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On December 10, 2004, President Bush signed the Veterans Benefits Improvement Act of 2004 into law. The law contains two provisions that are important for employers. First, the Act amends the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act of 1994 (USERRA), which provides employment and reinstatement rights and benefits to employees who are on a qualified military leave of absence. The Act requires employers to provide employees with specific notice of their rights under USERRA. Second, the law gives employees, who are covered by USERRA, extended health insurance continuation coverage. The two new requirements take effect on March 10, 2005 for all employers who employ one or more employees.
The first major change requires employers to provide notice of the “rights, benefits, and obligations of such persons and such employers” to those eligible individuals. A new poster has just been released by the U.S. Department of Labor to meet all of the new requirements of this notice. Employers may meet the new notice requirement by displaying the poster where they customarily place other required notices for employees. We strongly recommend that employers use this poster to ensure that all required information is provided to eligible employees.
The second major change requires employers to extend the maximum period of elective employer-sponsored health insurance coverage from 18 to 24 months. This new mandate applies to ALL employers, including those employers with fewer than 20 employees who are not subject to federal COBRA requirements. The new coverage applies to all employees on qualified military service leave who elect continuation coverage on or after December 10, 2004. This will create new coordination issues between COBRA and the new USERRA requirements.
A copy of the final poster which meets all of the new notice requirements can be accessed as of March 10, 2005 at http://www.dol.gov/vets/programs/userra/poster.pdf. Visit http://www.dol.gov/vets for more details.
Milwaukee Minimum Wage to Increase Effective October 1, 2005
On Monday, February 28, Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett signed a measure to increase the city of Milwaukee’s minimum wage from $5.15 to $5.70 per hour effective October 1, 2005. The minimum wage in Milwaukee is further scheduled to increase to $6.50 per hour on October 1, 2006. Milwaukee will become the second Wisconsin city to set its minimum wage level above the state’s wage level. (The City of Madison raised its minimum wage to $5.70 per hour on January 1, 2005.) Raising the minimum wage may create other issues as well for employers who pay employees slightly above the minimum wage, but who require protective clothing, tools and equipment or uniforms to be purchased by employees for the job. No such requirement may prevent the employee from earning the mandated minimum wage “free and clear” of any of these expenses.
If you have questions concerning USERRA, required workplace posters, minimum wage or any other employment law issues, please contact our educational services department at (414)988-8400.
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