The Arizona minimum wage is set to increase from the current rate of $7.35 per hour to $7.65 per hour on January 1, 2012. The federal minimum wage is only $7.25 putting Arizona’s minimum wage $.40 from the federal minimum. The $.30 increase is the result of the Raise the Minimum Wage for Working Arizonans Act that was passed in 2006. This act states that when the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U) increases so does the minimum wage in Arizona. From August of 2010 to August of 2011 the CPI-U increased 3.8% which resulted in the raise in the Arizona minimum wage. Tipped employees’ wage will increase to $4.65 per hour as they can be paid at $3.00 below the minimum wage as long as the employer can establish they meet the minimum wage with combined hourly wage and tips.

All Arizona employers will need to update their Minimum Wage Poster for 2012. You can visit http://www.ica.state.az.us/ to obtain the most current poster.

read more here: http://www.myfoxdfw.com/dpp/news/weird/021511-worker-sat-dead-at-desk-for-1-day

The minimum wage is increased in seven states including Arizona, Colorado, Montana, Ohio, Oregon, Vermont and Washington State on January 1, 2011. As a consequence, employers will be required to update their minimum  wage posters to reflect the effective minimum wage rates. In addition, Florida employers are required to post the 2011 minimum wage notice even though the minimum wage will remain the same at $7.25.

NAPEO Members save 30% off the retail price with Compliance Poster Company for a variety of high-quality compliance products, including the convenient State & Federal All-On-One™ Labor Law Poster and the cost-saving, environmentally friendly Peel ‘N Post™ update solution. NAPEO members also have the option to customize your posters at no additional cost with your PEO’s logo, phone number, and website! To find out more information or to place your order today, call NAPEO’s dedicated Customer Service Representative, Darius Derakshan, at (800) 997-5545.

INC.com

By Hilary Johnson |  Nov 1, 2010

For many business owners this year, the budgeting process may grind to a halt once they hit the payroll line item.

Aside from pervasive concerns over the pace of economic growth, there’s the rising cost of health care, new health care rules and regulations, and a tax environment that’s anything but certain. Even the small business incentives recently legislated seem to many to be too little, too late.

For John Doster, chief executive of CCS Presentations-Florida, a professional audio-visual dealer in Jacksonville, the situation has indeed been paralyzing.

“It’s making all business people very uncomfortable in terms of forecasting for the next six, nine, 12 months,” he said. “Instead of doing anything, people are doing absolutely nothing.”

CCS Presentations currently has 30 employees, and north of $10 million in sales. There are definitely growth opportunities for the business, Doster said.

“We would ideally want to hire another person or two in sales and marketing,” he said. But, he added, the time isn’t right yet. “We would like to do that, but we’re not doing it until we get some clarity.”

A stubbornly high unemployment rate is proof that Doster is not alone. (On the positive side, week-to-week employment figures are starting to loosen up.)

Many companies are still intent on doing more with less. Of the 28,000 jobs added to the U.S. economy in September, the majority of the gain was temporary help. Though they are considered a leading indicator of future hiring, temp workers are like a faucet companies can turn on and off to control fixed costs. Seeing them rise can just as easily be interpreted as a sign of unease rather than hope. (more…)

Foxbusiness.com

Most small-business owners know the frustration of spending more time than they want or should
on non-revenue-generating activities. From payroll and human resource management to benefits
and compensation, entrepreneurs can spend up to 40 percent of their precious day engaged in
these necessary but time-sucking tasks.

The answer for many growing companies may be to hire one of the 700 professional employer
organizations (PEOs) in the U.S. These companies become the legal employer of your staff and
handle all the payroll, benefits and HR functions.

“Most small businesses are under 25 employees, and that means the owner is the most
productive, is critical to the success of the business, and has to get out there and generate sales
and products,” says Milan Yager, president and CEO of the National Association of Professional
Employer Organizations. When small businesses outsource non-core activities, “they can focus
on the business of their business,” says Yager. (more…)

A notice from Stacy Gabriel of GABRIEL & ASHWORTH, P.L.L.C.

www.gabrielashworth.com

The National Labor Relations Board’s (“NLRB”) Acting General Counsel recently issued a complaint challenging an employer’s termination of an employee who made negative comments about her supervisor on her Facebook page.  The employee referred to her supervisor as a mental patient and sparked additional negative remarks about the supervisor from her co-workers on her Facebook page.  The complaint alleges that the employee’s Facebook comments are “protected, concerted activity” under the National Labor Relations Act and, therefore, her termination based on these comments was unlawful.

The complaint separately challenges the employer’s blogging and internet policy, which broadly prohibits making disparaging, discriminatory or defamatory comments when discussing the Company or its employees.  According to the complaint, the policy chills employees’ exercise of their right to engage in protected concerted activity.  

The National Labor Relations Act (“NLRA”) rules relating to protected, concerted activities apply to both unionized and non-unionized employers.  A hearing on the complaint is scheduled for January 2011.  At that time, the NLRB will hopefully provide more guidance for employers on what action, if any, they can take in response to employee comments made on online social networking sites.  In the meantime, you should carefully review your policies to ensure they are not written in a way that could be viewed as chilling employees’ exercise of their NLRA rights.  Also, be very cautious before disciplining an employee for making negative comments about management or the Company.    

flatworldsolutions.com

Outsourcing is the process of delegating a company’s business process to third parties or external agencies, leveraging benefits ranging from low cost labor, improved quality to product and service innovation. When outsourcing transgresses national boundaries and is managed by companies located in other countries, outsourcing takes the form of offshoring.

A hotly debated topic with pros and cons, both outsourcing as well as offshoring have a direct impact on a company’s top and bottom line and have become key components of defining how successful enterprises are run. Given below, as reflected by companies, are the top 10 reasons to outsource:

   1. Lower operational and labor costs are among the primary reasons why companies choose to outsource. When properly executed it has a defining impact on a company’s revenue recognition and can deliver significant savings.
   2. Companies also choose to outsource or offshore so that they may continue focusing on their core business processes while delegating mundane time consuming processes to external agencies.
   3. Outsourcing and offshoring also enable companies to tap in to and leverage a global knowledge base, having access to world class capabilities.
   4. Freeing up internal resources that could be put in to effective use for other purposes is also one of the primary benefits realized when companies outsource or offshore.
   5. Many times stranded with internal resource crunches, many world class enterprises outsource to gain access to resources not available internally.
   6. Outsourcing, many a time is undertaken to save costs and provide a buffer capital fund to companies that could be leveraged in a manner that best profits the company.
   7. By delegating responsibilities to external agencies companies can wash their hands off functions that are difficult to manage and control while still realizing their benefits.
   8. Outsourcing and especially offshoring helps companies mitigate risk and is also among the primary reasons embarked upon.
   9. Outsourcing also enables companies to realize the benefits of re-engineering.
  10. Some companies also outsource to help them expand and gain access to new market areas, by taking the point of production or service delivery closer to their end users.

To summarize among the reasons to outsource, companies undertake outsourcing and offshoring for a variety of reasons depending upon their vision and purpose of the exercise. While this may vary from company to company, the fruits of labor are visible among some of the leading enterprises world wide, where in outsourcing and offshoring have become a core component of day to day business strategies.

Inc.com

That suggestions box? Ditch it in favor of savvier methods for getting workers to open up.

No employee wants to be just a faceless cog. No matter how big or small your organization is, employees who don’t feel like they have a voice can drain the oxygen out of other employees, lower productivity rates, and even cause increased turnover. Employees who feel voiceless are more likely to be a drag on the day-to-day mood around the office.

Like a good therapy session, giving workers of all levels a chance to express their thoughts on the direction of the company has the opposite effect: Show your employees you’re interested in their opinions and they’ll be more likely take a personal stake in the business. They’ll go from feeling like they’re working for the man to feeling like they’re a part of the team.

“We don’t recruit engaged employees. Engaged employees are created,” says Lisa Wojtkowiak, client relationship manager with the Opinion Research Corporation, part of Infogroup. “It’s our job to engage our employees from Day One.”

In the old days, soliciting feedback from your employees meant putting a box marked “suggestions” next to the water cooler. Now, smart companies realize that, as they become more reliant on a knowledge-based economy, they need to engage their employees on a much more detailed level.

Getting Employee Feedback: The Issues to Target

Every method of gathering employee feedback depends on what challenges you need to address as a business. Consider: Is your employee base growing or downsizing? Are you preparing for a merger or staying level?

Professionals in the industry of employee research say offering general feedback opportunities are important — open-office policies or meeting with managers — but specific targeting of issues can help guide your company through difficult times.

Common questions managers seek input on include: how engaged are my employees? How satisfied are they working for the company? What is the communication like with management? Do they have the right tools to do the job? How secure do they feel in the job? (more…)

Companies like Beachbody are using new reputation monitoring tools to scour the Internet for customer complaints.

“Unethical behavior by Beachbody…watch out!” wrote one customer on PissedConsumer.com, an online forum, in June. The customer railed against the Santa Monica, California — based maker of fitness videos, claiming that it charged for something the customer didn’t intend to order online. In the comment box, Tiana, a customer service representative from Beachbody, wrote, “I’m so sorry to hear that you had a bad experience.” She left her contact information and added, “I would be glad to assist you and help to restore your faith in our company.” (more…)

Don’t want your employees to go the way of JetBlue’s Steven Slater? Here are 10 things that could keep them happy.

It’s no coincidence that Steven Slater, the now-famous JetBlue employee, has been elevated to the status of a working person’s hero. He did what so many frustrated employees would love to do, if only they had the courage, the beers, and the inflatable slide to help them escape a less-than-pleasant office environment.

It should come as no surprise, though, that the most successful businesses are the ones that work the hardest to please their employees, and it’s up to managers to make sure they’re giving their staffs what they want to the best of their abilities. (more…)