The massive appropriations and COVID-19 relief legislation that President Donald Trump signed December 27, 2020, includes provisions that extend various supplemental employment benefits until March or April, depending on the program.

The announcement of a new final rule addressing when workers can legally be classified as independent contractors emphasizes the U.S. Department of Labor’s (DOL) intent to bring clarity to the issue, but with a change in administration near, the future of the rule is up in the air.

The U.S. Department of Labor‘s (DOL) Wage and Hour Division (WHD) recently issued two opinion letters addressing when travel time and training time are considered compensable hours worked under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). Like all opinion letters, the new guidance was based exclusively on the facts of specific cases. Nevertheless, they provide helpful directives on two often-overlooked areas of compensable time.

A new final rule aimed at promoting transparency in health care will impose potentially burdensome new disclosure requirements on many group health plans.

It seemed like a great idea last spring when the federal government issued guidance providing relief from certain benefits deadlines—including those related to COBRA continuation coverage—due to the disruption caused by the COVID-19 national emergency. Then, it was assumed the emergency would end by the end of June. However, there is no clear end date in sight. Now that we are 9 months into the national emergency, it is fair to ask whether this undefined open-ended period is a good idea.

Several major cities (and one West Coast state) recently adopted predictive scheduling laws, which require employers to post work schedules more than 1 week in advance. While the Midwest region hasn’t yet seen an influx of the laws, you should pay attention because the trend is an employee-friendly response to the last-minute scheduling approach dominating industries in which customer demand is uncertain, such as restaurants and retail stores.

Employees will be able to contribute up to $2,750 to a health flexible spending account (FSA) in 2020, the same as in 2020, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) announced in Revenue Procedure 2020-45. However, changes were made to certain other benefits thresholds and limits.