WisEmployment.com Blog

Beginning Feb. 2, 2009 all employers must use the revised I-9 form. This form is required for all newly hired employees to verify their identity and authorization to work in the United States. The list of documents that employees can use to verify their identity and employment authorization is divided into three sections:

List A-Documents that verify both identity and employment authorization
List B-documents that verify identity only; and List C documents that verify employment authorization only.

From List A-expired documents are no longer acceptable for proof of identification or work authorization. Only unexpired documents or documents without an expiration date (such as a social security card) will be accepted.

The list of documents on the back of the Form I-9 have been revised to add the new U.S. Passport Card to List A. In addition, two other documents have been added to List.

Several now obsolete forms of the employment authorization document have been removed from the list. (Form I-688, Temporary Resident Card; Form I-688A, Employment Authorization Card; and Form I-688B, Employment Authorization Card).

Employers who do not begin using the new I-9 form by February 2, 2009 may be subject to fines. Employers will not need to complete a new form I-9 for all employees-only for new hires and re-verifications.

After Feb 9 you will be able to download the revised form on the US Citizenship and Immigration Services website.

On November 12, 2008 The city of Milwaukee published an ordinance on mandatory sick leave for employees. All Milwaukee employers must be in compliance to the ordinance by Feb. 10, 2009, 90 days after the ordinance was published.

The ordinance states that for every 30 hours worked, the employee earns 1 hour of paid sick leave to be used for a variety of things including, an employee’s or a family member’s mental or physical illness, injury or health condition or need for medical diagnosis, care or treatment of a mental or physical illness, injury or health condition or preventive medical care. Also included are abasense necessary due to domestic abuse, sexual assault, or stalking, provided the leave is to: seek medical attention for the employee or employee’s child, spouse, parent, grandparent or extended member of the family to to recover from physical or psychological injury or disability caused by the domestic or sexual violence, or obtain services from a victim services organization; or obtain psychological or other counseling; or seek relocation due to the domestic or sexual violence or stalking; or take legal action, including preparing for or participating in any civil or criminal legal proceeding related to or resulting from the domestic or sexual violence. A family member is defined by the ordinance as: a child, parent, spouse or registered domestic partner under the Milwaukee municipal code, sibling (biological, foster or adopted), spouse of a sibling grandparent, grandchild, and any other individual related by blood or affinity whose close association with the employee is the equivalent of a family relationship.

BizTimes reproter Alysha Schertz recently asked five local Milwaukee attorneys about the new mandate. For more information on the legal guidelines for Milwaukee employers, see the BizTimes website.

It is customary to think of gifts as having no tax consequences for the recipient, the Internal Revenue Code (Code) does not treat all gifts the same.

Keep the following rules of thumb in mind when giving out end of the year or holiday gifts.

• Nominal Value gifts such as a ham, turkey, gift basket or other tangible item is typically not considered wages and is not taxable. Nominal value is typically under $25.
• Gift Certificates or similar item that allows the employee to choose what they want to purchase is considered wages and is taxable.

For more information visit Littler Mendelson P.C. Employment and Labor Law Solutions Worldwide.

The new Wisconsin Employment Resource site WisEmployment.com went live on Dec 5. If you haven’t visited it already, please do so. We are adding resources to it weekly!

Within the coming days we will be re-launching WisEmployment.com,  Wisconsin’s Employment Resource website.  WisEmployment is for HR professionals, employers, and job seekers. It features articles, news, webcasts, events, white papers, templates, forms and best practices on leadership, performance management, organizational development, and benefits. The resources on the site are meant to aid both the employer and the job seeker.

Employers are already able to post free job opportunity ads at theBubbler.com (scroll to the bottom for the employment categories).  When WisEmployment goes live, these jobs will be available for job seekers on both theBubbler.com and WisEmployment.com giving your free adspace double exposure.

Along with job opportunities the site will have valuable job finding and career building resources.

Be watching for the new Wisemployment coming soon!  In the mean time employers post a free job postings at theBubbler.com!

Oct 31 marked thirtieth anniversary of the Pregnancy Discrimination Act.  What the act basically did was gave equal rights to women before during and after pregnancy.  The law does not permit employers to refuse to hire a pregnant woman or to make assumptions about their inability to carry out certain tasks.

It is a shame that even 30 years later women are still discriminated against when it comes to health care costs.  Maybe not by employers….but by the health care system.  Basically if you have female parts, your health insurance rates are 2-3 times that of a man’s.  I am the operations manager at a small company.  On our current health plan a 30 year old male employee pays roughly $115 for insurance per month.  A female employee of the same age pays $280.  Premiums are based on the group medical uses, so it isn’t because of her health.

There has been talk about forcing employers to help pay for health insurance.  It seems obvious to me that if they enforce employer paid health insurance, what you will end up with is a bunch of unemployed women.  Small to medium sized business will quickly realize that men are cheaper than women.

It doesn’t even matter if a woman can’t medically have children.  The costs are still the same.

Maybe half the cost of the pregnancy should go on the father’s health insurance.  After all…the baby is half his…

Thanks to our friends at The Benefit Companies, I recently read this article regarding the risks an employer faces with the easy accessiblity e of information available to employees.

By connecting their network to high speed access, the employer is opened up to:

• Liability for Copyright Infringement
• Harassment and Illegal Content
• Propagation of Harmful and Destructive Code
• Peer-to-peer file sharing

To read more about what to do about these implications, see the full article.