The book is a comprehensive handbook that provides all the information you need to ensure that compensation systems are equitable, auditable, internally consistent, and externally compliant with equal employment opportunity laws and regulations.

Technical information—both legal and statistical—in common-sense terms. The non-technical breakdown of complex statistical concepts distills just as much as practitioners need to know in order to effectively deploy and interpret the standard applications of statistical analysis to internal pay equity. The focus throughout the book is on real-world application, current examples, and up-to-the-minute information on recent and pending wrinkles in the evolving legal landscape.

Key topics covered in the book include:

• Why internal equity in compensation matters
• How to detect intentional and non-intentional discrimination in compensation
• The basics of statistical inference and multiple regression analysis
• The essentials of data availability, measurability, and collection
• The criteria for assessing compensation systems for internal equity
• How to investigate potential problems and react to formal complaints and actions
• How to avoid litigation and put in place ongoing measures for proactive self-auditing

You can get the details and order a copy at Amazon.

For some of us, weekends are the only time we have to get our chores done. This is especially true for those with long commutes to work. Most people commute to work, but some travel farther than others. In his post entitled New Census Data on Commuters, Phil Miles reviews a new Census Bureau survey about commuters. According to the data, 8.1% of US workers have commutes of 60 minutes or longer. Nearly 600,000 full-time workers had “megacommutes” of at least 90 minutes and 50 miles.

When I was commuting by train, I loved looking out the window and seeing the landscape becoming greener by the day. I would try and identify as many plants as I could. When I spotted  N. pseudonarcissus (wild daffodils) and S. canadensis (bloodroot), I knew spring was here. While you may not remember the scientific names for spring flowers, you should take the time to learn the names of your employees. In his post entitled Knowing Your Employees Is More Important Than You Think, Michael Haberman talks about why you should take the time to get to know your employees beyond their company existence. He frames it in terms of union avoidance, but it’s good advice for all employers, irrespective of organizing efforts.

As a child, I often engaged in the spring ritual of counting robins. These days, it seems there are more new employment laws than spring robin sightings. Ari Rosenstein writes about changes to California law regarding employees’ rights in accessing their personnel records, fixed salaries and overtime, and social media. You can read about the details in his post entitled California Employment Law: 3 New Laws for 2013. Robert Fitzpatrick writes about Recent Legislative and Regulatory Developments Regarding Non-Competes. His post summarizes six of the most significant developments during the last year. In her post entitled Council Passes Paid Sick Leave Bill, Crystal Spraggins writes about a new law in the City of Philadelphia requiring paid sick leave for all full-time and part-time employees. John Fullerton writes about an “important seal of approval” for mandatory class action waivers in the financial services industry. In his post FINRA Decision Permits Class Action Waivers, he outlines reasons why now may be the time for firms to consider class action waivers in their arbitration agreements with both customers and employees. If you find yourself in litigation, Eric Meyer draws on the film Point Break to illustrate the confidentiality of settlement offers in his post 100% Pure Settlement Offer? If Not, It May Be ADMISSABLE… AT… TRIAL!

After all of these updates, you may be longing for the simpler days of just counting robins. Mario Bordogna misses the simpler days before the headaches created by technology in the workplace. In his post entitled How the Need for a BYOD Policy Can Make Human Resources Begin to Yearn for the Olden Days, he talks about the pros and cons of a BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) policy, and offers some key points employers should consider when deciding whether this kind of policy is right for them. Technology also means that every one of the NCAA basketball tournament games will be available live online. In his post entitled Stop The Madness, Mark Toth outlines three approaches for dealing with March Madness. He has some great recommendations on how employers can minimize productivity and IT problems and embrace the madness!

Technology lets us stay connected no matter where we are. We can be outside, perhaps at a union protest, and still check our Twitter feed and post Facebook updates. One employee who was protesting a new work schedule was terminated for ”engaging in activity constituting or appearing to constitute a conflict with the interest of the company.” In his post Chrysler Terminates Employee for Conflict with the Interest of the Company, John Holmquist discusses this termination, and warns that in light of recent NLRB activity, employers should review their employee conduct policies.

If outdoor union protests aren’t your thing,  you can still enjoy the spring weather by opening the windows and doors. You may even spot some ladybugs on your screens! Just be careful they aren’t peering in, stealing your login information, and turning it over to current and prospective employers… Jon Hyman wants to know Are Employers Really Asking for Social Media Logins and Passwords? He’s conducting a survey to learn whether employers are insisting on social medial logins and passwords, or if it’s just a bunch of hype by news media and special interest groups. There are some situations, however, where employers can access this social media information legally. Heather Bussing outlines How Employers Can Still See Employee Social Media Accounts in situations of investigations, employer-provided devices, and employer policies.

Also this spring, the FMLA celebrates its 20th anniversary. To mark this milestone, the Department of Labor recently conducted a study on how FMLA has impacted employers, workers and their families. Compensation Cafe has a review of the key findings of this survey in a post entitled 20 Years Later, Is FMLA Working? Based on the results of this survey, the DOL concludes that “it appears that employee use of leave and employers granting and administration of leave has achieved a level of stability.” But even after 20 years, FMLA still poses challenges for employers, and the application of FMLA is still being litigated. Randy Enochs talks about FMLA interference, FMLA retaliation and failure to accommodate under the ADA in his post entitled  7th Circuit Holds Light Duty is NOT a Right Employee Can Assert Under FMLA. The upshot is that FMLA is not always as simple as it may seem.

If you submitted a link for the carnival and do not see your entry here, that is likely my error. Please send me your submission again and I will add it. 

In this week’s episode of The Proactive Employer, we’ll be talking with Les Rosen about the top 10 trends and best practices for 2013 when it comes to background checks and safe hiring. We discuss the use of social networking sites, the EEOC approach to the use of criminal records and credit reports, international background screening, resume fraud, dealing with temporary workers, privacy and off shoring of personal data, and tools to protect against workplace violence. We wrap up the conversation with some legally compliant best practices to keep businesses productive and out of court, as well as steps businesses can take immediately to avoid a bad hire.

This show will air live on Thursday, February 7th at 3 PM Eastern / 12 Noon Pacific on BlogTalkRadio.

Tweet your questions using the hashtag #TPESHOW or call in at 1-888-553-6673 to talk to our guests. The show will be available for on-demand listening at The Proactive Employer website, on BlogTalkRadio and via iTunes following the broadcast.

Isabel Perez, who had been employed in HR for 15 years at the time she accepted a position as HR Director for Ashley Furniture Home Store, is married to a woman and claims that her manger fired her based on her sexual orientation stating that God told her to after she noticed a sticker in support of gay rights on Perez’s vehicle.

Surprisingly, in many states, it is legal to fire someone for being gay. However, in Perez’s favor, New Jersey is not one of them and she has decided to file suit.

Perez, who began working for Ashley in 2011, states that even in her first interviews she suspected that her sexual orientation could pose an issue. During the interview process, she apparently was questioned about the ring on her finger and inquiries were made about her view of hiring gays and African Americans.

At the time, Perez openly voiced her beliefs regarding equal employment but dodged questions regarding her marriage. While she admits, “It was uncomfortable,” she says. “As a human resources person, you think, ‘I’ll be able to change the culture…this is a point I could bring up later and discuss.’”

Perez was not successful in changing the culture and attitudes within the company and in her extremely short tenure was given gender and race specifications for job openings. She claims to have been directed by executives to hire only women or white people for certain jobs and to avoid hiring gays or lesbians.

Immediately objecting to the stipulations, she was told that maybe she didn’t fit in. In what may have been the final straw, Perez was warned, “you won’t last here,” by an employee processing her human resources paperwork which indicated that she had a female partner.

Not long after that, the chain’s director of People Services and Development, Kathy Martin, spotted a Human Rights Campaign sticker on Perez’s car, and questioned Perez about it. During the conversation, Martin stated that she needed to speak to God about the matter.

The following day, just two weeks into her employment, Perez was fired and told by Martin in a meeting between the two and a sales manager that God had spoken to Martin and that while the termination was not performance related and that Martin believed Perez could “easily manage the entire department,” she just didn’t “fit the culture” and that her “beliefs just don’t fit.”

“I had just given up everything to join an organization, thinking I could change the culture,” says Perez, who believes that she was retaliated against for standing up to discriminatory comments and standing up for her own sexual orientation.

Perez has acquired a new sense of purpose through her ordeal. In addition to filing suit in New Jersey, where it is illegal for private employers to terminate an employee solely on their sexual orientation regardless of the employer’s beliefs, she plans to bring awareness to the fact that there are no federal laws protecting gay, bisexual, and transgender Americans. She adds, “I have to make a difference within the human resources community.”

If you are one of the estimated 40% of American workers who have no paid sick days, it’s likely that you will dose up on some over the counter medication and head to work.

Under current U.S. labor law, employers are not required to provide short-term paid sick days or longer-term paid sick leave causing tens of millions of workers to go without paid sick time. Millions of workers each year go to work sick resulting in decreased productivity and increased risk of spreading germs and illness to co-workers, clients and customers.

As the number of flu cases increases, so does the debate surrounding paid sick leave. While we can probably all agree that if you’re sick the best place for you is at home resting, getting well and keeping your germs to yourself. But for many, their financial situation and workplace policies dictate otherwise.

For Diana Zavala, a school speech therapist working as an independent contractor, missing work was not an option even though she was feeling miserable and fearful she had caught the flu. As she puts it, not having paid sick time creates “a balancing act” between physical health and financial well-being.

According to Connecticut Representative Rosa DeLauro and Iowa Senator Tom Harkin, who are calling on colleagues in the House and Senate to cosponsor the Healthy Families Act (HFA), it doesn’t have to be this way. DeLauro, who initially introduced the plan with Senator Edward M. Kennedy back in 2004, plans to reintroduce HFA with Harkin in mid-February.

Under the HFA, workers would be eligible to earn up to 1 hour of paid sick time for each 30 hours worked, up to 7 days of leave.

But many employers and small business owners, while sympathetic to their employees’ situations, find themselves in the midst of their own financial struggles and say requiring them to pay employees for sick days would impose an unrealistic and impractical burden.

It’s a tough call: assist employees at the cost of the company or vice-versa? We mustn’t forget the other important dynamic that needs to be taken into consideration: the well-being of customers and clients.

While paying a sick employee for the day off might not be the best financial option for your business, neither is losing customers because your barista is making the morning lattes while hacking with a cough, a sneezing waitress is delivering lunch to the table or a feverish executive is spreading more germs than ideas around the conference table.

It will be interesting to see what, if any, compromises can be made to protect the interests of all involved: employers, employees and consumers.

In this video, Chai Feldblum, Dan Vale, and Melissa Brand present a brown-bag seminar on transgender discrimination.

Take a look at the video, and be sure to join us this afternoon at 3PM Eastern for The Proactive Employer Radio Show - we’ll be talking with Timothy Long and Lauri Damrell about the various types and forms of gender discrimination.

Paying Employees Fairly: Examining Compensation Systems for Internal Pay Equity

Friday, March 15 from 1:00 to 2:30 PM Eastern

The last three years have brought major changes in the legal and regulatory environment regarding compensation discrimination, and there are even more changes on the horizon. These changes affect the policies and procedures employers need to have in place to combat pay discrimination. The compensation review is a valuable tool in the employer’s risk management arsenal, yet few organziations put this tool to use. Employers can no longer afford to ignore this important tool.

In this webinar, we discuss how employers can manage the risk of pay discrimination claims by conducting a compensation review. Each stage of the compensation review is discussed, from the planning stage through the application of analysis inferences to business processes. Common pitfalls and data issues are discussed, and the importance of proper grouping of employees for comparison purposes is emphasized. Concrete examples drawn from real-life situations are used to illustrate each step in the review process and to highlight the effects of common pitfalls.

Areas covered inlude:

• Recent changes in compensation discrimination laws and regulations;
• Compensation challenges presented by the evolving legal and regulatory environment;
• How a compensation review can assist in mitigating the risk of a compenstion discrimination lawsuit;
• Successfully planning the compensation review project;
• Types of compensation that can be examined by a review;
• Construction of similarly situated employee groupings;
• Identification of the determinants of compensation;
• Pay data collection, assembly and cleaning;
• Common compensation data pitfalls;
• The use of multiple regression analysis to examine compensation for internal equity;
• Evaluation of analysis results in terms of statistical significance, practical significance, sample size and explanatory power of the model;
• Follow up investigations of potential problem areas identified in the analysis;
• Making adjustments to compensation based on analysis results;
• The importance of compensation decision documentation.

This program has been submitted to the HR Certification Institute for review.

About Your Presenter: Stephanie R. Thomas, Ph.D., is the CEO of Thomas Econometrics Inc. She is a noted authority on compensation gender equity and the quantitative analysis of discrimination. Dr. Thomas provides consulting services to Fortune 500 companies, major law firms, and government agencies such as the Department of Justice and the FBI. She has testified as an economic and statistical expert on questions of discrimination in employment decisions in federal and state courts throughout the United States.

In this week’s episode of The Proactive Employer, we speak with Timothy Long and Lauri Damrell  about gender discrimination. We’ll discuss why gender discrimination is a family issue, not just a women’s issue. We’ll talk about the growing popularity of multi-million dollar gender discrimination suits and the trends in gender discrimination investigations from regulatory agencies. We’ll discuss specific vulnerabilities for employers in the areas of pay, promotion and pregnancy discrimination, and provide some practical suggestions for employers on how to avoid gender discrimination lawsuits, and what to do should an employer find itself involved in complex gender discrimination litigation.

This show will air on Thursday, January 24th at 3 PM Eastern / 12 Noon Pacific on BlogTalkRadio.

The show will be available for on-demand listening at The Proactive Employer website, on BlogTalkRadio and via iTunes following the broadcast.

For those employed in the teaching profession, there is usually a student here or there that knows how to push your buttons and “make your blood pressure soar.”

But for one longtime high school teacher, her rare phobia causes a fear of young children and literally creates physical symptoms such as a dangerous spike in blood pressure and she has taken legal action against school district administration for alleged discrimination.

Maria Waltherr-Willard had been teaching Spanish and French at Mariemont High School in Cincinnati for more than three decades when she was transferred to the district’s middle school in 2009. According to Waltherr-Willard, the seventh and eighth grade students she was forced to work with triggered her phobia compelling her to retire in the middle of the 2010-2011 school year.

She is suing the school district contending that her condition, pedophobia: fear or anxiety around young children, falls under the Americans with Disabilities Act and that the district violated the ADA by transferring her, refusing to allow her return to teaching at the high school level and pressuring her to resign.

School district attorney, Gary Winters, states that she was transferred because the French program was being converted to an online learning program and that the middle school was in need of a Spanish teacher.

But, Walter-Willard believes her transfer was based, at least partially, upon retaliation for comments made to parents and her assistance in fighting the district’s decision to cut French classes in favor of the online course. Her attorney, Bradford Weber, in a July 2011 letter to the EEOC, stated that her transfer was, “the beginning of a deliberate, systematic and calculated effort to squeeze her out of a job.”

Waltherr-Willard, who has no children of her own, has supposedly suffered from the phobia since the 1990s and claims that Mariemont had been sympathetic of her diagnosis and had made previous assurances to her and her lawyer that she would not be required to teach young children.

In addition to being treated for the phobia, the lawsuit states that she also suffers from generalized anxiety disorder, high blood pressure and a gastrointestinal illness: conditions she was apparently managing well prior to her transfer.

Documents filed on her behalf from her medical doctor, psychiatrists and psychologists state that when she is around young children she experiences extreme stress and anxiety with chest pain, vomiting, nightmares and dangerously high blood pressure.

Her doctor said that at times, after the transfer, her blood pressure was so high it posed a stroke risk. Aside from physical symptoms, her doctor has also noted that “the mental anguish suffered is serious and of a nature that no reasonable person could be expected to endure.”

Walter-Willard is seeking past and future pay, compensatory damages, punitive damages and attorney’s fees. Winters, denying her claims, says that her motivation is merely financial. She just wants money. He adds that, “our goal here is to provide the best teachers for students and the best academic experience for students, which certainly wasn’t accomplished by her walking out on them in the middle of the year.”

A federal judge recently dismissed three of the six claims in her suit stating that the school district lived up to its written contract – with the teachers union – and had she not willfully retired, Waltherr-Willard would still be employed.

No ruling was made on the other allegations, awaiting district response and a tentative trial date is scheduled for February 2014.

As the first Latina to lead a federal agency, Solis leaves her four-year tenure with the Obama administration to, “begin a new future” and return to her roots and the people and places she loves in California.

Solis believes she has much to be proud of as she prepares to step down. “Growing up in a large Mexican-American family in La Puente, California, I never imagined that I would have the opportunity to serve in a president’s Cabinet, let alone in the service of such an incredible leader,” she says.
In response to her resignation announcement, President Obama issued a brief statement wishing her well and praising her service. Calling her a “tireless champion for working families,” Obama stated that Secretary Solis has “been a critical member over my economic team as we have worked to recover from the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression and strengthen the economy for the middle class.”

He added that her efforts have helped train workers for the jobs of the future, protect workers’ health and safety and put millions of Americans back to work.  He said, “I am grateful to Secretary Solis for her steadfast commitment and service not only to the Administration, but on behalf of the American people.”

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka credits Solis with bringing “urgently needed change to the Department of Labor, putting the U.S. government firmly on the side of working families.” He notes that under her direction, “the Labor Department became a place of safety and support for workers,” and that Solis “never lost sight of her own working-class roots,” always putting the values of working families at the center of all she did.

He has urged the president to pick a successor who, as he points out, “will continue to be a powerful voice both within the Obama administration and across the country for all of America’s workers.”
Although no specific date has been mentioned, Labor Department officials expect Solis’ departure to be around the time of the inauguration later this month. While talk of her replacement is mere speculation at this point, Solis’ resignation could intensify pressure on the White House to consider diversity in its Cabinet appointments.

According to Solis, “Leaving the department is one of the most difficult decisions I have ever made, because I have taken our mission to heart. As the daughter of parents who worked in factories, paid their union dues and achieved their goal of a middle class life, and as the first Latina to head a major federal agency, it has been an incredible honor to serve.”