Missouri and Illinois Minimum Wage Increases

Missouri

The current Missouri minimum wage of $7.05 per hour will increase to $7.25 per hour on July 24, 2009. The increase is triggered by an increase to the federal mimimun wage from $6.55 an hour to the new rate of $7.25. The Missouri rate must equal the higher federal rate.

Illinois

The Illinois minimum wage rate increases to $8.00 form $7.75 per hour effective July 1, 2009. The minimum wage rate for tipped employees increase from $4.65 to $4.80.

The increase to the federal minimum wage may also impact facilities in states other than Missouri and Illinois and employers should verify what impact, the increase to the federal minimum wage will have on their organization.

Employee Handbook

The employee handbook is an important tool used by employers to communicate to its employees the company philosophy, history, goals, work rules and policies, procedures, and benefits. The employee handbook outlines the expectation of management and serves as a reference source for employees.

The handbook assists in protecting the organization from claims of discrimination and unfair treatment. It can also assists in the area of unemployment. It can provide proof that the organization had a policy against a particular conduct that was communicated to all employees.

When developing policies for a handbook, statements should be clear and concise. Employers should to be careful in their word selection for their policies so they do not create an employment contract giving up their at will status. A disclaimer statement should be placed in the employee handbook to decrease the chances of it being viewed or interpreted as a contract.

There should always be a disclaimer in the handbook to revise policies at management's discretion. Always have an attorney review the handbook prior to issuing it to employees.

The Handbook can cover the following topics:

• Equal Employment Opportunity
• Benefits
• Time Off
• Compensation
• Progression
• Employment Guidelines
• Standards of Conduct
• Workplace Health and Safety
• Payroll and Record keeping
• Termination
• Employee Acknowledgement

You should review and update polices and handbooks to make sure you are in compliant. Things you should keep in mind when reviewing your handbook:

• Are your documents complaint with new laws
• Are they contemporary
• Do they cover emerging issues; new technologies, new protected classes
• Consider a stand alone policy on retaliation.

HR Management/ Recruitment, Retention & Training

There are a number of challenges to modern human resources management, including managing diversity, minimizing sexual harassment, proper hiring and firing just to name a few. However three factors that are most challenging because they can minimize or reduce factors like these are recruitment, retention, and training. In an era of increased competition, cost-cutting and the need for talented human resources to retain competitive advantage, more and more organizations are recognizing the importance of sound recruiting and hiring. Such competition among firms for recruiting the best and brightest job candidates means new methods of recruiting must be employed to have an advantage over other firms. Because of this, more organizations are relying on technology to help recruit employees. The use of electronic technologies such as Craigslist, Careerbuildrs, Monster, SHRM, and many other sites are no longer cost prohibitive. Such methods save recruiters from wading through paperwork, while saving the company money as compared to print advertisement in newspaper publications and other conventional methods of recruiting. Such methods also enable a firm to reach out to passive candidates as well as those actively seeking employment. However, recruiting through such technologies requires staff development to train recruiters to take advantage of electronic technologies and software to find new candidates. These types of methods are expected to increase in use in the future, and those firms that rely on traditional more costly and limited means of recruiting may not be able to remain competitive in attracting and retaining the most qualified candidates.

Paying for Employment Discrimination

For decades many employers have had to pay significant amounts of money to resolve EEO charges and lawsuits. But illegal employment discrimination continues to be expensive for employers, whether based on race, gender, age, disability, religion, or other factors. Some example of claims settled include the following:

• Target Corporation paid $95,000 to an employee with multiple sclerosis for refusing to transfer her to a vacant position because of her disability.
• The Stillwater Minnesota School District paid $1.12 million to settle age-bias claims for reducing early retirement incentives based on age.
• Verizon Communication settled a pregnancy bias case by paying $48.9 million for denying female employees leaves of absence for pregnancy and newborn care.
• Wal-Mart spent $315,000 to settle race and sexual harassment claims by five women at a Flordia store and now Wal-Mart is in the news again faced with yet another claim of workplace discrimination for women.
• Red Robin restaurant chain paid $150,000 to settle a religious discrimination suit filed by a food server fired for not concealing religious-faith tattoos.
• And the list goes on-and-on,

These examples illustrate that employers must constantly be aware of and address worker discrimination issues. As part of HR management, equal employment likely will be a major concern as more employees are added who are covered under various EEO laws and regulations and as we continue to downsize and force employees out due to economic conditions.

How do you handle layoffs, conduct terminations, perform disciplinary action, etc? It is imperative that all HR managers, staff managers and supervisors understand state laws and regulations to avoid discrimination lawsuits. All managers and supervisors should be properly trained on the current laws and regulations.