Bryan Dear’s Blog

His ignorance was an Empire State Building of ignorance. You had to admire it for its size. Dorothy Parker, 1893 – 1967

When it comes to payroll, the following statements would be best to avoid:

I don’t have to pay overtime because I didn’t authorize it. (It doesn’t matter – you may choose to discipline the employee, but you still have to pay them for the hours worked including the overtime premium).

I’m tired of paying overtime. I’ll just put them on salary. (Bad idea. The question is whether the employee is exempt from overtime. Paying an employee a salary is irrelevant to this determination).

It’s easier to pay my employee as contract labor. (Do you like wearing a big bullseye that says, “Audit me.”? The IRS and more importantly, the states are looking for as much money as they can in these times of declining tax revenues – don’t get in their path.)

I don’t need an I9 or an Affirmation of Legal Work Status from the Colorado Department of Labor -  all of my employees are legal. (Doesn’t matter – audits can either be no big deal or a real pain depending on how prepared you are. Get both of the these documents dealt with when you hire each employee).

All retirement plans are not only pre-tax for federal and state, but are pre-tax for social security and medicare also. (No, no, no.)

This garnishment can wait when the employee can better afford it. (Not a good idea unless you want to pay the garnishment instead of the employee).

All of the above done the wrong way could cost an employer a lot of time, aggrevation and money. If you’re unsure, google the question. If we can help, contact us.

We’ll help you keep your head out of the sand.

Bryan Dear

www.payrolldept.biz

You don’t need to interpret tea leaves stuck in a cup, to understand that people who work sitting down get paid more than people who work standing up. Ogden Nash, 1902 – 1971

Comp time is time off earned for time worked over a certain amount, usually 40 hours in a week. What comes as a surprise to many employers is that there is no such thing as legally paid comp time for non-exempt employees unless you are a  municipality. If your employee exceeds the 40 hour work week limit, you must pay overtime.

But let’s say you have exempt employees that you would like to set up a comp plan for. It’s your plan – you don’t have to offer one – so you may be very creative in how you establish your plan.

 You could reward your exempt employee and yet minimize cash flow by offering a comp plan for them to take off hours based on hours worked over 40, 45 , 50, etc. in a week. You could base the plan on billable hours that exceeded a weekly total.  When you award the hours, you could reward hour for hour or at time and a half.

You would want to be consistent with your exempt work force by creating the same plan for employees who could be classified together. And you would want to track comp time earned as well as comp time used – preferably on the employee’s check voucher.

Comp time is a tool to reward your work force. It just can’t be used for your non-exempt work force (unless you work for a muncipality and even then there are rules to live by).

Cheers,

Bryan Dear

www.payrolldept.biz