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Major Medical Plan Now Available for Small Groups
The Contractors Plan is excited to announce a new small group major medical product for contractors from 10-50 lives. The Imprint plans utilize the GWN/Cigna network, and can be paired with our existing retirement and ancillary packages. Hour banking and Total fringe are both available with this new benefit, allowing us to continue to provide seamless, integrated administration. The offerings include traditional style plans, value plans, and high deductible plans, which can be paired with HSA's or HRA's.
This composite rated small group product is now available in the following states: Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Michigan, Missouri, Mississippi, North Carolina, New Mexico, Nevada, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, and Virginia.
Online Statements
When your employees choose to receive their benefits statements online, it helps on several levels.
- Your employees receive their statements on time. E-statements are delivered more quickly than those sent by regular mail.
- The e-statement option saves postage.
- Getting statements online is a "green" solution, and saves trees and paper.
To sign up for e-statements, employees can go to www.contractorsplan.com, select the "tools" tab and click the button for receiving electronic statements. Should your employees ever need to print their statements, they can do so at any time by visiting the website as well.
The Census Isn't Just Every 10 Years
Did you know you can use your retirement plan web portal, www.contractorsplan.com to update or upload your employee census files? You may also update employee information via the contribution summary as well, including dates of termination and rehire dates. Using this option allows us to give the best service both to new hires and those employees no longer on your payroll. Accurate birthdates helps us serve those participants over 59 and over 70 most effectively. Please call our account managers at 866.457.8812 to find out more.
Government Compliance Efforts Increase on “Independent Contractor” Classification
Interdepartmental efforts on the federal level to address misclassification of employees continue to expand. Secretary of Labor Hilda L. Solis recently signed a memorandum of understanding with the Internal Revenue Service aimed to end the business practice of misclassifying employees in order to avoid providing employment protections.
Labor commissioners and other agency leaders representing seven states signed memorandums of understanding with the US DOL's Wage and Hour Division and, in some cases, its Employee Benefits Security Administration, Occupational Safety and Health Administration, Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs and Office of the Solicitor. These states include Connecticut, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Missouri, Utah and Washington. Secretary Solis also announced agreements for the Wage and Hour Division to enter into memorandums of understanding with the state labor agencies of Hawaii, Illinois and Montana, as well as with New York's attorney general.
The MOU enables the DOL to share information and coordinate law enforcement with the IRS and participating states in order to level the playing field for law-abiding employers and ensure that employees receive the protections to which they are entitled under federal and state law. The entire announcement can be seen here.
California's Stance on Independent Contractor Misclassification
Individual states are stepping up their enforcement efforts as well. If you do business in California, you should be aware that the penalties for willful misclassification of a worker as an independent contractor rather than an employee are about to increase substantially. Each violation can carry a fine between $5,000 and $25,000.
Another point to note in California's SB 459 is that liability is not limited to employers. The language states that "any person" who willfully misclassifies someone as an independent contractor can be fined. This means there is potential for a manager who misclassified a worker to be held liable and fined.
Looking at the bill more in-depth, it provides that it is unlawful for any person or employer to willfully misclassify an individual as an independent contractor or to charge that individual a fee or make any deductions from that individual's compensation that would have been prohibited were that individual not an independent contractor.
"Willful misclassification" is defined as "avoiding employee status for an individual by voluntarily and knowingly misclassifying that individual as an independent contractor." This language is somewhat ambiguous, and California's criteria for establishing whether a worker is an independent contractor rather than an employee is not cut and dried. If you have questions regarding classification of any of your workers, you should seek legal advice.
The bill calls for penalties of $5,000 to $15,000 for each violation. Every deduction or fee charged to a willfully misclassified independent contractor may result in a separate penalty. Furthermore, if a court or the California Labor Workforce Development Agency determines that the person or company has engaged in a pattern or practice of violations, the penalties increase to $10,000 - $25,000 per violation.
Employers who are found to have violated the law must post a notice prominently on their websites, if they have one, that informs all employees and the general public that they have been found to have willfully misclassified employees, and advising any worker who believes he or she is being misclassified to contact the Labor Workforce Development Agency. Employers who do not have websites must post the notice in the workplace.
Understanding the Davis-Bacon Act
Compliance with the various laws that affect government contractors is in the news now more than ever. Adam Bonsky, Executive Vice President of Government Markets for Fringe Benefit Group, recently authored an article outlining the laws and recent trends in enforcement for Construction Business Owner magazine. You can read the article here.
Making Fringe Benefit Dollars Go Further
Offering Specialty Benefits as part of your bona fide benefits strategy ensures employees and their families have important income protection while your company maximizes savings from reduced payroll taxes.
A lack of disability and life insurance can put your employees and their families at risk for serious financial hardship. Do you have employees who are part of the 11 million households who have children under 18, but not a dollar of life insurance?
The Contractors Plan makes it easy to extend a complete menu of benefits to your team. With Total Fringe you submit the total hours worked and mandated fringe dollars and we do the rest. Benefit contributions are tracked and accounted for ensuring transparency for employees and compliance for regulators.
In most cases, a full suite of dental, vision, life and disability insurance can be offered for under $1 per hour and all contributions reduce your mandated fringe benefit liability on a pre-tax basis. For example, a typical $1,500 annual maximum MetLife dental plan (preventative covered at 100%, basic restorative at 80% and major restorative at 50%), MetLife Group Term Life insurance (flat $10,000), Avesis vision coverage ($10 copay, no cost lenses and materials annually) and a $200 per week Transamerica disability benefit usually costs as little as $75 per month or $0.59 cents per hour at a 130 hour benefit eligibility.
If you're interested in offering Specialty Benefits to your employees, contact your Contractors Plan representative for more information or
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