final compensation

following occupational groups are likely to be categorized as exempt

1. administrative 2 professional 3. executive 4. computer employees - not clerical

disadvantages of flexible benefits

1. employees make bad choice and find themselves not covered for predictable employees 2. administrative burdens and expenses increase 3. adverse selection employees pick only benefits they will use, subsequent high benefits utilization increases its costs 4. flexible benefit plans are subject to nondiscrimination requirements in section 125 of the internal revenue costs

factors affecting employee choices of components of a benefits package

1. equity: fairness historically and in relationship to what others receive 2. personal needs : -age, sex, marital status,number of dependents

provisions of the 1938 Fair Labor Standards Act. FLSA provisions

1. minimum wage 2. prohibition of child labor 3. hours of work

criteria used in determining exempt status for executives regarding overtime pay provisions

1. primarily undertake management duties 2. supervise two or more employees 3. authority to hire or fire other employees 4. comensated on a salary basis at a rate no less than 455 a week - not engage in semi-routine activites

common benefits cost containment practices

1. probationary periods 2. copay 3. seeking competitive bids for benefit delivery 4. benefits limits such as caps on the maximum that can be paid

factors affecting employer choices of components of a benefits package

1. relationship to total compensation costs 2 costs relative to benefits 3 competitor offerings 4. role of benefits in - attraction -retention -motivation 5. legal requirements

methods to motivate employees to change their demand for health care

1. using intranet allowing employees access to medical information 2. co-pays 3. setting maximum benefits level 4. imposing deductibles

benefits that are mandated by state or federal legislation

1. workers compensation 2. social security 3. unemployement insurance - not a pension

popular explanations for the decline of union memberships

1. workers do not view unions as a solutions to their problems. 2. increased management resistance to unions. 3. less intensity of union organizing efforts. 4. the structure of US industry has changed. not growing industries are most heavily unionized, while declining industries are less so

the reasons that a union may increase employee benefits

Strong union worker preference for benefits

To qualify for the administrative employee exemption, which of the following tests must be met?

The employee must be compensated on a salary or fee basis at a rate not less than $455 per week.

Which of following is a legitimate reason why a compa-ratio may be less than 1?

The majority of employees may be new or recent hires

following involves periodic adjustments based typically on changes in the consumer price index?

a COLA clause

comparable worth

a policy that women performing jobs judged to be equal on some measure of inherent worth should be paid the same as men, excepting allowable difference, such as seniority, merit, production-based pay plans, and other non-sex-related factors. objective is to eliminate use of the market in setting wages for jobs held by women

equal pay act (EPA) of 1963

an amendment to the fair labor standards act of 1938 that prohibits pay differentials on jobs that are substantially equal in terms of skills, efforts, responsibilities, and working conditions, except when they are the result of bona fide seniority, merit, production-based systems, or any other job related factor other than sex

defined benefits plan

an employer agrees to provide a specific level of retirement pension, which is expressed as either a fixed dollar or a percentage-of-earnings amount that may vary (increase) with years of seniority in the company.

. Company A and Company B are in the same industry, but Company A is unionized and Company B is not. Therefore

any wage differences might or might not be attributed to the presence of the union, although the possibility exists

All of the following are major factors used to manage total labor costs

average employment level, average cash compensation, average benefits costs. not perquisites

Court decisions suggest pay differences between dissimilar jobs will not be prohibited if the differences are based upon all of the following

content of the work, value to the organization's objectives, the ability to attract employees in the external market. not traditional pay patterns

Wage adjustments in multiyear contracts may be specified in all of the following ways

cost 0f living adjustments deferred wage increases reopened clauses and spillover clause not adjustment clauses

advantages of flexible benefits

costs of benefits are contained , employee understanding of benefits increases, administrative expenses increase, employees satisfy unique needs

Most unions insist on group-based performance measures with equal payouts to members because it

cuts down on strife and internal quarrels

Which of the following would an employer be least likely to use if they sought to reduce benefit costs?

defined benefit plans

access discrimination

discrimination that focuses on the staffing and allocation decisions made by employers. it denies particular jobs, promotions, or training opportunities to qualified women or minorities. this type of discrimination is illegal under title VII of the civil rights act of 1964

unemployment insurance is usually financed by

employer taxes paid to both federal and state funds

Lilly ledbetter fair pay

employers are liable for current pay differences the occurred as a result of discrimination years in the past.

Fair labor standards act of 1938 (FLSA)

federal law governing minimum wage,overtime pay, equal pay for men and women in the same types of jobs, child labor, and record keeping requirements

A type of benefit plan that allocates a set dollar amount to employees and allows them to select benefits is

flexible benefit plan

Disparate impact

focus is on the discriminatory consequences rather than the intent to discriminate. may appear to be neutral but have a negative effect on females or minorities unless those practices can be shown to be business related

Basically a phenomenon of the union sector, two-tier wage structures differentiate pay based upon the

hiring date

top-down budgeting

is the budgetary approach that begins with an estimate from top management of the pay increase budget for the entire organization

During periods of higher unemployment, the impact of unions on general wage levels is

larger

Sarbanes-Oxley act

legislation passed in 2002 that prohibits executives from retaining bonuses or profits from selling company stock if they mislead the public about the financial health of the company

Disparate treatment

outlaws the application of different standards to different classes of employees unless the standards can be shown to be business-related

surveys show that the most highly valued benefit is

paid vacation and holidays

If San Diego has a CPI of 165 and Los Angeles has a CPI of 145, this means

prices have risen faster in San Diego since the base year than they have in LA

all of the following are examples of inherent(or embedded) controls

range min &max, broad bands, performance evalutation, compa-ratios not budgets

turnover effect

referred to as churn or slippage , recognizes the fact that when people leave an organization they typically are replaced by employees who earn a lower wage

The compa-ratio reflects the

relationship of actual salaries in each range to the midpoint of the range

benefit is a federally administered benefit program

social security - benefits are 1. lump-sum death payments 2. benefits for dependents of retired workers 3. benefits for surviving family members of deceased workers

sorting effect

the effect that pay can have on the composition of the workforce. different types of pay strategies may cause different types of people to apply to and stay with an organization

Employers seeking to avoid unionization by offering workers the wages, benefits, and working conditions won in rival unionized firms is known as

the spillover effect

changes in wages in labor markets are measured

through pay surveys

what are factors are reasons for the growth of benefits

unions, cost effectiveness of benefits (favorable tax treatment), government impetus, wage and price controls from world war 1 and the korean war

range minimums and maximums reflect the

value to the organization of the output of a job

A type of general health care plan in which health services are provided for a fixed fee at a specific site

HMO

benefits has been found to increase individual job performance in organizations?

No benefit has been found to increase productivity.

hybrid plan combining HMO and PPO benefits.

POS

represent a variation on health-care delivery in which there is a direct contractual relationship between and among employers, health-care providers, and third-party payers.

PPO