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Department of Labor Increases Salary Requirements for White-Collar & HCE Exemptions  Implementation Deadlines: First phase on July 1, 2024 | Second phase on January 1, 2025    The U.S. Department of Labor [DOL] announced the Final Rule: Restoring and Extending Overtime Protections. The final rule amends the Fair Labor Standards Act regulations by increasing the salary threshold required for executive, administrative, and professional exemptions [referred to as white-collar exemptions). The final rule does not make […]

HSA Limit Contributions Announced for 2025 The IRS announced that the annual limit on health savings account (HSA) contributions for self-only coverage in 2025 will be $4,300, a 3.6 % increase from the $4,150 limit in 2024. The HSA contribution limit for family coverage will jump to $8,550, a 3 % increase from $8,300 in 2024.

Offering tax filing help can relieve workers’ stress and provide a unique advantage for out-recruiting the competition! Everybody hates doing taxes. Filing a tax return—whether state or federal—without some kind of help is stressful. More than half of U.S. adults who file tax returns (57%) find the do-it-yourself approach nerve-racking, according to a study conducted by The Harris Poll for Fast Company magazine. Hardly a surprising statistic to any of us!   What if employers […]

If you employ workers or do business in California, here is a brief review of the recently updated California Privacy Act.    What is it?  The California Privacy Rights Act (CPRA) provides comprehensive regulation of the personal information (PI) of California residents. PI includes any “information that identifies, relates to, describes, is reasonably capable of being associated with, or could reasonably be linked, directly or indirectly, with a particular consumer or household.”    Who does […]

Cardinal Services continues to focus on employment-related laws, new court cases, and regulatory changes that impact our business community. While the news about FinCEN is not directly employment-related, some employers could be subject to this new reporting rule. However, the new FinCEN reporting requirement has not been well publicized, but we think it is universal enough to inform you on this topic.    FinCEN is the new Beneficial Ownership Information that requires some companies to […]

The Feds combine the eVerify and Form I-9 into one digital process.    E-Verify NextGen—scheduled for incremental release in 2024—integrates the Form I-9 process with E-Verify, the federal government’s electronic employment verification system, revolutionizing the employment verification process for the business community!  This new combined system from the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) will shift much of the process away from employers and onto the new hires themselves. Currently, employers must complete a new […]

The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) released a final rule on January 9th that changes the criteria for classifying independent contractors.  The final rule requires companies to weigh various factors to determine whether a worker is an employee or an independent contractor. The final rule will take effect on March 11.    Background to the Ruling  In June 2023, a decision from the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) altered the standard employers must use to […]

A recent memo from the Federal Office of Personnel Management  has raised new questions for the private sector.    New Federal guidance:  On Aug. 22, 2023, the Federal Office of Personnel Management issued guidance regarding whether the Fair Labor Standards Act requires federal workers to be compensated for their commute to work. This new guidance also included additional rules about federal teleworkers regarding pay and hours. The bottom line: it depends on whether a worker is […]

 The IRS just announced the per-mile reimbursement rates for 2024. Beginning January 1, 2024, here are the new rates for the following business categories:   67 cents per mile driven for standard business use [an increase of 1.5 cents from 2023].  21 cents per mile driven for qualified active-duty Armed Forces members for medical travel or for moving purposes [a decrease of 1 cent from 2023].  14 cents per mile driven in service of charitable organizations. […]

  Remote Working by the Numbers   27% of U.S. employees work remotely as of 2023, according to a new US Census study.  16% of U.S. companies are fully remote in 2023.  15% of work opportunities in the US are categorized as “remote jobs.”  From 2018 to 2021, the number of fully remote workers grew 4x larger [2018 saw 6% of employees being fully remote, which increased to 26.7% in 2021].  36.2 million American employees are […]