care Program, known as the “Washington Cares Fund,” originally established in May 2019 by the Long-Term Services and Supports (LTSS) Trust Act, is on track to begin as of January 1, 2022. What is it? This is the nation’s first public state-operated long term…

The Maximum Employee Weekly Benefit Amount is Increasing As Massachusetts employers are aware, on January 1, 2021, the state rolled out its Paid Family and Medical Leave (PFML) program to implement the first phase and most benefits available to employees for managing a personal illness or serious injury as of that date. Then again, the second phase of the program,…

Urgent Notice to Employers The U.S. workforce continues to adjust following the unprecedented impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. By the end of the year, all New York State employers with employees working outside of New York City should be on alert as minimum wage and overtime-exempt salary levels will rise. The change applies to businesses of all sizes. The following…

Think twice, click once. Like anything valuable, your personal information is of interest to thieves. With so much of this data stored online today, understanding how to protect it is more important than ever. In many cases, one of the biggest threats to our data is phishing emails. For those who may be unaware, phishing is a digital attack designed…

Voluntary Benefits – Blurb: The key to keeping top employees? Consider offering voluntary benefits. Learn how to give your workers power over their health care and financial decisions. U.S. Department of Labor Raises Labor Law Posting Penalties As of last month, September 2021, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) issued a final rule that increases the maximum penalty for an…

Discharges for poor (or unsatisfactory) performance will usually not disqualify a claimant from unemployment benefits.  Most states define poor performance as the inability to meet company standards. The employer must prove misconduct (deliberate or willful violations of the employer’s rules or standards) to disqualify a claimant from benefits.  Confusion occurs when poor performance is erroneously used to explain all or…

PrestigePEO, one of the nation’s largest professional employer organizations (PEO), announced today it ranked #4285 on Inc. Magazine’s annual Inc. 5000 list, the most prestigious ranking of the nation’s fastest-growing private companies. The placement demonstrates PrestigePEO’s 67 percent growth in revenue over the past three years and marks the 10th time since 2008 in which the company has appeared on…

The pandemic changed people’s working lives profoundly, with the sudden shifts to performing work from home amid intensified child care needs and the challenges of caring for sick loved ones. The prolonged experience created new anxiety and stress that employers need to consider as they return workers back to the office. MetLife’s 2021 U.S. Employee Benefit Trends Study, conducted mid-pandemic…