Each month, Mployer Advisor collects and presents some of the most relevant and most pressing recent changes in law, compliance, and policy in areas related to employee benefits, health care, and human resources.
Beginning on October 31st, data collection will open for 2022 EEO-1 Component 1 filings.
These reports are part of a mandatory annual data collection process which legally requires all employers with at least 100 employees and federal contractors with at least 50 employees to provide certain information about their employees to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, including employee demographics and job categories.
When data collection opens, the Filer Support Message Center, which is a help desk that provides support and assistance to help people submit filings online, will open as well.
The deadline for 2022 EEO-1 Component 1 filings is December 5th, 2023.
Updated versions of the 2022 EEO-1 Component 1 Data File Upload Specifications are available here. You can find an updated version of the 2022 Component 1 Instruction Booklet here, as well.
You can find the EEO-1 data collection website here.
According to the Employer’s Shared Responsibility provision of the Affordable Care Act, employers that have an average of at least 50 full-time or full-time equivalent employees must offer those employees and their children health care coverage that is considered affordable.
Currently, as of plan year 2023, the threshold for coverage that qualifies as affordable is set at coverage that requires a maximum employee contribution equivalent to no more than 9.12% of the employee’s income. As of plan year 2024, however, that income-to-affordability threshold will be decreased to 8.39%.
You can read more about the Employer Shared Responsibility Provision here.
A new rule proposed by the Department of Labor would increase the minimum salary threshold above which employees can be exempted from minimum wage and overtime laws.
Current EAP exemptions, for example, allow for executive, administrative, and professional employees who earn $684 dollars per week ($35,568 per year) or more to be exempted from minimum wage and overtime regulations, but the proposed change would increase that weekly pay minimum to $1,059 per week or $55,068 per year.
The new rule also proposes raising the minimum salary for employees to qualify for the highly compensated employee, or HCE, exemption as well. Currently, for employees to be exempted from minimum wage and overtime requirements as a result of their high level of compensation, they must be paid a minimum of $107,432 per year, but under the intended rule changes, that threshold will be raised by more than a third to $143,988 per year.
Further, the new rule as proposed will also automatically increase these pay thresholds for EAP and HCE exemptions every three years to ensure the minimum pay scales stay relevant in light of evolving market conditions.
Before the new regulations could take effect, there must first be a 60-day period during which the public, stakeholders, and otherwise interested parties can provide commentary on the proposal. Department of Labor officials will then review those comments and potentially revise the new rule in its current form before finalizing it.
Following the 60-day comment period, it’s likely that the rule wouldn’t go into effect for at least another 60-days, so the earliest that the new rule will go live is probably at least 4 months out still. That said, the potential for legal action when new rules are announced is significant, so delays in the implementation of these new regulatory thresholds beyond the standard predicted timeline are a real possibility.
You can read more about this proposed rule change here.
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