HR Comp & Benefit Chap 13

According to the 1993 Family and Medical Leave Act, all eligible employees are entitled to _____ of unpaid leave for stated family or medical reasons.

12 weeks per year (12 month period)

The Pension Protection Act of 2006 defines pension plans less than _____ as 'at risk' plans.

70% funded

Which of the following is a savings plan that allows employees to defer pretax income?

A 401(k) plan

What are the conditions for qualifying for the benefits of Social Security? (Check all that apply.)

A worker must work in covered employment. A worker must earn a specified amount of money for each quarter-year of coverage.

Which of the following are true of alternative work arrangements? (Check all that apply.)

Alternative work arrangements reduce direct labor costs. Alternative work arrangements allow employers to easily expand and contract the labor force in response to fluctuation in sales.

Which of the following can be attributed to the relatively modest increase in dental care costs? (Check all that apply.)

An excess supply of dentists Stringent cost control strategies

Which of the following can be used as a tax-favored retirement savings plan?

An individual retirement account

Identify the ways in which employers can reduce the costs associated with unemployment insurance. (Check all that apply.)

By auditing compliance of terminated employees with unemployment insurance (UI) requirements By having a well-designed human resource planning system By auditing pre-layoff behavior of employees Resources

True or false: Point-of-service plans do not permit individuals to see a doctor outside the network.

False

True or false: Workers are covered by unemployment insurance regardless of whether they are unemployed through faults of their own.

False

How many quarters of coverage will insure any worker for life?

Forty quarters

Which of the following is true of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA)?

It does not require that employers offer a pension plan.

Which of the following is a feature of an individual retirement account (IRA)?

It is used to store wealth accumulated in other retirement vehicles

Which of the following categories of benefits fall under Social Security? (Check all that apply.)

Old age or disability benefits Lump-sum death payments Benefits for surviving family members of a deceased worker Benefits for dependents of retired or disabled workers

Employers pay insurance premiums to the _____ in order to protect employees from the potential risks of an organization going bankrupt or failing to meet its vested pension commitments.

Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation

Identify the legal services provided by most legal insurance plans. (Check all that apply.)

Real estate matters Divorce Traffic violations Wills

Which of the following are private sources of disability income? (Check all that apply.)

Salary continuation plans Long-term disability plans

Which of the following firms is using a cost control strategy to reduce health care costs by linking incentives to healthy behaviors?

The Fitness Quo, a fitness center that charges employees $500 more in health premiums if they fail to attend their biannual health checkups

Before 1930, who was responsible for health care coverage in the United States?

The family

What is the biggest concern for individuals who receive health insurance under the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act (COBRA)?

The relatively brief qualifying period

How do companies use defined benefit plans to cut cost?

They purchase annuities with insurance companies.

How do Consumer Driven Health Plans and High Deductible Plans help cut health care costs?

They shift much of the burden of purchasing health care over to employees.

What are the goals of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA)? (Check all that apply.)

To protect the interest of approximately 100 million active participants To stimulate the growth of pension systems in which employers are not required to offer a pension plan

True or false: The use of alternative work arrangements offers a way to meet rapidly changing economic conditions.

True

The Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act (COBRA) was enacted by Congress in 1985 so that current and former employees and their spouses and dependents can avail _____.

a temporary extension of group health insurance when coverage is lost due to qualifying events

The 1993 Family and Medical Leave Act applies to _____.

all employers having 50 or more employees

directs an employer to provide a particular amount of retirement pension, which is represented as either a fixed dollar or a percentage-of-earnings amount that increases with the seniority of the employee in the organization.

defined benefit plan

Benefits that are willingly provided by employers to an employee's unmarried partner are known as

domestic partner benefits

It is important to note that for every dollar that an employee pays as his or her share of social security, there is a matching amount paid by the _____.

employer

Health care delivery through _____ enable employees to choose any health care provider.

indemnity plans

As part of a health promotion initiative, StatexPro, a business analytics company, provides a special annual travel allowance up to $500 to employees who cycle to work on a daily basis. StatexPro's initiative is an example of a cost control strategy for health care that _____.

links incentives to healthy behavior

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) of 1996 is designed to _____.

minimize an employer's ability to deny coverage for a preexisting condition

plan merges the benefits of Health Maintenance Organizations and Preferred Provider Organizations and allows individuals to select which plan to avail treatment from at the time that services are required.

point of service

Johanna, an accountant at an auditing firm, consults a doctor about a preexisting inflammatory condition of the skin. After the consultation, the doctor prescribes medication and instructs Johanna to follow the treatment regimen. The doctor also makes Johanna sign a HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) document. The HIPAA document is most likely to benefit Johanna by _____.

prohibiting discrimination against Johanna on the basis of her health-related status

Which of the following relieves an employer's liability in the event that a wound caused before employment combines with a wound caused during work to result in a disability greater than that caused by the latter alone?

second-injury funds

An important provision of the Pension Protection Act of 2006 permits employees of a publicly held company to _____.

sell any employer stock purchased through deferrals or after-tax contributions

offers a proportion of one's salary (about 60% on average) for temporary disability due to sickness or injury.

short term disability

Who pays for the majority of legal insurance premiums?

the employee

What is the purpose of the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC)?

It guarantees payment of vested benefits to employees formerly covered by terminated pension plans

What are the benefits that are given to employees under workers' compensation?

Survivor Death Benefits Medical care required to reat job- related injuries or illnesses

Defined benefit plans that resemble defined contribution plans are called

cash balance plans

The money to pay for Social Security benefits comes from _____.

contributions made by employees

Profit-sharing plans can be considered defined contribution plans if _____.

the distribution of profits to employees is delayed until retirement

In the context of vesting, which of the following conditions are included in the Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2001? (Check all that apply.)

Full vesting after three years 20 percent vesting after two years and 20 percent each year thereafter

Identify a true statement about workers' compensation.

It is a form of no-fault insurance

Which of the following cost control strategies for health care are considered to be less extreme? (Check all that apply.)

Point-of-service plans Preferred Provider Organizations Health Maintenance Organizations Consumer-directed health care plans

For workers to be covered by unemployment insurance, they must satisfy the state requirements for wages earned or time worked during a specific time period referred to as

base period

Lorenzo and Sophia, an unmarried couple, have been living together for over four years. Lorenzo's employer, a major investment bank, has been providing certain benefits to Sophia. In this scenario, the benefits received by Sophia are called _____.

domestic partner benefits

In most states, unemployment insurance is financed by _____.

employers

The extra amount of unemployment compensation paid by a company depends on its

experience rating

The unemployment benefits of an unemployed worker are paid for by the _____.

firm or firms most recently employing that currently unemployed worker

Life insurance coverage would typically be a group term insurance policy with a face value of _____.

one to two times an employee's annual salary

The dental equivalent of Health Maintenance Organizations (HMOs) and Preferred Provider Organizations (PPOs) is the

standard delivery system

Identify some of the forms of Social Security coverage in the United States.

Special Veterans Benefits Survivors insurance Retirement insurance

True or false: To discourage turnover, most companies make life insurance forfeitable when employees depart from the company.

True

The Pension Protection Act of 2006 was meant to safeguard the retirement income of employees and to _____.

transfer some responsibility for retirement savings from the employer to the employee

The length of time an employee must work for an employer before he or she is entitled to employer payments made into a pension plan is referred to as

vesting