Payroll Tax Cut Extension
On December 23, 2011, President Obama signed into law The Temporary Payroll Tax Cut Continuation Act of 2011.  This Act extends the two percentage point payroll tax cut for employees, continuing the reduction of employee Social Security tax withholding rates from 6.2 percent to 4.2 percent of wages paid through February 29, 2012.  Employers are advised to implement the new payroll tax cuts no later than January 31, 2012 and to make any adjustments no later than March 31, 2012, for any Social Security tax over-withheld during January.
The Act also extended unemployment benefits and postponed cuts in Medicare reimbursement to doctors.

As of January 1, 2012, the federal minimum wage set by the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) is set at $7.25 per hour for covered non-exempt employees with some exceptions for certain types of workers.  States may, of course, enforce higher pay rates. 

In some cases, states adjust their minimum wages to account for inflation.  Below are the states whose minimum wage rates were increased as of January 1, 2012 in order to adjust for inflation: 

 Arizona $7.65 per hour
 Colorado $7.64 per hour
 Florida  $7.67 per hour
 Montana $7.65 per hour
 Ohio  $7.70 per hour
 Oregon $8.80 per hour
 Vermont $8.46 per hour
 Washington $9.04 per hour

In most everything we do, we find a “trick” to make the process easier and faster. After we develop these tricks, they become work habits in our everyday activities. Developing  everyday safety habits can keep you injury free through the year. Here are ten safety habits to live by:

Furloughs are gaining in popularity as a way to cut business costs in a down economy.  What is furlough? It is a method to moderately reduce the weekly work time of most of your workforce. It can be a good alternative to laying off employees for numerous reasons:

1. If it doesn’t go too long, many employees like it. It gives them a forced break from work, something that most of us won’t allow ourselves to do. Obviously, for those employees working paycheck to paycheck it can really hurt, however most see it as a better alternative than being let go.

One of the most negative behaviors managers can possess is poor listening skills. Unfortunately, many workplaces consist of environmental factors that support poor listening skills.  For example, most managers are constantly interrupted by telephone calls, office walk-ins, pagers and deadlines.  On a personal level, managers may be distracted with personal matters affecting their health or family.  In other cases, managers may be in a hurry to end the conversation so they may interrupt the speaker without fully hearing what the speaker is saying or may not give the speaker enough time to talk through the matter.  These situations can ultimately lead the manager to make decisions without first gathering all the facts which in turn is likely to result in the speaker feeling disrespected.