REMOTE WORKER PITFALLS FOR EMPLOYERS - pt 1
By VICKY BROWN
If you’re anything like me, you had no idea remote working would last so long, or become such a mainstay part of business life.
And sure, we’ve done a mighty fine job of adapting. But as the new reality drags on, and people morph from just working at their home to working from a friend’s vacation home, or an air B&B, or their parent’s home in a different state, or a host of other configurations – the challenges multiply as well, and the questions for employers get more significant.
Of course, you’ve probably already been thinking about communication and how to keep everyone engaged and productive while they’re remote. But, today I’m going to give you the first of 10 areas I bet you haven’t thought of yet. By the way, it’s a good sized list, so we’ll cover the second half in next week’s episode.
When we think of remote working, we generally think of the employee working from their home or home office. But with the frequent stay at home orders, people have begun to design their quarantine environment to reflect how they would like to get through this period. That means some are forming social bubbles and quarantine pods -meaning getting a few people together and agreeing to quarantine together. As a result, vacation home rentals are becoming a really popular option. On the other hand, some people are electing to go home and work from their parent’s house; or they just want to go to a different area where the perceived risk of infection may be lower. Or maybe, they just want to be more comfy, or away from roommates, or whatever.
What does all this moving around mean for you – well, for one thing, now you have employees working in different states – and that opens up a whole new can of worms for you, as a business.
With employees in other states, you may have accidentally become a multi state employer – and that can trigger a host of issues:
WAGE AND HOUR
Different states may have different overtime rules and minimum wage levels. And this isn’t limited to overtime eligible employees – states can also set minimum wages for exempt level workers. Also, when overtime kicks in is usually defined by state laws as well. So, for instance, in New York overtime doesn’t happen until the employee has worked more than 40 hours in a week. But in California, they would be eligible for overtime after 40 hours in a week, and they would also be eligible after working 8 hours in a day. And you would also have to keep a eye on the rules around meal and rest breaks.
“With employees in other states, you may have accidentally become a multi state employer – and that can trigger a host of issues …”
PAY REQUIREMENTS
And while we’re talking about pay, some states have specific requirements around the information that ‘s required on a pay stub. For instance, New Mexico and Texas among others require a written printed pay stub, while states such as Florida don’t require a pay stub at all. California requires that all pay rates must be shown on the pay stub. And in New York, all pay stubs have to show the amount of sick leave that has been accrued by your employee.
SICK LEAVE AND OTHER TIME OFF
Sick leave is another issue that is state specific. During the last few years, states have been on a tear in establishing paid sick leave programs. Arizona, Washington DC, Maine, New Jersey, and Nevada are just some of the states with paid sick leave laws – and they’re all different! Aside from that, some states even have different laws for different cities or counties – New York, California and Illinois fall into that category. Santa Monica’s leave requirement is different from San Francisco’s, which is different from Oakland’s, which is different from San Diego’s and on and on.
And it’s not just sick leave – other types of leave may be regulated by the state as well. California offers up to 4 months of pregnancy disability leave – that is very different from Texas which as none.
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TRAINING
Moving on to training – again, many states have different anti harassment training regulations. Depending on how long your remote worker is working from a given state, they may well trigger that state’s training requirement – meaning you will have to provide training that meets the regulations and has compliant content.
BUSINESS
One of the sneakiest pitfalls of having your employee working from another state, is that that state might come knocking at your door with a notification that you are now doing business in that state and owe business taxes. I know, this is the soul crushing part – the possibility of a multi state tax burden. And believe me, it can happen so easily. An employee becomes disabled and applies for disability in the quote un quote NEW state; or you have to let them go or furlough them and they apply for unemployment in that state. The employment related and business related state agencies share information – precisely for this reason. So it can, and does, happen all the time.
So what can you do to protect yourself. Well, first of all, make sure your handbook clearly states that employees must immediately make the company aware of any change is working location – because, if you don’t know where they are, you can’t assess the possible risk. You may even want to go as far as prohibiting work from some locations without obtaining prior approval.
Next, once you know where everyone is – carefully review the laws and requirements of those other locations. You may need the help of an HR professional or attorney for this one – because you don’t want to miss anything.
Finally, adapt your processes to comply with the various regulations.
Next week, we’ll have a chat about security, insurance and other lurking pitfalls of remote work.