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With the new year comes a host of new challenges and responsibilities for HR. Here are five tasks XpertHR thinks should be on everyone's to-do list for 2016.

Update employee handbooks and workplace policies
From EEO to reasonable accommodations to leave and more, there have been a number of recent developments that necessitate changes to workplace policies and/or employee handbooks. XpertHR's Employee Handbooks tool is constantly updated to help ensure policy statements and guidance reflect all of these changes.

Stay on top of minimum wage changes
More than a dozen states - Alaska, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Hawaii, Massachusetts, Michigan, Nebraska, New York, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Vermont and West Virginia - and several municipalities like Seattle; Portland, Maine; Mountain View, California; Oakland, California; Richmond, California; and Sunnyvale, California - are increasing their minimum wage rates for the new year. In addition, new minimum wage laws will take effect January 1 for fast food employees in New York. Our Minimum Wage Rates by State and Municipality Quick Reference chart lists all the upcoming changes by jurisdiction. The Legal Timetable tool also shows upcoming minimum wage changes by date.

Make sure workplace posters are up to date
Many states and municipalities require an employer to put up posters informing employees about wages and hours, paid sick leave, workplace safety and other rights. Several posters that have been added or updated for 2016 can be found in Update Workplace Posters for New Year 2016.

Prepare for changes to the FLSA overtime rules
The US Department of Labor has proposed regulations that, if enacted as expected, would raise the minimum salary for an employee exempt from the overtime requirements of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) from $455 per week to an estimated $970 per week. Final regulations are formally scheduled for July 2016, although the US Solicitor of Labor has said they may not be released until later in the year. Regardless of when the new regulations take effect, an employer should take steps to prepare now. In particular, an employer should weigh the cost of giving raises to employees who are currently exempt but make less than $50,440 per year against the cost of reclassifying those employees as nonexempt and paying them overtime.

Meet accelerated W-2 deadlines
As a result of state and federal efforts to prevent tax refund fraud, employers in Alabama, Connecticut, Indiana, North Carolina and Utah will have to file Forms W-2, Wage and Tax Statement, by January 31 - a month or two earlier than in years past. Deadlines, filing thresholds and acceptable media for these and other states can be found in the Form W-2 Electronic-Filing Requirements by State Quick Reference chart. A variety of other helpful resources can be found in Plan a Successful Payroll Year-End.



December 9, 2015
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Editor's Message

2016 is just around the corner and there are numerous developments requiring action by employers to ensure compliance in the coming year. We've rounded some of them up for you here as a sort of checklist to ensure you're aware of each. Further details are available to you on XpertHR for each of the developments.

Peggy Carter-Ward
Head of Content

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