Here’s a riddle for you: When can five minutes cost your company six figures … or more?

Answer: When those five minutes aren’t compensated for day after day.

The Department of Labor and the courts are cracking down on overtime missteps – hard. And you might be surprised what they’re determining is “compensable time.”

Take a look at two types of wage and hour violations your peers recently found themselves on the losing end of, so you can be sure your company’s compliance is up to snuff.

Company No. 1

Everyone has start-of-the-workday rituals: power up the PC, go grab that first (or third) cup of coffee, straighten the desk. But what if your company were expected to compensate employees for those behaviors?

Worse – what if those few extra minutes each day pushed certain employees into OT territory, adding the extra burden of time-and-a-half pay?

That’s precisely what happened to a Los Angeles-based insurance company with its call center staffers. Each day staffers at Farmers Insurance powered up their workstations, logged into the company phone system and launched software applications to get going.

Probably doesn’t sound much different from what many of your own employees do every day. Except that the Department of Labor (DOL) just ruled that the time to do this, which took up to 30 minutes each week – barely 5 minutes a day! – constituted a part of employees’ workdays. And that meant they had to be paid for it.

It’s one expensive lesson. The employer now owes $15 million in back wages, including overtime pay. (DOL News Release No. 11-0976-SAN )

Company No. 2

But it’s not just the feds who are gunning harder and slapping firms with hefty bills for OT missteps. Employees are dragging their employers into court, claiming certain off-the-clock tasks are truly on-the-clock compensable parts of their jobs.

One biggie: donning and doffing protective equipment. One firm was recently sued by its employees, who believed they should be paid for the time they spent putting on, taking off and sanitizing their protective gear during the workday.

A federal appeals court sided with them, ruling that the time spent on these tasks at the beginning and end of their shifts counted as “work” and should be compensated for.

Note: The time spent on these tasks before and after lunch wasn’t compensable – it counted as part of the meal break. (Cite: Perez v. Mountaire Farms)

Every minute counts

In both of these cases, mere minutes per workday landed these employers in a lot of hot water. As every penny means more than ever to employees and the feds are ratcheting up enforcement, your company needs to ensure your FLSA compliance is spot-on. Two steps:

1. Have supervisors monitor their people’s routines. Encourage particular attention to the start and end of each workday. You’re not going to pay folks for their trip to the coffee pot. But if there are daily tasks employees can’t do their job without, you may need to be paying them for it.
2. Be certain all time is being recorded. Getting popped for back pay is costly enough – recordkeeping violations carry additional fines and penalties. Tough to pay people properly when you don’t have an accurate account of all time they’ve worked!

Introducing the new OSHA Recordkeeping Advisor.

This free, interactive online tool just released by the Department of Labor (DOL) leads your company through a series of questions that will help your company understand:

• if an incident was a work-related event or exposure, and
• whether the injury or illness counts as recordable.

And while there’s a ton of help for the taking, it does come with a catch. Read on for the lowdown.

What’s included

Not only will you receive a yes/no answer for the specific illness or injury, you’ll also get references to the specific OSHA regulations that justify that particular call.

And since the type of person impacted makes a difference, the tool accounts for things like whether that person was an employee or a visitor, on or off the job.

To round it out, you get a set of FAQs defining terminology and other common sources of confusion.

The catch

Of course, you rarely get something for nothing in this world.

And while there’s no denying this is a valuable tool worth checking out, make sure supervisors and HR understand there will be something expected on your company’s end: heightened compliance.

So whether or not your company actually avails itself of this resource, you can bet the DOL won’t be accepting any excuses for noncompliance based on ignorance of the regs.

Workplace accidents cost organizations plenty already – the last thing you want to do is to add penalties and fines for recordkeeping missteps. Talk about adding insult to injury!

The feds just issued final rules to make 401(k)s and the expenses that come with them easier for employees to understand. Too bad it won’t be easier on employers to administer them … or even understand what’s expected! You have 134 pages of very specific rules to get your arms around.

And while technically companies have until Jan. 1, 2012, to comply, the number of changes required of your business will keep you busy right until that date comes around.

Your best first step: Huddle with your retirement plan service provider soon to determine how you’re going to cover these five bases:

1. General plan information. Your company is now expected to disclose general plan data, like a list of current investment options. And get ready to offer up administrative expense info, including an explanation of plan-wide expenses, such as accounting, legal or recordkeeping fees.

2. Employee-specific plan info. You’ll need to explain, too, any fees and expenses that may be charged to or deducted from individuals’ accounts based on the actions they take. For example, fees and expenses for plan loans and for processing garnishments.

3. Quarterly disclosure statements to employees. Get ready to prepare and distribute a quarterly disclosure to participants on the amount of plan-related fees and expenses you deduct from participants’ accounts.

4. An online resource for employees. While you know you can’t offer employees investment advice, you’ll need to direct them to resources where they can get more info. Specifically, the new rules require you to provide participants and beneficiaries access to a website with specific additional info about the investment options for workers who want more or more current info. (You’ll have to provide a glossary of investment terms, too, which can be online.)

5. A standard of apples-to-apples comparison for investment options. Hope you have a finance staffer that’s good with graphics! The final rules require that your company provide employees with a chart comparing their investment options (DOL offers a model for you).

Two small rays of hope

Considering that this massive to-do lists is merely the highlights of the new rules, even the Feds understand this is a tall order for any company of any size. So the DOL included two bits of relief:

• A limited transition rule. You’ll get up to 60 days after the effective date to provide employees with info that’s otherwise due to them on or before the date they can first direct investments.
• Good-faith protection. Even if your company doesn’t comply to the letter of the law, you may not be sunk. The DOL is offering protection to firms that reasonably believe the info their plan service providers give you is correct and complete. So you shouldn’t be on the hook for their mistakes.

Info: For a DOL fact sheet and sample investment chart, go here.

President Obama has announced he’s extending benefits under the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) to domestic partners caring for ill loved ones or newborns.

Think you missed a new law? There was none.

According to insiders at the Department of Labor (DOL), this latest expansion is merely a “new interpretation” of the decades-old law.

In fact, the DOL just issued a formal Administrator’s Interpretation clarifying the term “son or daughter” as far as FMLA eligibility to care for a child after birth.

The new and expanded definition of a caregiver now includes:

• unmarried partners
• stepparents
• same-sex partners, and
• grandparents.

Basically, your company’s new filter for eligibility is anyone who intends to provide day-to-day care and/or financial support now qualifies. (DOL Administrator’s Interpretation No. 2010-3)

Prepping for more requests

Of course, while you want all employees to have equal coverage, there’s no denying the FMLA is an extremely expensive and cumbersome law, especially for small businesses.

In light of this new extension, there’s no better time to make sure you can handle the absences. That means ensuring that employees are cross-trained and that all supervisors have contingency plans in place in the event staffers are out for extended periods of time.

It’s also a great idea to double check that your FMLA request policies are crystal-clear.

Info: www.dol.gov/compliance/topics/benefits-leave-FMLA.htm

Interns may be a more attractive strategy than ever this year, as most companies are running as lean as possible with their regular staffing levels.

To ensure your business and the interns on board benefit, steer clear of these intern user-errors:

Mistake #1: Companies relegate them to “go-fer” status

Sure, those filing cabinets do need to be thinned out. But that’s not the only type of work you want to tap interns for. These folks have skills: accounting, technology, etc. Encourage managers to do a little digging in the screening process so they’ll know the strengths to make the most of.

Mistake #2: Companies don’t give them the tools they need

Many times interns barely get a spot to work, much less a PC, phone extension, etc. Sends the wrong message. The same goes for training – a little orientation can go a long way towards setting this person up for success.

Mistake #3: Companies view the arrangement as short-term

Granted the college kid you hire for two months may not retire with the gold watch after 50 years with you. But it could evolve into a longer stay down the road if the fit is right.

Compliance caution

Beware: The Department of Labor has announced it’s on the warpath for companies whose unpaid internships violate wage and hour laws. And the agency thinks most do. So tread carefully. For more on the DOL and its internship rules, go here.

Make sure your finance staff is depositing employee contributions as soon as your company either receives or withholds them. The Department of Labor (DOL) just slashed the amount of time smaller businesses have to deposit that money.

Employers with plans with fewer than 100 participants will now have just seven business days to get that money in under the safe harbor period. That’s compared to the 15 days your business used to get for the task.

It seems that even with more than two weeks, many companies couldn’t make the deadline. A full 90% of plans were considered out of compliance, says DOL.

No time like the present to comply!

No choice, either. The final rule was effective the date it was published in the Federal Register: Jan. 14.

The Department of Labor has put together new model notices for the program, which extends employee eligibility for the 65% premium subsidy until Feb. 28. The assistance period’s also been extended, from nine months to 15.

For information on the new notice requirements, go here.

The projections, based largely on statistics from a national study conducted by the Monthly Labor Review in 2007, predict these 10 industries will offer the most potential in terms of jobs and salary over the next six years (also listed is the estimated annual rate of expansion):

1. Management and technical consulting services: 5.9%
2. Individual and family services: 5.7%
3. Home health care services: 4.5%
4. Securities, commodities & financial investments: 3.9%
5. Facility sevices: 3.8%
6. Residential care: 3.3%
7. Independent artists, writers, and performers: 3.3%
8. Computer systems design: 3.3%
9. Museum and historical sites: 3.1%
10. Day care services: 2.9%

It may be worth considering how you can tap into these markets or target prospects in related industries. Meanwhile, here are the 10 industries that are experiencing the most rapid decline:

1. Sewing manufacturing: -8.7%
2. Footwear manufacturing: -7.3%
3. Federal enterprises (except the USPS): -5.2%
4. Knitting apparel factories: -5.1%
5. Textile and fabrics mills: -5.0%
6. Leather and hide manufacturing: -4.9%
7. Apparel manufacturing : -4.1%
8. Tobacco manufacturing: -4.0%
9. Computer manufacturing: -4.0%
10. Iron and steel manufacturing: -3.9

The message is clear: As automated processes (and cheaper foreign labor) make it easier for companies to cut down on manpower, a lot of traditional American manufacturers are on the decline. Now may be the time to determine how your organization can adjust to those changes, and maintain (or increase) its market share.

Click here for the U.S. Department of Labor’s full list of “Industries with the fastest growing and most rapidly declining salary employment”