Frontline Blog

Over the past few years, the number of jurisdictions passing paid sick day laws has risen rapidly. In 2006, only one passed a law mandating paid sick leave: San Francisco. But in 2016, three states, one county and ten cities passed sick day legislation.  

For the past ten months, employers and HR professionals around the country have been hitting “refresh” on the Department of Labor’s website, anxious for news about overtime. The proposed changes that the department issued last summer more than doubled the salary threshold above which many white collar workers are exempt from receiving overtime pay. What will the impact be for businesses and school districts? On May 18, the final overtime rule was published, and employers finally have a clear picture of what the new overtime reality will look like — and when it will take effect. Read on to find out.

Last July, the U.S. Department of Labor Wage and Hour Division proposed significant changes to the rules around overtime pay. The proposed updates have gotten a lot of attention from employers, and when the DOL solicited feedback from the public, they received around 270,000 comments. Clearly, the issue has struck a nerve. Have you been keeping up with the changes? Take the quiz and see how much you know!

It’s no secret that many school districts – and businesses of all stripes, in fact – are keeping a close eye on the Department of Labor’s proposed updates to overtime pay regulations. Certain workers don’t receive overtime pay because of the nature of their jobs – the Department of Labor’s “Duties” test states that they’re exempt. But employers would be required to pay overtime to many executive, administrative and professional employees who exceed 40 hours worked in a week when those employees make less than $23,660 per year. At this writing, the proposed updates would raise that salary threshold to over $50,000 in 2016.

In the scramble to fill open vacancies for fall, onboard new hires and “ramp up” for the start of school – not to mention taking a few days of summer vacation – it would be easy to look past any headlines for federal overtime regulations.

A Department of Labor (DOL) audit is the "monster under the bed" for many payroll and business professionals. You don't want to believe in it. You don't think you'll ever see it. But it could pop up at any time, and if it does, it might not look pretty.

Odds are you aren't lighting your hallways with torches. You aren't using candles in the cafeteria or lanterns in the classrooms; electricity was discovered quite some time ago. And with that discovery came a new era of industry, innovation and opportunity. That era forever changed the way we work and is rivaled only by the innovation of the Digital Age.

As most districts already know, this is "go time." Like everyone else, we were initially surprised and overwhelmed by the Affordable Care Act requirements and determining what it meant for our organization.  After evaluating some traditional routes, we chose a slightly different process for our district, which I hope others will find helpful as we all navigate these waters together!

Want to get in on a few secrets?  Most people know the basic premise of time and attendance software systems: electronically capturing employee time, clocking in and out, reporting on employee time.   But we wanted to go further and find those "hidden nuggets" – little-known features that can bring a lot of value to school districts! So we pulled some statistics from VeriTime, our time and attendance management system, to see how districts are using the tools available.    The following is our list of the Top 10 little-known features that offer the biggest opportunity for increasing accuracy and efficiency in your time-keeping.