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Common Payroll Errors

Payroll is a complicated department to be in. We are trained payroll experts, so if we say that it can be complicated, you can trust that we know what we are talking about. Because it can be such a complicated ordeal, there are a number of errors that are commonly made. Studies show that about 40% of small businesses get fined by the IRS because of common payroll errors involving taxes. With so many small businesses popping up across America, you can imagine just how many are getting fined for this. What are these errors people are making and how can you avoid them?

Deadlines: Timing is an extremely important part of payroll. This goes beyond making sure your employees are paid on time. You have to make sure you file the right paperwork and tax information before the deadline and send important documents to employees. These documents include W-2s and 1099s.

Misclassification: There are several types of employees. There is part time and full time, wage and salary, permanent and temporary, payroll and contract. You have to make sure you properly label each employee and handle their payroll needs accordingly.

Poor Book Keeping: There are a lot of numbers involved in Payroll. It isn’t uncommon that names and social security numbers get mixed up with each other. While this might seem like a small mistake to make, it is one that can be costly in fines and consequences.

Overtime: Overtime is a part of payroll yet has its own list of rules to follow. Different types of employees have different rules for overtime. Wage workers get overtime if they work more than 40 hours, yet salary workers only get overtime if they make less than a certain amount a year. Contract workers don’t qualify as employees so they don’t get overtime pay.

No Back-Up: Payroll doesn’t get to take a break. If you have someone in-house doing payroll and they need to take a sick leave, your other employees still need to be paid and the IRS still needs its paperwork. It is important to have someone capable of doing payroll if the main person is out, and you need a way to always have access to payroll in a case of any technical issues. If your computer goes down, it is good to have either paper printed backups or backups on some form of storage device.

These errors tend to pop up because Payroll never really stops. As a business grows it will gain new employees, lose employees, and change current employee’s payroll status. Employees will get raises, paid holidays and vacation days, take sick leave, all things that need to be handled and recorded. It is a lot to worry about, luckily though there is an easy solution. Simply don’t worry about it at all. That might sound counter-productive, but what we mean is you can outsource your payroll to a company trained in every aspect of payroll management. You get all of the benefits that an in-house payroll department offers without any of the stress. If you are ready to get rid of errors in your company’s payroll, contact Vision H.R. today.

Common Payroll Errors

Vision H.R. | The Human Resource Experts

Mental Health and Days Off

daytona beach payroll services company

One of the most important aspects of any job is being mentally healthy. What does that mean exactly though? It doesn’t mean being free from mental health problems, it means having your health be in the right mindset. Our mind has a lot it has to handle, more than we tend to give it credit for. We might not realize it, but our moment is active all the time, even when we are not thinking about it. There is a good chance that you are wearing clothes right now, yet you don’t feel them do you? Your mind is filtering that unimportant feeling out. Unless you are staring at a wall, there is most likely multiple things in front of you, yet you hardly notice most of them. That is because your mind is deciding what is important and what isn’t. There are other things it’s doing like making sure you are breathing. Before I said that, I bet you weren’t aware that you were breathing in and out. It is more of a background process the mind does for us.

On top of all of these automated processes, it also has to deal with the manual input as well. It has to work overtime sometimes to make sense of what you are working on. It has to constantly shift gears as you change activities. It has to go from finishing a project before the deadline to where to get lunch to that meeting you have at 1 with the client. So it’s important to keep your mind in good shape and in good health. The problem is it can be difficult to do this when you work all the time.

Enough stress without break can lead to mental health issues. Especially if there were mental health problems already present. The real problem is that these mental health issues are often times overlooked. There is no argument that the Brain and the Heart are the most vital organs in the human body, yet we can’t take the time to heal when our brain gets overloaded?

If your employee benefits include paid sick days or sick days in general, it might be time to consider both physical and mental health issues. Just offering the option can help give some employees a little relief knowing they have the option. A few of the benefits of allowing employees to take mental health days include:

Less Stress: They get to lower their stress level, making them more focused and positive in the workplace.
More Productivity: Stress and mental anguish can lower productivity. When they come back from their mental break, they will be more refreshed and more productive.
They Can Tackle Personal Projects: We have lives outside of the office. With a mental health day, we can get out of the office, clear up that to-do list, and have less on our mind when we go back.
Better Employee Relations: If an employee knows their managers and employers are taking their mental health seriously, they will feel more appreciated and cared for.
Impersonal Way to Help: Everyone has their own problems, some more severe than others. Mental health days are a good way to help with these problems without getting personally involved with your employees.

It’s not just for employees though, it’s for you too. You have a lot of your plate, making sure your company is running smoothly. You can use a mental break from it all too. At the very least, you can reduce the amount of stress you have to deal with. Any reduction of stress is beneficial to the mind and body. Vision H.R. can help a little with that aspect by taking over your payroll responsibilities. Never stress about your payroll department again when you outsource it to our team of payroll experts. We take care of your employees getting paid on time and their benefits such as paid sick days and vacation days. To learn more about how we became the trusted Daytona Beach Payroll Services company our clients have come to count on, request a free quote here.

Daytona Beach Payroll Services Company

Vision H.R. | The Human Resource Experts

Learn To Worry Less

daytona beach payroll company

How many things do you worry about in one single day? The average person has quite a few worries to deal with. Sometimes they are minor worries like, “Is that person going to pull out and cut me off?” and sometimes they are major things like paying bills or keeping a job. The good news is that most of those worries are never going to happen. According to a study performed in 2015, it was found that:

A: 85% of people’s worries never manifested

B: Of the 15% left, 79% of the worries that did manifest was less severe than expected.

That means that 85% of the things people in the study worried about happening never happened, and the 15% that did happen wasn’t nearly as bad as people worried it would be. That doesn’t mean we’re not going to worry, rather it shows us that we are worrying most likely over nothing. The problem now is that while the worry might never actually manifest into anything, it is still there causing us stress. Stress has plenty of negative consequences that we don’t want to deal with.

You could always try and live a worry free lifestyle. Sadly I can say that it’s not quite that simple though. There is a major difference between trying to stay stress-free and actually being stress-free. That doesn’t mean there are not ways to reduce the amount of stress you deal with though. There are plenty of things both big and small that you can do to keep the stress of owning a business down. Some of them are personal things such as taking time out of the day to connect with nature or taking up a hobby. Spending time in nature does all kinds of good for the mind, including reducing stress.

There are also things in the office you can do as well. The best part is that if it reduces your stress there is a good chance it is making the office more effective. At the very least it is making your job a little bit easier. Some things that you can do can also benefit employees and raise their morale. A happier office is a happier business owner. To really make the office happy, productive, and effective you could make your payroll department more productive and effective by outsourcing it to a Daytona Beach Payroll Company. This ensures that your employees keep getting paid on time. It also ensures that your payroll is done right while being overseen by a team of specialized payroll personnel who’s entire job is making sure our client’s payroll is done effectively and on time.

We also open the way for more payroll options such as employee benefits. We can connect your company with insurance companies to create benefit packages that are tailored to you and your company. We also make the payroll simple to keep track of for you. We supply detailed reports on a regular basis so you can know exactly how payroll is going and where the money is going.

Daytona Beach Payroll Company

Vision H.R. | The Human Resource Experts

Don’t Trust Just Anyone

payroll professionals

Payroll is one of those concepts that might seem like a simple job, yet in reality can be pretty complicated. It’s not just paying employees every 1 or 2 weeks, you also have to handle their taxes and other legal aspects of payroll. Without someone who knows how to take care of a company’s payroll properly, you could run into legal issues that come with heavy fees. Another problem is that regardless of who is handling the payroll department, the company as a whole is the one that suffers if it is not done properly. This is why it is extremely important to get it right the first time. What is the best way to make sure it is being done right though?

You could hire someone in-house, but then you only get one pair of eyes on the payroll. The possibility of human error will always be a concern that needs to be handled before it can become a problem. Because even though they are the one responsible for your payroll, they are not the one who has to face the consequences if it is done wrong. The one who does have to deal with it is you.

You could hire a whole department in-house to handle it, which would eliminate a lot of the chances of a human error occurring. When there are more eyes on a project, there is less chance a mistake will make it to the final product. That means you have to both create a department with their own designated work area along with finding the people to fill the department with. While it is a better option, it’s not the best option. There is one more possibility for your payroll that solves most if not all of the problems you might encounter when trying to organize your payroll.

When you outsource your company’s payroll, you get a whole team of payroll professionals working on your payroll. You don’t need to designate a work area for them, you don’t need to train them, and you don’t have to worry about them doing the job right. That last part is important because even though they are their own company that is working on your payroll, the rule remains the same. Any mistakes they make will have consequences on your company, not them. For this reason, it is best not to just outsource to any company out there. Make sure the company has a trustworthy track record like Vision H.R. Along with a free quote, we are happy to show you testimonials from other clients who actively use our services.

Payroll is a big part of a business. You shouldn’t just trust anyone with it, so let us give you a reason to trust Vision H.R. All you have to lose is a few minutes of your time when you fill out the form to request a free quote.

Payroll Professionals

Vision H.R. | The Human Resource Experts

Better Than Facebook

Sanford Payroll Company

Sometimes it seems like the best news channel in the world is Facebook. Just scroll through your timeline and you will find tons of articles on all kinds of subjects. From recent terrorist activity to the newest innovation in smartphones, you can stay up to date by simply flicking your finger across the screen a few times. Even CNN cannot fully compete with Facebook and all they do is talk about news. That’s not even counting the trending news stories on the side of the screen that helps you know the biggest things going on in the world at any given time. While it is great to be able to see all of the world news in one easy to access place, and to have them separated by pictures of cats, dogs, and baby pictures, there are some problems with Facebook being a center for news stories.

For one, there are quite a few fake news stories on Facebook that you have to look out for. Some of them are rather obvious to tell they are fake. If it has anything to do with a politician in secret meetings with Martians you can rest assure it’s fake. Sometimes though they do make a convincing story and leak it as truth. You have to be careful not to get tricked into believing one of these stories and spreading the fake news around even further. The other problem that you will run into is some of the news that is important to you might not get posted. For instance, if you own a business it’s not a typical thing to see news on payroll and human resource changes being put into effect.

There is also the problem that if any of your friends do post news articles about these things, they might get lost in the cascade of other stories and posts that your other friends put on Facebook. Don’t miss out on these important news stories because it got buried in photos of your neighbor’s cats, let someone else find these stories for you and even implement them for you. You can go on Facebook without worrying about missing an important story because you have a company searching for those stories instead.

A Sanford Payroll company stays on top of any changes in your payroll that need to be implemented, how to best implement them, and when they need to be implemented by. This makes sure you are not just aware of the changes but make them in the easiest way possible. Without someone to guide you through the changes they might seem confusing. Payroll involves a lot of numbers and you already have enough numbers to worry about with sales and other expenses. Why complicate the whole process further? Get a Sanford Payroll Company to handle it instead. They will give you the important numbers you need and take care of the rest of it for you.

So why not see what a Sanford Payroll Company can do for you by getting a free quote from Vision H.R. and see what they can do for you?

Click Here to request a free quote or contact us today at (386) 255-7070

Sanford Payroll Company

Vision H.R. | The Human Resource Experts

Preparing for the American Health Care Act

deland payroll company

If you keep up with the news, you might have seen several changes that are working on being passed around the country. One of these changes is to the American Care Act, also known as the American Health Care Act. What does this mean exactly? The basic description given on Trumpcare.org, which has information about the American Health Care Act, is to “completely repeal Obamacare (Affordable Care Act)”. While there has been no real talk on how this will affect businesses, it is still important to take notice of it. It may not talk about how it will affect jobs that offer health benefits to their employees but that doesn’t mean it won’t later on. The problem with keeping up with the changes is that healthcare isn’t always the easiest thing to understand. Especially when you have a company to run. That’s when you want to look at hiring a Deland Payroll Company.

The bigger problem however is not keeping up with any new changes that might occur. They can lead to legal consequences that can cost you even more money. It can also trickle down to causing issues for your employees that get healthcare through your company. Even if it doesn’t create any legal issues than it might still cost them money by not opening up new options that might be available. One word that floats around a lot is free market meaning more options for people with health care and prescriptions.

There are two bits of good news about this however. The first is that any changes made will take time to take effect. They usually give at least a few months to make the required changes to your health benefits for employees. The other bit of good news is that you don’t have to handle it on your own. Like we said above, you can have a Sanford Payroll Company handle your payroll, human resource management, and employee benefits, making the required changes as they occur while keeping you informed on them. While we are talking about health care, there are other changes that could be coming such as minimum wage increases that need to be watched for as well.

This isn’t too surprising of course, with each new President of the United State comes new changes. While it has been some time since the last election it takes time for changes to be made and take effect. There are also changes that come outside of the new President in government. The regulations placed on all areas of the work force are in almost constant change. As times change so must everything else. Sometimes this changes can be minor and barely worth noticing while other times they might require some noticeable changes. Talk of drastic changes to the minimum wage are in the air again and you will have to make sure you make the right changes to stay on top of them. If they are changed you need to know how long before they take effect and make sure your payroll is up to date before they do. Are you ready for these healthcare and minimum wage changes? Should they change, be ready to for the transition when you hire Deland Payroll Company Vision H.R. to handle your payroll department and employee benefits.

Deland Payroll Company

Vision H.R. | The Human Resource Experts

Health Savings Account Limits for 2018

daytona beach payroll outsourcing

With Health Savings Accounts (HSAs), individuals and businesses buy less expensive health insurance policies with high deductibles. Contributions to the accounts are made on a pre-tax basis. The money can accumulate year after year tax free, and be withdrawn tax free to pay for a variety of medical expenses such as doctor visits, prescriptions, chiropractic care and premiums for long-term-care insurance.

Participating employers can also contribute to accounts, on behalf of their employees.

Here are the 2018 limits for individual and family coverage, which were announced by the IRS in Revenue Procedure 2017-37. They are determined after the IRS applies cost-of-living adjustment rules, and the changes in the Consumer Price Index for the relevant period.

HSA Contribution Limits. The 2018 annual HSA contribution limit for individuals with self-only HDHP coverage is $3,450 (up from $3,400 for 2017), and the limit for individuals with family HDHP coverage is $6,900 (up from $6,750 for 2017).
High-Deductible Health Plan (HDHP) Minimum Required Deductibles. The 2018 minimum annual deductible for self-only HDHP coverage is $1,350 (up from $1,300 for 2017) and the minimum annual deductible for family HDHP coverage is $2,700 (up from $2,600 for 2017).
HDHP Out-of-Pocket Maximums. The 2018 maximum limit on out-of-pocket expenses (including items such as deductibles, co-payments and other amounts, but not premiums) for self-only HDHP coverage is $6,650 (up from $6,550 for 2017), and the limit for family HDHP coverage is $13,300 (up from $13,100 for 2017).

For more information about HSAs, contact your employee benefits and tax advisor.

The Benefits of an HSA

You can claim a tax deduction for contributions you, or someone other than your employer, make to your HSA even if you don’t itemize your deductions on Form 1040.
Contributions to your HSA made by your employer (including contributions made through a cafeteria plan) may be excluded from your gross income.
The contributions remain in your account until you use them.
The interest or other earnings on the assets in the account are tax free.
Distributions may be tax free if you pay qualified medical expenses.
An HSA is “portable.” It stays with you if you change employers or leave the work force.

Qualifying for an HSA

To be an eligible individual and qualify for an HSA, you must meet the following requirements:

You must be covered under a high deductible health plan (HDHP), described later, on the first day of the month.
You generally have no other health coverage except what is permitted under regulations. (Exceptions include dental, vision, long-term care, accident and specific disease insurance.)
You aren’t enrolled in Medicare.
You cannot be claimed as a dependent on another person’s tax return.

— Source: The IRS

(Source: BizActions)

What Coverage Must We Offer To Avoid ‘Play or Pay’ Liability?

Question: Our company recently grew to become an applicable large employer (ALE) under the Affordable Care Act (ACA). As the ACA remains in effect for the time being, could we get a refresher on what health care coverage must be offered to our employees?

Answer: Of course. There are two types of penalties under the employer shared responsibility provisions of Internal Revenue Code Section 4980H — also known as the ACA’s “play or pay” provision. What health coverage must be offered depends on the type of penalty.

Each penalty may be triggered if a full-time employee buys coverage on a Health Insurance Marketplace (also known as an “exchange”) and receives premium tax credits. And only an ALE may be subject to penalties. As you’re no doubt aware, an ALE is generally an employer that employed 50 or more full-time employees, including full-time equivalents, during the previous calendar year.

Distinguishing Between Penalties

Under Sec. 4980H(a), an ALE may be subject to a monthly penalty for failure to offer enough (generally, at least 95%) of its full-time employees and their dependents the opportunity to enroll in minimum essential coverage (MEC). Such coverage includes most employer-sponsored group health plans, but not excepted benefits such as limited-scope dental and vision benefits. The play-or-pay penalty is assessed based on the number of full-time employees for the month — including those that received a MEC offer.

Under Sec. 4980H(b), an ALE may be subject to a monthly penalty if it offers MEC to the required number of full-time employees (and their dependents), but the coverage offered to full-time employees doesn’t provide “minimum value” or isn’t “affordable.” This penalty is assessed only with respect to full-time employees who actually receive a premium tax credit, so the ALE’s potential exposure is much less under the Sec. 4980H(b) penalty.

A plan provides minimum value if its share of the cost of benefits is at least 60% and provides substantial coverage of inpatient hospital services and physician services. Employer-sponsored coverage is considered affordable if the employee’s cost for self-only coverage doesn’t exceed 9.5% (indexed for inflation) of the employee’s household income for the taxable year.

Defining Dependents

Notably, for purposes of a potential penalty under Sec. 4980H(b), the offer of minimum value, affordable coverage is required to be made only to eligible full-time employees. Dependents need only be offered an opportunity to enroll in MEC for purposes of avoiding both play-or-pay penalties, and such coverage needn’t provide minimum value or be affordable.

For this purpose, “dependents” means an employee’s children, as defined under Internal Revenue Code Section 152(f)(1), who are under 26 years of age. (It doesn’t include stepchildren or foster children.) An ALE isn’t required to offer any coverage to an employee’s spouse in order to avoid play-or-pay penalties.

Regarding Compliance

One interesting wrinkle to all of this is that, earlier in the year, the President signed an Executive Order saying that the play-or-pay penalties may not be enforced. Nonetheless, as of this writing at least, these provisions remain in place and employers shouldn’t consider compliance optional.

(Source: BizActions)

Maximize the Effectiveness of Your Workplace Safety Programs

“No person should ever have to be injured, become ill, or die for a paycheck,” says the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), the agency which enforces the requirement that workplaces be safe and healthful. OSHA administers the Occupational Safety and Health Act, which focuses on rules, inspection regimes, and penalties for failing to uphold those standards. But often that focus can sidetrack employers from a more fundamental perspective, that is, creating a top-down workplace culture that puts a premium on safety.

No list of safety procedures and standards can fully accomplish a “no accidents” goal without a foundational commitment to the aim of having a “safe and healthful workplace.” How can your business achieve that?

For starters, be sure you’re measuring the right things when you’re putting teeth behind your safety policy. Many employers simply pat themselves on the back and reward managers if no accidents occur within their departments over a specified period of time. But that approach can backfire. For example, it can discourage workers from reporting accidents.

More fundamentally, it doesn’t directly reward activities designed to prevent accidents; it only rewards past results — which could simply be the product of good luck. While rewarding a period of time without accidents might sound good, it fails to recognize that some accidents are inevitable. And it doesn’t necessarily prove whether a safety policy is effective. Accident rates could rise and fall without any adjustment to the underlying policies.

What to Measure

Without abandoning the retrospective look at accidents, you can supplement it with a more forward-looking approach. Specifically, you can incentivize managers and employees to come up with new ideas and procedures designed to improve safety.

Working conditions generally aren’t static, which means that new hazards can arise. Managers and workers who recognize such new safety risks and do something to minimize them in advance, should be encouraged. And they can similarly be rewarded for devising new safety measures in response to accidents that do occur.

Demonstrating Commitment

Of course while employees will respond to incentives and disincentives, they also are influenced by workplace culture. They pay attention to the priority given to safety by upper level managers. Evidence that safety is a priority for leadership includes the following:

-Adequate resources are allocated for accident prevention,

-Safety processes and improvements are regularly discussed at staff meetings,

-Management is held accountable for accident prevention efforts, and

-Annual assessments are made of the success of existing safety rules and procedures.

When employees feel comfortable communicating among themselves and with supervisors (and vice versa) about workplace-related concerns, they’ll be far more likely to flag safety-related issues. This includes unsafe behavior they have observed among their coworkers.

When criticism is offered and received gracefully with an understanding that problem-solving is the goal, proactive support on workplace safety can flourish. Immediate feedback on employee suggestions, including simple expressions of gratitude, demonstrates to employees that they are being heard. This seems to be true even if ideas are not immediately — or ever — implemented.

In addition, a formal structure to maintain ongoing communication about workplace safety issues can ensure its effectiveness. It could include quarterly or annual feedback to all employees about their accident prevention performance, and a report on the organization’s overall accident and safety track record.

Orientation Programs

No communication is complete without a safety orientation program for new employees, as well as a safety and health policy document signed by the most senior executive. Typically, such documents include a statement of the company’s commitment to maintaining a safe working environment, and a listing of the roles and responsibilities assigned various managers to uphold the company’s policy.

“Communicating the organization’s commitment to safety is as important as the company’s statement on producing quality products; both statements should be mutually supportive,” according to The Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation.

Along similar lines, making employees part of that process to enhance safety not only signals to them that their opinions are valued, but can also result in better ideas and greater employee buy-in to whatever is ultimately agreed upon.

Here are three opportunities for employee participation:

-Safety and health involvement teams,

-Accident investigations, and

-Safety and health audits.

The same principle applies to safety training. According to OSHA, “When workers have a voice about how training is developed, training programs are more accurately focused on specific workplace hazards.”

Workplace safety consultants can be helpful in ensuring compliance with OSHA regulations that may apply to particular businesses, as well as in emphasizing the need for common sense and for making safety a priority. As the saying goes, “Safety isn’t expensive, it’s priceless.”

(Source: BizActions)

Federal Minimum Wage Law Is at a Crossroads

There are calls in Washington to raise the minimum wage to as much as $15 an hour, but it hasn’t budged since

Where the Federal Rate Stands

It’s important for both business managers and employees to have a firm grasp of the minimum wage rules. Currently, the federal minimum wage for covered non-exempt employees is $7.25 an hour, the amount set in 2009. An exception exists for employees under the age of 20. They may be paid a subminimum wage of $4.25 an hour during their first 90 consecutive calendar days on the job.

The federal provisions apply to full- and part-time workers in both the private and public sectors. They’re included in the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), which also includes criteria for overtime pay, recordkeeping and child labor. Employers that must follow the guidelines are:

-Most businesses with an annual dollar volume of business of $500,000 or more,

-Certain entities regardless of annual business volume, such as hospitals, schools, higher education institutions and government agencies,

-Smaller firms engaged in interstate commerce or the production of goods for commerce (including employees in transportation or communications or who regularly use mail or telephones for interstate communications), and

-Companies and individuals employing domestic service workers such as day workers, housekeepers, chauffeurs, cooks or full‑time babysitters, as long as the worker receives at least $2,000 in 2017.

It’s important to bear in mind the following key considerations:

-FLSA doesn’t provide wage payment or collection procedures for an employee’s usual or promised wages or commissions exceeding those required by the federal law.

-The law doesn’t limit the number of hours in a day, or days in a week, an employee may be required or scheduled to work, including overtime hours, if the employee is at least 16 years old (many state minimum wage laws may cover some of these issues, such as meal or rest periods, or discharge notices).

-Employees covered by both the federal and a state minimum wage law are entitled to receive the higher amount.

Special Rules

Certain employees are exempt from FSLA’s minimum wage and overtime pay provisions, while others are exempted only from the overtime pay requirements. Because these exemptions are narrowly defined, you should check the exact terms and conditions with your local Wage and Hour Division (WHD) office.

Employees may be paid on a piece-rate basis, provided they receive at least the equivalent of the required minimum hourly wage rate and overtime pay if they work longer than 40 hours in a workweek. Employers of employees who regularly receive more than $30 a month in tips may consider those tips as part of their wages. Employers of tipped employees are required to pay only $2.13 an hour if that amount combined with the tips at least equals the federal standard.

Finally, under certificates obtained from the WHD, employers may pay less than the minimum to:

-Vocational education students,

-Full‑time students working in retail or service establishments, agriculture or higher education institutions,

-Certain computer workers, including system analysts, programmers and engineers, and

-Individuals whose earnings or productive capabilities are hindered by physical or mental disabilities.

Recent Developments in the States

While members of Congress may have been slow to act, almost half of the states have boosted their minimum wages over the past year. Beginning January 1, 2017, 19 states started providing higher amounts than they did the year before. Of this group:

-7 states automatically raised their rates based on the cost of living (Alaska, Florida, Missouri, Montana, New Jersey, Ohio and South Dakota),

-5 increased rates through ballot initiatives (Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Maine and Washington), and

-7 put into effect changes mandated by legislation passed in earlier sessions (California, Connecticut, Hawaii, Massachusetts, Michigan, New York and Vermont).

Maryland, Oregon and the District of Columbia are scheduled to raise their respective minimum wages on July 1 this year. Increases in other states are being debated or have been approved by state legislatures.

On the other hand, a relatively large number of states are still bucking the trend. Notably:

-5 states have no minimum wage laws at all, so workers in those states must continue to rely on the federal minimum wage,

-4 states have minimum wage requirements that are less than the current federal rate, and

-13 states remain in lockstep with Uncle Sam.

Note: Rates may differ among counties and cities within a state. You can find a complete rundown on the minimum wage rates for individual states here.

Consult an Expert

The basic framework for minimum wage rates is relatively simple, but the law is riddled with exceptions and special rules. Don’t make any assumptions about the status of your workers without obtaining an expert opinion.

Sidebar: Minimum Wage Already Boosted for Federal Contractors

Some workers have been benefiting from a federal minimum wage hike for a few years now.

On February 12, 2014, former President Obama signed an executive order setting a new minimum wage for federal contractors, followed by a final rule issued by the Department of Labor. The inflation-adjusted minimum federal wage requirement for federal contractors in 2017 is $10.20 an hour.

(Source: BizActions)