IT and high tech workers are often entitled to overtime pay and some have recovered millions in back wages recently. If you work in IT or high tech and are wondering if you are entitled to overtime pay, you should consider the key factors that drive these cases

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Overtime Pay for IT and High Tech Workers

As if the aviation industry didn’t have enough troubles at the moment, with erupting volcanoes, increasing fuel prices and a difficult financial environment, BA could be facing further planned strikes by cabin crew just in time for the World Cup. Strikes have been planned for 18 May, 22 May, 24 May, 30 May and 5 June.  Further walk outs could span a total of 20 days, including spring bank holiday and school half term holidays. Unite the Union are urging BA to open meaningful negotiations to avoid the industrial action, following a bitter dispute which has already spanned more than 12 months.

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Strikes have potential to disrupt World Cup flights

If your net income from the business is $xxx or more, you must pay self-employment tax, which is the Social Security tax for a self-employed individual. The good news is one-half of your self-employment tax is deductible from your adjusted gross income

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I own a small business. Do I need to pay Social Security tax

What doesn’t kill cities during this crisis will make them stronger. This is Richard Florida’s diagnosis in The Great Reset , which picks up where his last foray into pop economic geography, Who’s Your City

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Richard Florida’s Creative Destruction, Spatial Fix and The Great Reset

First off, I want to say that this is quite long, but it has some really interesting stuff in it. I’ve read posts from a lot of people who work for transcription companies, who work for customer services companies who have had some real problems with the HR people and unlike the real world you can’t just reach out and smack them

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More Job Finding Info

My lunch companion arrived fifteen minutes late. “My phone has begun to ring again,” he explained, “which is a good sign for the economy.” Once a big-league strategy consultant, he now has a firm that advises CEOs on how to increase the value of their companies.

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The Strategic Imperative Not to Hire Anybody

So here’s the paradox: Americans are working 10 percent fewer total hours than they did before the recession, due to layoffs and shortened workdays, but we’re producing nearly as many goods and services as we did back in the full employment days of 2007. Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke called these gains in productivity ” extraordinary ” and unforeseen at a recent Senate hearing. There’s a simple, visceral reason for the gains, Mr

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The Productivity Myth

It would take more than successful careers for Joe and Rose Glendinning of Lansing, Michigan to find joy outside their home state, reports The Detroit News . The siblings longed to return home and run their own business, looking to create a less-stressful, more relaxed lifestyle closer to family and friends.

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Emotional Ties Bring Entrepreneurs Back To Michigan

Today’s home buyer is concerned with a variety of things: good neighborhoods, good schools, employment opportunities, quality recreation – but overriding everything are the questions, “Should I buy now.  Have prices bottomed out?  Will the price be lowered later?  Should I rent?  Watchful waiting is a solution for prostate cancer…maybe it’s the solution here as well?” As a Realtor we have seen the pendulum swing from the Seller’s side of the table way over to the Buyer’s side. It wasn’t so many years ago that you’d come to Bellingham, Washington looking to purchase that home of your dreams & we’d drive down any street in Bellingham (or Whatcom County for that matter) & what we’d see were “Sale Pending” signs

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The Gambler – Do I Hold, Fold or Run?

The Court of Appeal has recently handed down an interesting decision on age discrimination relating to the relatively commonplace practice of limiting eligibility for higher pay grades to those with designated qualifications.  Could this be indirect age discrimination because employees of particular age groups are less likely to hold the qualifications needed?      West Yorkshire Police required an employee, Mr Homer, to hold a degree level qualification in order to qualify for a higher pay grade.  The employee alleged that this amounted to indirect age discrimination because he would not have time to obtain such a qualification before retirement.  The Court of Appeal disagreed, and held that the particular disadvantage to the employee flowed from the fact of his imminent retirement rather than his age. However, the Court of Appeal (as the EAT had earlier done) noted that Mr Homer had presented no factual evidence to show that those in his age group would be less likely to have a law degree, or would find it harder to meet the requirement.  If such evidence can be obtained, this would leave the door open for similar arguments to be raised in the future

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Age discrimination: requirement to hold a degree

The discretionary bonus is often the largest part of a Wall Street executive’s compensation . Typically, the base salary for senior financial executives is small compared to their discretionary compensation. This can leave financial executives in a vulnerable position if they resign or get terminated before the distribution of bonuses

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Wall Street Bonuses

NOTIFICATION NO 23/2010 – Service Tax, Dated: April 29, 2010 In exercise of the powers conferred by sub-section (1) of section 93 of the Finance Act, 1994 (32 of 1994) (hereinafter referred to as the Finance Act), the Central Government, on being satisfied that it is necessary in the public interest so to do, hereby exempts the taxable service referred to in sub-clause ( zzc ) of clause (105) of section 65 of the Finance Act, when provided in relation to Modular Employable Skill courses approved by the National Council of Vocational Training, by a Vocational Training Provider registered under the Skill Development Initiative Scheme with the Directorate General of Employment and Training, Ministry of Labour and Employment, Government of India, from the whole of the service tax leviable thereon under section 66 of the Finance Act.

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Service Tax notification No: 23/2010 dtd 29.04.2010 – Commercial training or coaching service

The proposed Changes • fresh Coffee Debt Relief Package, specifically for the small growers. As per this, for pre-2002 loans, 50 per cent of the total liability shall be waived subject to a maximum benefit of Rs.5 lakh per farmer to be borne by Government of India Direct Taxes • Considering the pressing need for more hospitals all over the country, it is proposed to include the business of a new hospital anywhere in India, with at least one hundred beds for patients, as a `specific business’ for availing the benefit of investment linked deduction

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Finance Bill passed by Lok Sabha

The forthcoming general election is set to be one of the most contested electoral battles in recent history.  Opinion polls, which are currently showing a huge leap in support for the Liberal Democrats, have only served to increase speculation that the election may return a hung parliament for the first time since 1974.

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Election 2010: what does it mean for employers?

A recent opinion letter issued by the United States Department of Labor has determined that mortgage loan officers do not fall under the Fair Labor Standard Act’s administrative exemption provision. The Department of Labor explained that an employee’s actual job duties and compensation determine exempt or nonexempt status, and not job title.

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Mortgage Loan Officers Are Not Exempt From the FLSA’s Overtime Rules

The Icelandic volcano has left tens of thousands of Britons stranded abroad, as a result many employees have failed to turn up for work leaving bosses with a dilemma!  With flights across Europe still grounded, should they be forced to pay staff who are stuck abroad? There is no case law on this but, unless the contract of employment provides for paid time off in the event of  extreme unforeseen circumstance (and in our experience that is extremely rare), the answer is probably not.  Generally, an employer only has the duty to pay an employee who is willing and able to do work; if an employee fails to turn up for work the employer is under no legal obligation to pay them.  Unless an employer has a contractual power to lay-off, any staff turning up for work should be paid, even in the event that the business is forced to close due to insufficient staff. As there is no general legal obligation to pay staff unable to get into work, employers could reduce their employees’ pay, force their employees to use their holidays or agree to pay them on the condition that they make up the lost time by working unpaid overtime at a later date.  However, taking this approach might have a negative impact on staff morale.  It is also worth remembering many staff work additional time for free during the remainder of the year, starting work early or leaving late and they may be less inclined to do so if morale is low.  For many employers the loss of morale and the administrative burden of calculating the loss of pay will outweigh the potential benefit

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Must staff be paid for days off because of the Volcano?

Yesterday the Oregon Supreme Court conclusively ruled that employers are not required to accommodate the use of medical marijuana in the workplace, ending years of doubt and confusion on this critical issue. Click here to read the Court’s opinion in Emerald Steel Fabricators, Inc. v.

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Oregon Supreme Court: Employers Are Not Required to Accommodate Medical Marijuana

Employment contracts have limited use, are often meaningless and can damage moral. Here is a quote from the Signals v. Noise blog in which the people at 37 Signals question the need for employment agreements: “The [employment] contract is about five pages

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What Are Employment Contracts Good For?

In a major set back to banks and finance companies, the U.S. Department of Labor recently held that mortgage and loan officers are entitled to overtime pay. This reverses a long standing policy that mortgage loan officers were exempt from overtime pay under the administrative employee exemption of the Fair Labor Standards Act.

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The DOL Says Loan Officers are Entitled to Overtime Pay

It has recently been reported that the Home Office has agreed to limit the information passed on to employers, as a result of the new Vetting and Barring Scheme (VBS), following concerns raised by Sunita Mason, the Governments new watchdog on criminal records. The VBS introduces stronger safeguards which will help protect children and vulnerable adults from the risk of abuse.  The Scheme requires all people working or volunteering with ‘vulnerable groups’ to be registered with the Independent Safeguarding Authority (ISA). The ISA is responsible for checking individuals’ records to ensure they are suitable to work with these groups

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Review of criminal record disclosures promised