Human Resources

Ohio 46th in Health Value

The Health Policy Institute of Ohio’s “Health Value Dashboard” is a tool to track Ohio’s progress towards health value, a composite measure of Ohio’s performance on population health outcomes and health care spending.

The dashboard examines Ohio’s rank and trend performance relative to other states and highlights gaps in outcomes between groups for some of Ohio’s most at-risk populations.

Ohio ranks 46^th among the states and the District of Columbia in the index. Ohio has high rates of addiction and tobacco use, problems with access to care in major areas of the state, and insufficient spending on prevention, says the report. 4/3/2019

DOL’s Proposed Rule Updates the Meaning of “Regular Rate” for the Modern Workplace

From OMA Connections Partner Frantz Ward: “(On March 28), the U.S. Department of Labor (“DOL”) announced a proposed rule to update regular rate calculations under the Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”). Under the FLSA, employers must pay overtime pay to employees who work more than 40 hours in a week. The overtime pay rate is one and a half times an employee’s “regular rate” of pay. However, as many employers know, calculating an employee’s regular rate is not as straightforward as it may seem.”

Read more from Frantz Ward about what the DOL proposes. 3/29/2019

DOL Announces Proposed Joint Employer Rule

From OMA Connections Partner Dinsmore: “On April 1, 2019, the Department of Labor (DOL) announced it will publish a notice of proposed rulemaking to amend its existing regulations, … , regarding whether a business qualifies as a joint employer under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). The FLSA requires covered employers to pay nonexempt employees at least the federal minimum wage for all hours worked and overtime for all hours worked more than 40 in one workweek. The proposed rule would clarify when additional businesses are jointly and severally liable with the employer for the employee’s wages under the FLSA.”

Read more about the proposed rulemaking here. 4/3/2019

FMLA Designation is Not Discretionary for Employer or Employee

From OMA Connections Partner Clark Schaefer Hackett: “The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) issued a new Opinion Letter on March 14, 2019 clarifying that an employer cannot delay the designation of FMLA-qualifying leave as FMLA leave. The question initially posed to the DOL was whether an employer may permit employees to use or exhaust some or all available paid time off (vacation, sick or other leave) prior to designating leave as FMLA-qualifying, even when the leave is clearly FMLA-qualifying.”

Read more about this from Clark Schaefer Hackett. 3/25/2019

Medical Marijuana Up & Running in Ohio – Sign up for Employer Webinars

From OMA Connections Partner, Working Partners^(R): “Last week the Ohio Marijuana Control Board granted three more medical marijuana dispensaries certificates of operation. This means Ohio now has 12 of the 56 dispensaries up and running. In light of things ramping up, we are once again holding our popular Yes. No. Maybe? Medical Marijuana & Your Drug-Free Workplace Program webinars.

“Two dates are scheduled, April 11 and May 9.

“These webinars have been well received and attendees have reported having their eyes opened to everything they hadn’t considered regarding an employee’s use of medical marijuana and how their business could be impacted.”

Learn more and register here. 3/28/2019

Senate Holds Hearing on Bill to Add Sexual Orientation to Civil Rights Law

This week the Senate held its first hearing on The Ohio Fairness Act, Senate Bill 11, which bill sponsor, Senator Nickie Antonio (D-Lakewood), described as updating the Ohio Civil Rights Law by adding sexual orientation and gender identity to existing protections in matters of housing, employment and in the public sphere.

The bill also upholds all existing religious exemptions under the Ohio Civil Rights Law.

Senator Antonio testified: “Ohio is one of 28 states that do not have clear non-discrimination protections for members of the LGBTQ community.”

Similar legislation has been introduced over the last several General Assemblies. 3/14/2019

DOL Issues Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to Update Overtime Regulations

On March 7, 2019 the Department of Labor (DOL) announced a proposed rule that would make more than a million more American workers eligible for overtime.

Under currently enforced law, employees with a salary below $455 per week ($23,660 annually) must be paid overtime if they work more than 40 hours per week. Workers making at least this salary level may be eligible for overtime based on their job duties. This salary level was set in 2004.

This proposal would boost the proposed standard salary level to $679 per week (equivalent to $35,308 per year). Above this salary level, eligibility for overtime varies based on job duties.

The proposal maintains overtime protections for police officers, fire fighters, paramedics, nurses, and laborers including: non-management production-line employees and non-management employees in maintenance, construction and similar occupations such as carpenters, electricians, mechanics, plumbers, iron workers, craftsmen, operating engineers, longshoremen, and construction workers. The proposal does not call for automatic adjustments to the salary threshold.

Here is a post from OMA Connections Partner Roetzel that contains additional details on the proposal. 3/11/2019

Employers May Have to Provide Pay Data on EEO-1s

From OMA Connections Partner Frantz Ward: “Private employers with more than 100 employees previously have been required to report workforce data across 10 job categories broken down by race, gender and ethnicity. The data is reported annually by October 1 to the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (“EEOC”) on the EEO-1 form, which currently comprises one page for each facility of an employer.

“In the summer of 2016, during the Obama administration, the EEOC expanded the EEO-1 effective March 31, 2018, to require employers to report the racial and gender makeup of employees in each of the 10 job categories within 12 pay ranges. …

“In 2017, during the Trump administration, the Office of Management and Budget (“OMB”) issued a stay on the pay data portions of the revised EEO-1, as business groups were concerned that the additional requirements would be too burdensome and costly.

” … On March 4, 2019, Judge Tanya Chutkan ruled that the OMB’s action in staying implementation of the revised EEO-1 was an “arbitrary and capricious” decision that lacked any “reasoned explanation.” The Court then vacated the OMB’s stay and ordered the EEOC’s expanded EEO-1 to be in effect.

“Prior to the D.C. Court’s ruling, the EEO-1 filing deadline for the revised EEO-1 had been set at May 31, 2019. It is not clear whether employers will have to comply with the new requirements by the current deadline of May 31, but it is anticipated that the OMB will appeal the decision, and that the EEOC will soon issue guidance regarding the Court’s March 4 ruling.”

Stay tuned. 3/11/2019

EEO-1 Submission Date Delayed

Because of the government shutdown, the EEOC has postponed its collection of EEO-1 data until early March 2019. The deadline to submit this data is extended to May 31, 2019.

All private employers with 100 or more employees, federal government contractors, and first-tier subcontractors with 50 or more employees and a federal contract, subcontract or purchase order $50,000 or more must file the EE0-1 report. 2/12/2019

Deadlines to Furnish Forms 1095-C and 1095-B to Employees are Coming Up

This from OMA Connections Partner One Source Advisors (OSA): “The IRS deadlines to furnish Forms 1095-C and 1095-B to employees in early 2019 are as follows:

• Employers with 50 or more full-time employees (including full-time equivalent employees) generally must furnish a Form 1095-C to all full-time employees no later than March 4, 2019.
• Self-insured employers with fewer than 50 or more full-time employees (including full-time equivalent employees) generally must furnish a Form 1095-B to all responsible individuals–typically the primary insured, an employee or former employee, or other related person named on the application for insurance–no later than March 4, 2019.

The deadline for employers to file all Forms 1095-C and 1095-B with the IRS remains February 28, 2019 (or April 1, 2019, if filing electronically).

Cheri Gillfillan, president of OSA, said: “The forms are to document the employee was offered minimum essential benefits that meet affordability guidelines. The IRS then uses the forms to confirm eligibility for subsidy payments if an employee chooses to be insured through the federal marketplace.”

Questions? Contact OSA. 2/1/2019