By Bryan R. Cokeley
For reasons dating back to the days of company towns and company stores, wages earned by West Virginia employees are protected by statute and rule from unauthorized deductions. Last year, however, the West Virginia Legislature addressed a subject that has been a common friction point at the end of the employer-employee relationship—employees' failure to return employer-provided property.

By Morgan K. Stippel
In Wisconsin, employment is presumed to be at will. Accordingly, you have broad discretion to modify your employees’ terms of employment, including their compensation and benefit plans. It isn’t always clear, however, when the modifications should go into effect and to which wages and benefits they should apply. Selecting the correct effective date is critical to avoid a dispute and potential litigation.

By Judith Droz Keyes, Davis Wright Tremaine LLP
Most California HR professionals are familiar with requests from employees and former employees—and their lawyers—for copies of personnel records. With few changes over the years, California law has long given employees the right to inspect and obtain copies of certain records.

By Tammy Binford, Contributing Editor
Employers in industries where tips are the norm are likely to welcome the U.S. Department of Labor’s (DOL) new proposed rule relating to tipped workers. Although the proposal, announced on October 7, 2019, just codifies current guidance from the DOL’s Wage and Hour Division, it formally does away with Obama-era guidance that sometimes limited employers’ ability to take a tip credit.

By Rachel Burke
Following Cincinnati's adoption of a similar law, Toledo recently became the latest in a small but growing list of states and municipalities that have prohibited employers from asking prospective employees about their past compensation.

By Bridget Miller, Contributing Editor
Our society is moving toward giving people what they want, when they want it. Bill payments, movies, rides, financial services, and more can all be done with apps, and most are available nearly immediately. It may come as no surprise, then, that employers are following suit by offering on-demand pay so employees have more say in when they are paid rather than sticking with a rigid pay schedule.

By Eileen Clark, Senior Vice President of Human Resources, ELAP Services
Large employers currently pay about $500 more in healthcare costs per employee than they did just a year ago—money every company would love to have back. With healthcare costs increasing yearly, many HR departments are struggling to contain healthcare spending, which has become the largest cost to many companies outside of payroll.