Latest Blog Posts
Workers' compensation covers workers whenever they are made sick, injured, or disabled on the job. They usually receive a portion of their salary plus medical costs until they are either able to return to work to their former position, or they are retrained for a new line of work, or they are moved horozontally into another line of work. Workers' compensation is no fault, meaning by claiming benefits, the injured, sick, or disabled worker holds his employer harmless in return for his workers' compensation benefits payout. The employer likewise holds the employee harmless and is not allowed to fire him or subject him to any wage offsets. One of the immediate benefits is that each party avoids court. The payment of workers' compensation benefits and receipt thereof are essentially a deal to stay out of court.
So, what is the catch? What is workers' compensation, really? It is definitely a bargain for the employer, right? In most cases an employee on workers' compensation is not getting paid his full salary as benefits. He's usually getting something like 50% of his salary while he rests up and gets better, rehabilitates or trains. By receiving benefits, the employee is basically giving up his right to recover 100% of his wages in return for something less than 100%. By staying out of court, he is being given a guarantee he gets something, because going to court could get him something between 0% and 100% recovery. He's entitled to 100%, but in some cases, it may be worth it to take a guaranteed 50%. You just never know. There are many variables. Plus, in some cases, the worker may be the cause of his own work related injuries, in which case, taking a workers' compensation payout of 50% in return for his employer guaranteeing not to sue him and letting him keep his job is a good thing. But, say the employer is at fault and the employee loses a limb. In this case, taking workers' compensation is probably not the route to a full recovery. So is workers' compensation a scam? Every work related illness or injury is different. In some cases yes, in some cases no.
You may have just recieved your paycheck, and it is almost 50% short. You run directly to the Payroll Department to see what the problem might be, it had to, after all, be a terrible and gross error. It must be because they laid off the lady who knew what she was doing and replaced her with someone that didn't. The bad news is you discover your wages have been garnished. Your first question is what is a wage garnishment? What? Me? I had a lawsuit or judgment against me and now my company is involved? This is crazy! What has the world come to? Unfortunately, if you have a judgment against you, collection of it can turn into a garnishment of your wages, and in many cases there is absolutely nothing you can do.
The only good news is that there are some Federal and state laws that protect you from too severe of wage garnishment. The bad news is that the protection isn't so great. The Consumer Credit Protection Act protects you from being garnished more than 25% for ordinary debts, unless you are making a ton of money, but you can be on the hook for more than 50% for things like tax bills, bankruptcy obligations, or child support. There is sometimes nothing you can do but try to live off a smaller paycheck, but in some cases you'll end up losing your house. In any event, there are three places to go for help in most cases. They are your HR department, your state Department of Labor, or an attorney. Sometimes you can appeal a garnishment based on how it was calculated, and sometimes you can be involved in the actual calculations. Depending on your jurisdiction, some courts may be willing to lower your garnishment obligation based on hardship. You basically argue to the court that your debt will never be paid because if you take such a cut in pay as a result of your garnishment you won't be able to afford living in your area and working your job.
Where do I start? I think I start back when I was happiest. Remember when you had to be home to receive a phone call? The phone was on a cord and because you had to stand there and talk, the conversation was usually short and sweet, you said what you had to say, and you hung up and went back to your orderly life. If you were out and about, there were no distractions. No texts, no calls, no last minute changes in plans. There it goes, that BEEP BEEP! BUZZ BUZZ! Or maybe you have a ringtone of Johnny Cash's Ball and Chain. That would be an appropriate one for a cell phone. Isn't that the worst part of having an iPhone, or any mobile phone for that matter? You can never just escape being plugged in, run by the machine. Remember the movie The Matrix? I think that happened just a few years after HDMI on TV became the standard in households around the world. It is just too much trouble! I want to be my own man! I don't want to be run by a bunch of gagets! Whatever happened to a good old fashioned nature hike? Now if you go on a nature hike, a bunch of people are standing around talking on their cell phones, or they are so busy taking pictures of the nature around them that they don't even stop to enjoy the real, live nature around them until after they get home and look at the pictures they took with their iPhones. Then the real life nature experience is gone. What does this rant have to do with HDMI TV? Ok, let me explain.
Getting hooked into HDMI TV is like becoming one of the guys plugged into the Matrix and you are just dreaming you are having a life, but the reality is you are being run by a machine. First you have to buy the HDMI TV. That's what? $2500? Then the Blue Ray Player? $250? Then HDMI cable? $140 per month? That is a lot of money, plus, once you have it all up and running, you just sit there and watch the clear picture and hear the crystal clear sound. That's nice, but you are just sitting there, granted it is like you are really there but not really. Do you get my point? I know I'm scatter brained today. Hold on a second. My cell phone is buzzing. Gotta get this.
Before you sign an employment contract always check out the employee handbook because if there is anything not clearly set forth in your contract but it is in the employee handbook, you are stuck with what is in the employee handbook. You might think you naturally get a whole month paid vacation off every year because you are a manager or director and that's just expected. Not so fast. If you don't have vacation days in your contract and the employee handbook says you only get 10 paid days a year, you are not getting the month of vacation you are expecting. You are getting 10 days. And these days it seems no one in any company believes in work-life balance. It isn't productivity driven by an invigorated and happy employee that matters. They want to see sad faces pointed down in little cubicles. Not you! You are going to be happy because you made sure to get your Vacation included in your employment contract!
If you are a small business you might not know it but you might not have the legal right to name your products whatever you want. Someone else might have a trademark on your name already so you can't use it. You can get into trouble. Here is an article about getting a trademark, or a registered mark, and it talks about how a lawyer trademarked the brush gripper for his client a while back. First you have to search the government's trademark list and then you can apply for a trademark if it isn't taken. At least if you find the name you want is used, you can pick another one that's free and start using it. File your application and while you are waiting to get your registration number and be official, be sure to put a "TM" at the end of your product name whenever you use it.
