Working Knowledge

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has deferred the physical presence requirements associated with Employment Eligibility Verification (Form I-9) under the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA). Employers with employees taking physical proximity precautions due to COVID-19 will not be required to review the employee’s identity and employment authorization documents in the employee’s physical presence. However,…

With health and safety concerns altering the traditional recruiting process, the pandemic could ultimately be the tipping point that breaks organizations’ predisposition toward in-person hiring, whether for individual positions or at scale. For years, recruiting platforms have been using Artificial Intelligence to identify candidates, usher them through the recruiting process, conduct automated interviews and background…

Effective January 1st, the FLSA salary threshold increased to $35,568 annually, or $684 weekly. The FLSA also clarified the standards for determining exemption status. Employers are required to analyze and determine the FLSA exemption status of each position. In the case of W-2 temporary workers, the employer is determined to be the staffing agency or the…

The U.S. House of Representatives Congressional Future of Work Caucus is working to devise plans to address concerns emerging from the rapidly change nature of how work is conducted. The agenda of this 19-member committee includes the rights of gig workers, the impact of automation such as robotics and artificial intelligence in replacing traditional jobs,…

In a recent study conducted by Hiver, an email collaboration solution for teams, more than 60% of millennial respondents revealed that they feel anxious when they see unread emails in their inbox. Millennials across the globe today prefer to keep their inbox empty or near-empty – popularly known as ‘Inbox Zero.’ Respondents also indicated high…

In preparation for the Annual Meeting 2020, the World Economic Forum (WEF) released a report on the rapidly increasing population of cloud platform workers. Cloud workers rely on cloud-based business applications to do their jobs, using the browser as a central access point. According to the WEF, global spending on cloud work rose 43% in…

In early January the Department of Labor revised regulations that interpret joint employment under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). This follows on the heals of the “Final Rule” that went into effect January 1st that increases the threshold for exempt status. The Final Rule applies only to obligations to pay minimum wage and overtime and…

In January, the New Jersey legislature signed into law five new laws aimed at eliminating worker misclassification. The State reports that it has experienced a 40% increase of improper classification over the past decade. These laws, collectively referred to as the “Misclassification Package”, substantially increase the liability associated with improperly classifying employees as independent contractors.…

The Internal Revenue Service announced the launch of the Gig Economy Tax Center on its IRS.gov website to provide tax information to businesses that operate an application or website to provide services to customers. The site is intended to make it easier for taxpayers to find information about the tax implications for the companies that provide the…

The utilization of temporary help dipped slightly in 2019, reflecting a decrease of 0.5% when compared to 2018. According to the Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics (DOL/BLS), temporary help was one of only two groups reflecting an employment decline. However, utilization was not constant throughout the year, reflecting a continuous decline during the…