Florida farmers are nervous about multiple legislative attempts to keep them from maintaining a workforce. Farmers claim recent proposed legislation threatens to take their ability away to hire undocumented workers, which account for up to 75 percent of their workforce. It’s not uncommon for undocumented workers to purchase false Social Security cards and use them upon being hired. There is currently no legal requirement for farmers to check that the cards are legitimate. Most farms file the numbers away and start paying the new employees for their work. Up on Capitol Hill, the proposed Legal Workforce Act (H.R. 2885) would require all farmers (indeed, all employers) to use a federal database to confirm the numbers. This system is the E-Verify database. Farmers would then be mandated to not hire undocumented workers. The proposed law is sponsored by House Judiciary Committee Chairman Lamar Smith, R-Texas. Proponents of the bill talk about how these jobs should be given to legal workers, like American ...

Over the next several years, human resource consulting services for companies in St. Petersburg and beyond are expected to continue to increase as the demand for HR and payroll software continues to rise. IBISWorld estimates that over the next five years, revenue for the HR and Payroll Software industry will increase at an average annual rate of 5 percent to $4 billion. IBISWorld, the nation’s largest publisher of industry market research, says while some companies will go back to outsourcing administrative tasks, others are expected to continue to invest money in HR and payroll software as the economy continues to recover. IBISWorld says as corporate profits increase, more and more businesses are expected to continue to branch out and use human resource consulting services. The company expects industry revenue will increase 1.1 percent this year. For example, in St. Petersburg, as we wait for the tourism levels to rebound, keeping your company lean through the use of outsources can be a big advanta ...

In September of 2012 the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that the manufacturing sector accounted for 25 percent of all mass layoffs. Mass layoffs is defined as 50 employees or more per event. A general U.S. hiring drought is predicted to extend into 2012. It seems companies will continue to be wary of taking on expense during this unpredictable economy. Unemployment is hovering around 9 percent as most companies just are not hiring, yet. Yet, at the same time, many company HR directors are complaining that they can't find the specialized talent they are seeking to hire. Recent surveys are giving some insight into the situation. Many jobs are disappearing as companies invest in processes and automation, leaving a smaller number of employees. The positions left average to be more highly skilled. This produces the situation we're seeing where the unemployment rate is still high in the lower skilled arenas, while there's a shortage of applications in the higher skilled areas. This situation d ...

Granting longer leaves for maternity or disability can add dangerous complications for your employees and your HR staff responsible for communications with employees. The key is to understand the FMLA timelines. Under FMLA, employees are eligible to take 12 weeks of maternity leave. If your company offers a leave period longer than those 12 weeks, it creates a dangerous time gap. If your company health plan is self-funded, you probably have a reinsurance policy in place to limit your company risk. The reinsurer’s policies are most likely modeled around the 12 week maternity leave time limits. So, if your employee takes more leave and amasses more medical bills outside of that 12 week FMLA window, but inside your company’s longer leave policy, then the issue of insurance coverage for those medical bills arises. This happens if the employee gets to the end of the 12 week FMLA coverage window and then takes short-term disability. The reinsurer may reject the notion that it has obligation to those m ...

25 years ago, commuter benefits began to immerge in legislation and tax codes. The general goal of these changes was to reduce the number of single occupancy vehicles commuting every day. The 2010 Commuter Benefit Impact Survey reports that companies that avoid offering tax-free commuter benefits have half as many nonsingle-occupancy-vehicle commuters as companies that do offer the benefit. This indicates that offering tax-free benefits to employees does work to encourage the use of public transportation and carpooling. The survey goes on to state that 75 percent of companies thing they should support the use of public transportation. The key factor in this directive is to ease an employee’s commute costs. In addition, the companies state these kinds of benefits enhance their overall benefits packages, which helps with recruiting and retention. The Revenue Code, commonly called “commuter benefits”, allows youremployees to spend up to $230 per month in pretax dollars for transit and va ...