A recent Reason magazine article by Peter Suderman on Medicare’s Whac-a-Mole approach to cost control is both an excellent analysis of why Medicare is in trouble and an explanation of one of the reasons we are having so much trouble in the rest of the health care system. As employers trying to do the best
Lots of Year-end NLRB News
While most Americans were out preparing for Christmas last week, the NLRB had some presents of its own. For employers, the Board postponed its posting rule (which created a new unfair labor practice and potentially extended the statute of limitations) from January 31 to April 30, 2012. For unions, the Board issued a decision that
Problems for Employers figuring out PPACA
Last week, I was asked to write about our firm’s efforts to figure out what to do about our health insurance and health care program as we prepare for the effective date of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. The result was published in the Washington Post here. The bottom line is that
NBA Player Union Disclaimer of Interest
Mary Schmitt Boyer, the basketball writer for the Cleveland Plain Dealer, has written an article about the impact of the Players Union’s disclaimer of interest months after the start of the lockout. Plain Dealer Article 11-15-2011.pdf In it, she quotes me on certain aspects of the labor exception to the antitrust laws. She did
Steelworkers confront University research partnership
“As home to the nation’s largest and most successful polymer research center, we see it as part of our job to help create jobs in Northeast Ohio, an area of the country hit hard by today’s challenging economy.
“Partnerships, alliances and collaborations and a myriad of other forms of linkages and connections are another means to helping students, faculty and the entire community to compete and succeed,”
Continue Reading Steelworkers confront University research partnership
Issue 2 Debate
For those readers interested in Ohio’s election campaign on the effort to improve its public employee collective bargaining law, here is a link to a debate in which I participated as an advocate for the reforms contained in Senate Bill 5 and Issue 2.
Small Business job creation story
With jobs the main focus of the Administration and Congress (other than re-election, of course), it is worth identifying why jobs are so hard to come by. We have already mentioned the level of uncertainty in a previous post. Now CBS News has done an excellent job of explaining how small businesses are being
Ohio Increases Minimum Wage
Because of a Constitutional Amendment passed in better times, Ohio must adjust its minimum wage annually based on cost of living statistics. The Ohio Department of Commerce has just announced that Ohio’s minimum wage will increase by 30 cents an hour (3.9%) from $7.40 to $7.70 per hour. Tipped employees will see their minimum hourly
IRS Announces Lower Cost Amnesty Program for Worker Classification Issues
Employers who believe that they may have been erroneously classifying employees as independent contractors may now take advantage of a new IRS voluntary compliance program. This program allows employers to reclassify any workers erroneously treated as independent contractors. Employers who choose to do so may take advantage of the program’s lower cost settlement terms and
American Jobs Act language on new cause of action against employers
To help readers see for themselves what is in the American Jobs Act concerning employer discrimination based upon the status of applicants as unemployed, we have uploaded the provisions of the AJA as transmitted to Congress. It is unclear if the actual bill will be introduced with that name because a Republican Member of Congress