January 2009 News You Can Use
Paycheck Fairness Act: Who Is Really Running American
Businesses?
The Paycheck Fairness Act
concept isn't new. Comparable worth, as this theory is known in the
compensation community, has been around for decades.
Comparable worth goes beyond
the current protection offered by the Equal Pay Act and similar federal and
state laws.
The Equal Pay Act requires
employers to pay employees with the same skills the same amount of money.
It clearly outlines the acceptable reasons for two people doing the same job to
be paid differently. If an employer can not justify pay differentials between
two people, they will (if they are caught) have a chance to see the federal
and/or state government and our legal system work up close and personal.
The experience is both expensive and less than pleasant. This is good law -
fixing a real problem, easy to understand, easy to administer.
The Paycheck Fairness Act
would look at "comparable skills" and if it finds that the job traditionally
held by women or minorities is paid less than the comparator job, it assumes
that there is actionable discrimination and requires pay levels of the lower
paid employees to be increased.
Let me give you an example from
one of the projects I've worked on:
A group of administrative
assistants were paid $10,000 a year less than production associates working the
same hours. The administrative assistant's work required a high school
graduation (more than the production associate's job required), the ability to
utilize a number of computer software programs (not so for the production
associates). The production associates worked in a typical factory environment
and did moderate physical labor on a consistent basis as well as tended various
production machines. We adjusted all administrative assistant's pay upwards by
$10,000 per year. (Please note that this is a highly simplified version of what
happened meant solely to give you a flavor of the comparable worth approach.) I
felt good when I completed this work. I have always believed that the market
undervalued administrative workers.
Please note, I felt good about
this change, I did not agree with the approach that lead to it. In this case,
it was Canadian law and I was only ensuring that the remedial process we were
undertaking was well done.
The labor market isn't
efficient. Sometimes jobs just don't earn what they should. People are free to
seek out better paying jobs. A person that doesn't complete college can end up
owning one of the biggest business in the world. It is all about choices people
make and, often, a little good luck.
Physical therapy assistant
(PTAs) positions generally require a two year college degree. In my part of the
world, it isn't unheard of for these professionals, typically female, to make
$50,000 to $70,000 per year or more with a very few years of experience. There
are many male-dominated jobs that require more education and experience that
don't make that kind of money. Is this fair? It is the labor market and the
very essence of supply and demand in action. PTAs are in high demand and short
supply. They pick the company they work for and if that company upsets them,
they have no problem picking another.
Comparable worth is an
interesting theory. There is nothing fundamentally wrong with it. There is also
no significant need for it. I would opt to see us more fully enforce the
current Equal Pay Act. As a consultant, I can tell you that the United States
is still rife with organizations that do not fully comply with existing law.
Let's fix those injustices first.
An excerpt from Rick's blog.
Read more at http://profitmatterspeople.wordpress.com/
Human Hands Harbor High Numbers
of Bacteria
Winter is prime time for
colds, flu and a host of other illnesses. One of the most important things to
do to prevent sickness is hand washing, and here’s a new study that suggests
why. Researchers have found thousands of species of bacteria live on our hands,
with the typical hand having roughly 150 different species of bacteria living
on it.
The National Academy of
Sciences study found women had a greater variety of bacteria on their hands
than men. Overall, both men and women had more types of bacteria on their hands
that it was previously thought.
The researchers, from the University of Colorado
at Boulder,
took samples from the hands of 51 college students and identified 4,742
different species of bacteria. Only five species were common among all 102
human hands in the study. Another interesting finding was that even the right
and left palms of the same person shared an average of only 17 percent of the
same bacteria species.
So keep encouraging hand
washing in your facility!
Cell-Phone Liability for Employers
More and more often, accident
victims are suing the employers of people who cause accidents while talking on
cell phones.
An employee pulled onto the
interstate and used her company-supplied cell phone to contact a client.
Because she was busy talking on the phone, she didn't notice that the traffic
ahead had suddenly slowed. Her car slammed into the vehicle in front of her,
flipping it and catching the driver's arm between the car and the pavement.
Doctors had to amputate the accident victim's arm nearly to the shoulder. The
victim sued the employee and her company, claiming that the use of a cell phone
while driving was unreasonably hazardous. The victim asked for millions of
dollars in actual and punitive damages. The employer agreed to pay the accident
victim $5.2 million.
Several other cases involving
employer liability for accidents caused by employees using cell phones have
also been settled for millions of dollars. These include the family of an
accident victim that sued for wrongful death, and the court found the employer
liable for $20 million. An Arkansas
jury found a lumber company liable after one of its employees struck another
car, gravely injuring the passenger. The case ended up being settled for $16
million. In another incident, an attorney on her cell phone struck and killed a
15-year-old girl. Her firm settled for an undisclosed amount, and the attorney
was charged with a felony and ordered to pay $2 million.
If an employer supplies a cell
phone to an employee or if the employee uses his or her own cell phone for
business, the employer can be held liable for damages if the employee injures
someone in an accident while using the phone. Also, an employee could be
injured or killed in an accident in part because of cell phone usage while
driving. It is an unsafe activity and increases the risk of injury or death.
Distracted driving studies
show that people using cell phones - even headsets - are several times more likely
to have accidents than other drivers, many states, counties, and municipalities
now have laws governing cell phone use while driving.
You can't afford to ignore
this problem if any of your employees drive on the job and might use a cell
phone while driving. You need to have a cell phone policy, and you need to make
sure your employees know it and understand why they need to follow the rules.
Source: BLR and OSHA Required Training for Supervisors
monthly newsletter
Survey Says: More Face Higher Deductibles for Family
Coverage
Premiums for
employer-sponsored health insurance rose to $12,680 annually for family
coverage in 2008, with employees on average paying $3,354 out of their
paychecks to cover their share of the cost. The scope of that coverage also has
changed, with many more workers now enrolled in high-deductible plans,
according to the 2008 Employer Health Benefits Survey released by the Kaiser
Family Foundation and the Health Research & Educational Trust (HRET).
Key findings from the
benchmark annual survey of small and large U.S. organizations show that in
2008:
• Premiums rose only 5 percent in 2008;
• Many workers are facing higher deductibles;
• In small businesses with less than 200
workers, more than 35 percent covered workers' pay at least $1,000 out of
pocket before their plan will start to pay a share of nonpreventive health care
bills, up from 21 percent in 2007.
• For workers facing deductibles in PPOs, the
most common type of plan, the average deductible rose to $560 in 2008, up
nearly $100 from 2007.
The survey was conducted
between January and May of 2008 and included 2,832 randomly-selected,
nonfederal public and private firms with three or more employees.
As in the past, small
businesses are significantly less likely than large to offer health insurance.
While virtually all large firms with 200 or more workers offer health benefits,
only 62 percent of smaller firms do so.
The survey finds that more
than half of all firms offering health benefits provide at least one of the following: Weight loss programs, gym
membership discounts or on-site exercise facilities, smoking cessation
programs, personal health coaching, classes in nutrition or healthy living,
Web-based resources for healthy living, or a wellness newsletter.
Most plans now have a three-
or four-tier system of cost-sharing for drugs. For these plans, the average
copays this year are $10 for first-tier drugs, $26 for second-tier drugs
and $46 for third-tier drugs. Copays for fourth-tier drugs, which might include
costly biological agents and lifestyle drugs, averaged $75.
When asked about 2009, 14
percent of firms say they are "very likely" to raise workers' premium
contribution in 2009, and 12 percent say they are "very likely" to raise
deductibles. Very few firms say they are "very likely" to restrict eligibility or
drop health coverage altogether. More companies are looking into HSAs to help
offset the rising financial burden and encourage employee wellness.
|
