Pioneer Educator

The BE HEARD Act, a comprehensive bill meant to address and prevent workplace sexual harassment, was introduced in Congress on Tuesday by Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA), Rep. Katherine Clark (D-MA), Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-MA), and other co-sponsors. The bill is proposed to close gaps within federal discrimination laws, such as the Civil Rights Act of 1964, as well as to provide resources and assistance to employers in preventing workplace harassment. The proposed legislation would extend protection to workers at small businesses, independent contractors, interns, LGBTQ workers, and volunteers, who were originally excluded from the protections of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The bill also eliminates the tipped minimum wage, which perpetuates harassment within the workplace by compelling workers to endure harassment in order to pay their bills. The current federal minimum wage for tipped workers is only $2.13 an hour, instigating workers to rely on tips to make up the diffe...

For estate planning and taxation, IRS Form 1041,  U.S. Income Tax Return for Estates and Trusts , documents the income an estate earns after the estate owner passes away. It’s also used to track income before any recipients receive designated assets ( PioneerEducator ). Form 1041 is been used to account the income, deductions, gains, and losses of an estate or trust. If you are supporting clients in dealing with the estate of a deceased person, you may have to use Form 1041. Usage IRS Form 1041 For federal tax purposes, a trust or estate is treated as a separate legal entity, and the tax return can get pretty complicated. In addition to tracking gains and losses, Form 1041 is also used to report income that will be distributed to beneficiaries, income tax liability, and employment taxes on wages paid to household employees. Remember that not every estate needs to file the Form 1041, especially if it has no assets that produce income, or if the estate’s income is les...

EEO-1 Component 2 Pay Data to be Filed by September 30, 2019  On Thursday April 25, 2019, a government judge requested that the EEOC start gathering worker pay information by ethnicity, race and sex. Additionally alluded to as Component 2 of the EEO-1 report, managers are required to present their 2018 compensation and hours worked information by September 30, 2019. The respectable judge likewise requested the organization to gather a second year of pay information, giving it a decision between gathering businesses' 2017 or 2019 compensation information. By April 29, the EEOC is required to post an announcement on its site advising bosses regarding the 2018 information accommodation prerequisite, and by May 3 it will educate the judge and managers if the 2017 or 2019 compensation information will be gathered.  This judgment closes a long time of discussion and vulnerability for organizations who have been anticipating a choice on accumulation of the Component ...

OSHA Guidelines on Workplace Violence Policy and Prevention : Are you ready with a Plan ?. Current news reports of active shooter situations provide a stark reminder: employers, regardless of size or industry, must have an action plan for responding to a threatening or violent situation in the workplace. Yet, many employers do not even have a workplace violence policy, let alone anticipation or response plans. While federal law does not specifically require employers to institute a workplace violence policy or response plan, the federal Occupational Safety and Health Act’s (OSHA’s) “general duty” clause does require employers to furnish a workplace: free from recognized hazards that are causing or are likely to cause death or serious physical harm. If an company has notice of the risk of violence in the workplace like: information of prior acts of workplace violence, threats, intimidation, or other indicators of the potential for violence in the workplace, and the employer...

Excel pivot tables are very useful and powerful feature of MS Excel.  They can be used to summarize, analyze, explore and present your data. In this page, you can learn about Excel Pivot Tables, How to use them, Examples Pivot Table Reports & More. What is a Pivot Table? Excel Pivot Tables help you take a table (or list) of data and then create a report from it,  instantly . For eg. you can take a bunch of sales data and then create a report on region-wise sales performance by Product. How to Create a Pivot Table in Excel? Creating a pivot table in Excel is very simple. Just follow these steps. Arrange your data in a table like fashion. Make sure there are no blank rows. Select your data and goto Insert > Pivot from Ribbon (or press ALT+DP) Top 5 Tips on Pivot Tables You can do a lot of reporting & analysis using Pivot Tables. Keep these 5 tips in mind next time you are using Pivot Tables. Click on the links to view the tip in detail. ...

What is fair housing? The Affirmative Fair Housing Market Plan is a marketing strategy designed to attract buyers and renters of all groups (majority and minority), irrespective of their sex, handicap, familial status, etc to assisted and insured dwellings. Many state funded, insured or assisted housing programs are obligated to create and implement an AFHM plan. Find out what this means to you, and what your responsibilities are. What is an Affirmative Fair Housing Marketing (AFHM) Plan? Many federal or state funded, insured or assisted housing programs in Michigan have an obligation to create and implement an Affirmatively Fair Housing Marketing (AFHM) Plan ( Pioneer Educator ). The AFMH Plan is a marketing strategy designed to attract buyers and renters of all majority and minority groups, regardless of sex, handicap, familial status, etc. to assisted and insured rental projects and sales dwellings which are being marketed. The Plan describes initial advertising, outreach (...

On December 19, 2016, the Department of Labour’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (“OSHA”) issued a final rule amending its record keeping regulations, located at 29 C.F.R. Part 1904 ( Pioneer Educator ). The Amendment clarifies that a covered employer has an on-going obligation to create and maintain accurate records of recordable work-place injuries and illnesses. It did so in response to the decision in AKM LLC v. Secretary of Labour, 675 F.3d 752 (D.C. Cir. 2012). The Occupational Safety and Health Act (“Act”) requires covered employers to create and preserve records of certain workplace injuries and illnesses that are prescribed by the Secretary of Labour. Pursuant to this delegated authority, OSHA has issued regulations that require covered employers to record workplace injuries and illnesses on the OSHA 301 Incident Report form and on the OSHA 300 Log form, within seven days of learning of a recordable workplace injury or illness, to review the Log for accura...

Electronic onboarding enables new employees to contribute more quickly. Administrators can get a head start on the new hire process by granting new employees the ability to complete some of their own profile information and acknowledge new hire documents electronically in advance of the start date. Onboarding Surveys. Simplified. Onboarding surveys or new hire surveys, measure new employee experience and help leaders improve the onboarding and new hire process. The best onboarding programs: Help employees adjust to their new role so they can quickly deliver valuable work and thrive in their new environment. Automate or schedule feedback to collect information from new hires immediately after they pass particular orientation milestones. Give employees the ability to not only rate their experience, but to shape future processes. Tailor questions to mirror the organization’s unique onboarding and new hire processes, resulting in actionable data. Why do Onboarding surve...

For many years, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) and the Department of Labour’s Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) have collected data from certain private employers and federal contractors and subcontractors about their employees on the “Employer Information Report,” or the EEO-1 Report. The current EEO-1 Report collects annual data about the number of employees by job category and by sex and race or ethnicity. On September 29, 2016, the EEOC announced revisions to the EEO-1 Report that will require most private employers to submit employee pay data to the federal government on an annual basis. The new requirement begins with the 2017 EEO-1 reporting cycle and will be due by March 31, 2018. This paper outlines what changed in the reporting requirements, what didn’t change, and what HR professionals need to consider as the new reporting requirements are implemented. If your company has more than 100 employees or if you have a federal cont...

What is OSHA? The United States Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) is an agency of the United States Department of Labour. It was created by Congress under the Occupational Safety and Health Act on December 29, 1970. Its mission is to prevent work-related injuries, illnesses, and deaths by issuing and enforcing rules (called standards) for workplace safety and health. whether you are an employee under the jurisdiction of Federal OSHA or an employee working in an OSHA State Plan State, the basic employee rights are the same: Employees have the right to a workplace free from serious safety and health hazards. Workers’ basic rights under OSHA include: • Working conditions that do not pose a risk of serious harm. • The ability to file a confidential complaint with OSHA to have their workplace inspected ( Pioneer Educator ). • Receiving information and training about hazards, methods to prevent harm, and the OSHA standards that apply to their workplace. T...

Experiencing personal health problems ranks near the top of the list of life’s stressors. But according to the Holmes-Rahe Stress Inventory, a major change in the health of a family member isn’t far behind. Dealing with these medical issues, meanwhile, can cause complications for employees ( Pioneer Educator ). While employers generally offer workers some form of sick leave that they can use in case of their own illness, what can you do if a close family member is having health difficulties? This is the purpose behind the Family and Medical Leave Act, a federal law that was passed in 1993 to help employees balance their work responsibilities with family demands. Here are six things you need to know about this important legislation: The FMLA allows for 12 weeks of leave during a 12-month period – but the leave is unpaid.  Since this law requires employers to let their workers take time off to care for an ill family member, you might assume that the tim...