In a perfect world someone hires another to do a job, they do the job, and are then paid a fair wage. Obviously things aren’t that simple. When thinking through an open position and recruiting for a new employee you might want to start thinking about a “compensation philosophy.” Here are some thoughts to get you started.

If you are a household employer and have an employee working in your home, you have a responsibility to pay and report payroll taxes, which includes filing a Schedule H form with your personal federal tax return. If you paid your employee at least $2,100 in the year, if you withheld Federal Income Taxes, or if you are liable for unemployment taxes you must file this form.

In 2015 a law was passed to start using an inflation adjustment for penalties on labor law violations. Here are some of the penalties for 2019:

Most employers these days use some form of “at-will” employment model. What is at-will employment? Simply put, it means that the employment relationship can be terminated at any time with or without notice. This goes for both the employer and employee. An employee quitting is pretty straight forward so we’ll focus on the employer side for this article. As this post does not end here, you’re probably assuming it’s not that simple. You’re right.

For 2019 the Federal mileage reimbursement rate has increased 3.5 cents to 58 cents per mile. This may mean better deductions on business taxes for 2019 but also increased cost if you have a workforce that uses personal vehicles.

As we are in the thick of the 2018 tax filing season most any news outlet has reports of confusion and frustration stemming from the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. Here is a quick 2018 tax guide that outlines some of the changes.

Just as it sounds, sometimes it helps for younger people to mentor their elders. While years of experience are often associated with people who have lived more of them, the digital age has caused a shift.

Motivating your employees can be a difficult process. Maybe you try financial incentives or office recognition like “Employee of the Month.” These can only be so successful because true motivation needs to come from within. Here are some basics on how to motivate employees.

Occasionally a nanny or other household employee will find themselves in a dispute with an employer, generally a former employer, over unpaid wages. Whether this be overtime that wasn’t properly compensated, failure to meet minimum wage or final wages that were not paid, there exists in every state a mechanism to file an unpaid wage claim and have the state’s Department of Labor Wage and Hour office intervene on his or her behalf. These avenues should be pursued AFTER direct attempts to resolve the situation with the employer have failed.

As a follow up to our previous post about retirement plans, here is some information about 2019 retirement contribution limits. The amounts are indexed for inflation and most have increased this year.