(800) 931-6557
(800) 931-6557
ASP
  • Home
  • Services
  • Recruiting
    • Recruiting Team
    • Recruiting Process
    • Recruiting FAQ
    • Resume
  • Positions
    • Current Openings
    • Recent Openings
  • Oregon
  • Washington
  • Colorado
  • About
    • Clients
    • Testimonials
    • Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
    • FAQ
    • Resources
    • Submit Resume
  • Contact
  • Payments
  • Blog
  • Home
  • Services
  • Recruiting
    • Recruiting Team
    • Recruiting Process
    • Recruiting FAQ
    • Resume
  • Positions
    • Current Openings
    • Recent Openings
  • Oregon
  • Washington
  • Colorado
  • About
    • Clients
    • Testimonials
    • Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
    • FAQ
    • Resources
    • Submit Resume
  • Contact
  • Payments
  • Blog

​In Pursuit of Profit

Read our expert article below or sign up to get articles sent to your inbox.​

4/6/2020

Comments

The Latest Oregon Law Changes that Affect Payroll

 
The Latest Oregon Law Changes that Affect Payroll
Recent changes to Oregon state law have made payroll management more complicated, requiring a broader awareness of how these changes will affect employee compensation in the coming months. Medical leave provisions, increased pregnancy protections, pay equity fixes, and retirement plan contributions have all been amended in Oregon for 2020. These legislative changes make accurate calculations and withholdings more crucial than ever before to avoid needing to pay back owed wages, delinquent taxes, and incurred penalties. ​​
Paid Family and Medical Leave

As a result of the newly passed FAMLI Equity Act, Paid Family and Medical Leave (PFML) is now in keeping with existing California and Washington law. Under the new legislation, employers in Oregon must provide 12-18 weeks of paid leave to eligible employees for:
  • A serious medical condition affecting the employee or an employee’s family member
  • The birth, foster placement, or adoption of a child
  • Safe leave related to domestic violence, assault, harassment, stalking, or intimidation

Under certain conditions eligible employees may take another four weeks of unpaid leave in top of their paid leave under the Oregon Family Leave Act (OFLA). Benefit compensation during this time is tiered based on how much the employee is making relative to the state’s average weekly wage.

Funding for PFML is achieved through employee contributions to the FAMLI Equity Act fund via payroll withholdings. While the new law does not take effect until 2023, employers will be required to begin payroll withholdings in advance of the offering.

Pregnancy Accommodations and Lactation Protections

Effective as of the first of the year, businesses with six or more employees must provide accommodations to pregnant employees or applicants. Employers must provide reasonable accommodations for known limitations related to pregnancy, childbirth, or lactation. Accommodations may include acquisition of new equipment or modification of existing equipment, more frequent breaks or longer breaks, manual labor assistance, and changes in job duties or schedules.

These accommodations should already be familiar to Oregon businesses because they are currently required to provide these types of accommodations to qualified employees with disabilities under the Americans with Disabilities Act. Previously, employers were required to provide 30-minute breaks for the expression of breastmilk, but HB 2593 removes this cap, allowing longer breaks for employees as needed.

Despite these accommodations being familiar, changing active work time, work schedules, or job assignments can affect payroll calculations for other employees as the business balances the needs of pregnant employees with operational needs. While some employees are pregnant or breastfeeding other employees will likely need to be utilized more heavily to maintain a consistent output, changing payroll calculations across the workforce, especially at smaller businesses where there are fewer overall employees.  

Pay Equity Consistency

Oregon’s pay equity changes are not new legislation, but rather a series of fixes to its existing Equal Pay Act. These fixes aim to eliminate wage differentials by requiring that employers pay like employees comparably. Employers must compensate employees at the same rate for comparable work unless a seniority system, merit system, or other factor exists to justify the difference. Paying employees differently for like work without a bona fide reason can constitute the basis for a discrimination lawsuit, providing even more incentive to eliminate payroll calculation errors due to employee misclassification or other issues.

Oregon Retirement Savings Plan

OregonSaves requires employers not offering their own retirement savings plans to make regular payroll deductions from employee wages to deposit into a state fund. While OregonSaves went into effect back in 2017, some Oregon employers still have not complied. Effective as of the first of the year, employers will be penalized $100 per year for every eligible employee that has not had a chance to participate. The ongoing financial cost associated with not staying abreast of payroll withholding requirements is another example of why businesses are choosing to outsource these functions to payroll providers.
​
If you missed any of these new requirements and need help updating your payroll procedures, please contact Todd here today! We have a team who can help!
Comments

    SUBSCRIBE:

    DOWNLOAD:

    The Ultimate New Business Formation Checklist

    DOWNLOAD:

    Accountant Evaluation

    Categories:

    All
    Accountant
    Accounting
    Accounting Systems
    Audit
    Bank Reconciliation
    Benefits
    Bookkeeper
    Bookkeeping
    Brand
    Budgeting
    Business Analysis
    Business Trends
    Cash Flow
    Change Management
    Checklist
    Closing The Books
    Colorado
    Community
    Contracts
    Controller
    Depreciation
    Ecommerce
    Economy
    Finance
    Fraud
    Government
    Hack
    Hiring
    HR
    Infographic
    Internal Controls
    IRS
    Laws
    Leadership
    Legal
    Local Economics
    Manuals
    Market Trends
    News
    Nonprofit
    Online Bookkeeping
    Oregon
    Outsource
    Payroll
    Payroll Taxes
    Planning
    Procedures
    QuickBooks
    Record Keeping
    Recruiting
    Recruiting Market Reports
    Remote Workforce
    Reporting
    Restaurants
    Risk
    Sales Tax
    Scam
    Security
    Small Business
    Social Media
    Software
    Startup
    Statistics
    Strategy
    Taxes
    Technology
    Time Management
    Washington State

    Archives:

    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    June 2015
    February 2013
    October 2012
    November 2011
    May 2011



    RSS Feed

Services

Accounting Services
Recruiting Services

​

Company

About
Oregon Team
​Washington Team
Colorado Team
Clients


Support

Contact
CC
FAQ
​Resources
​Blog
​

ASP

Your resource for accounting & recruiting services. Serving Seattle, Bellevue, Redmond, Kirkland, Portland, Beaverton, Hillsboro, Lake Oswego, Denver, Lakewood, Aurora and more.
Contact us today for a free,
no-obligation consultation:
Toll Free (800) 931-6557
WA (425) 492-1901
OR (503) 473-0122
​CO
(720) 572-8211
info@asp-nw.com
© COPYRIGHT ASP - ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 
 A CFO Selections Company
Privacy Policy