BHR 3301 Unit 7 Assessment Questions

Unit 7 Assessment Questions

#1: Address how Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) plays a role in executive benefits.

Your response must be a minimum of 200 words in length.

Every organization offers some type of benefit to all their employees upon hiring, but it’s their executives that receive the best benefits. The Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 is a plan that helps employees set up for their retirement within their organization. Executives and regular employees both have these options, but one group is a little more blessed than the other. The book states, “many executives also receive additional life insurance, exclusions from deductibles for health-related costs, and supplementary pension income exceeding the maximum limits permissible under ERISA guidelines for qualified (eligible for tax deductions) pension plans.” (Newman, Gerhart & Milkovich, 2017). To me this is wrong. If there is a limitation put out there, and you are already receiving other perks of the job, why should you be able to surpass the limitations that are exempt from other employees? If executives can have more life insurance and tax deductions, then so should the lower employees. The book also states, “ERISA and the tax code restrict employers’ ability to provide benefits for executives that are too far above those of other workers.” (Newman, Gerhart & Milkovich, 2017). So, it is okay to bend the rules, but not too much because then it isn’t fair? Why? Employers have to take a mass of their employees, a percentage, and evaluate what they are earning in their benefits to determine how far over the employee can pay the executive to be within the limitations of the ERISA. Overall, the ERISA is there for the company to have a limit to how much more benefits they can pay their executives compared to their regular employees.

Reference:

Newman, J. M., Gerhart, B., & Milkovich, G. T. (2017). Compensation (12th ed.) [VitalSource Bookshelf version]. Retrieved from https://online.vitalsource.com/#/books/9781259738104https://online.vitalsource.com/#/books/9781259738104

#2: Explain alternative rewards systems for unions and their purpose. 

Your response must be a minimum of 200 words in length.

Unionized companies started to pay their employees extra money, pay-for-performance, on top of their pay to keep the company’s productivity up. Doing so would allow the company to keep their wages the same and allow them to stay competitive with the international unionized companies. (Newman, Gerhart & Milkovich, 2017). One form of alternate award is a lump-sum award, which can be very costly to a company. This is a certain amount of money that is given to an employee on top of their benefits, pay, or bonuses, and will happen one time. This may not be the best option if the company is not in the best financial means. Another reward system is stock ownership. This is when a company rewards a certain amount of ownership percentage of the company in the form of stock. Owning part of a company can be beneficial. You can sell that portion later for more money. Also, getting lump sum rewards and partial ownership of the company you work for will give you a feeling of pride and worth with the company. This is what the reward system is all about with the union. To keep the productivity up and the wages the same, making the company remain competitive with the labor market.

Reference:

Newman, J. M., Gerhart, B., & Milkovich, G. T. (2017). Compensation (12th ed.) [VitalSource Bookshelf version]. Retrieved from https://online.vitalsource.com/#/books/9781259738104https://online.vitalsource.com/#/books/9781259738104

#3: Address the role of unions in wage and salary policies and practices. 

Your response must be a minimum of 200 words in length.

The role unions play is the greatest interest to compensation administrations when they are determining wages. (Newman, Gerhart & Milkovich, 2017). The role the unions play in compensation are laid out in the contract. (Newman, Gerhart & Milkovich, 2017). Basis of pay is outlined within the contract and has to have certain verbiages for pay and overtime. When listing pay, you have to set how many hours the employee will work within their given work day, and how much they will make for each hour they work. Also, once those hours have been worked, overtime will begin. According to the union, Overtime shall be paid to employees for work performed only after eight (8) hours on duty in any one service day or forty (40) hours in any one service week. (Newman, Gerhart & Milkovich, 2017). The union will also set the times off for federal holidays that the company will observe as paid time off. When a holiday falls on a Sunday, the holiday will be observed on the following Monday. (Newman, Gerhart & Milkovich, 2017). Unions determine many of the facets of the state and local laws governing the labor laws and workforce laws, while the company can negotiate within the legal parameters the amount they want to pay the employee as far as wages. It’s the bargaining aspect of the hiring process. Unions set the boundaries that cannot be crossed is a simple way of stating it.

Reference:

Newman, J. M., Gerhart, B., & Milkovich, G. T. (2017). Compensation (12th ed.) [VitalSource Bookshelf version]. Retrieved from https://online.vitalsource.com/#/books/9781259738104https://online.vitalsource.com/#/books/9781259738104

#4: Summarize and explain the influence that three of the following laws or regulations play in special group compensations:

Your response must be a minimum of 200 words in length.

• Davis Bacon Act of 1931
• Walsh-Healey Act of 1936
• Equal Pay Act of 1963
• Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009

The Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009 is when employers can be liable for current pay differences that are a result of discrimination that had occurred many years earlier. (Newman, Gerhart & Milkovich, 2017). This allows employees to file claims based upon their compensation based on a 180/300 day timeline of the pay check being issued and the check being of a discriminatory fashion. By changing the law to this current statute, it pressures the executives to keep doing the right thing, and proves that they can be called back into a courtroom long after they have left the company. Discrimination among executives to their employees cannot happen within an organization. The Equal Pay Act of 1963 states that a company cannot discriminate wages based on gender within the same establishment while performing the same job. (Newman, Gerhart & Milkovich, 2017). Women made ten percent less than their male counterpart while performing the same job at the same skill level with the same experience. This should never happen. Equal pay should be awarded, no matter the gender of the employee. The job position is what is being paid for, not the gender. The only differences that will come out for the same position that can effect pay will be tenure with the company, experience levels, and quality of the work being performed. Other than that, if the man and the woman are producing the same, they should be paid the same. The Davis Bacon Act of 1931 required mechanics and laborers be paid the prevailing wage for their area. (Newman, Gerhart & Milkovich, 2017). When employees are hired for a job, they must be paid for the area they were hired in. Whatever the local wages and benefits are, that is what the contract will state. The special groups need to pay attention to this so when a government agency hires off site people, they cannot just pay whatever they feel is okay. They must look into the area where the work is being conducted and look at their labor laws and go with what that area has for wage and benefit requirements.

Reference:

Newman, J. M., Gerhart, B., & Milkovich, G. T. (2017). Compensation (12th ed.) [VitalSource Bookshelf version]. Retrieved from https://online.vitalsource.com/#/books/9781259738104https://online.vitalsource.com/#/books/9781259738104