Recently in Employment Issues Category

Memorial Day is a time to remember those who served. It's also a good time to remember your duty, as an employer, to employees who currently serve in our armed forces.

Under the federal Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act (USERRA), which applies to all employers, business owners can't discriminate against employees in hiring, retention, promotion or employment benefits based on past, present or future membership in the armed services (or other "uniformed services"). At its core, USERRA is a military leave law.

Here are five USERRA military leave laws every employer should know:

Can you legally fire an employee just for looking for another job?

This commonly occurs when an employee is caught using office equipment to apply for another job, or when an employee walks in late, dressed a bit nicer than usual, raising suspicions that she just came from a job interview.

It is OK to fire a worker over this?

In the restaurant industry, it's a big, beefy no-no for employers to take an employee's tips. Generally, it's not legal for managers to pocket a worker's tips. Violations can be pricey.

But laws on gratuities can be confusing. With terms like "tip credits" and "tip pools" floating around, managers may also need some tips on how to make sense of it all.

Here are some general rules about tips -- and some insight on what can potentially happen if those rules are violated.

With summer just around the corner, now is the perfect time for business owners to refresh themselves on the legal issues surrounding summer hiring.

Before business heats up in the summer, consider these legal tips when hiring seasonal employees:

Being sued over maternity leave or a worker's pregnancy is an employer's nightmare, and can end up costing you in terms of money and time. How can you avoid such lawsuits in the first place?

Cases alleging pregnancy discrimination at work are more common than you may think, as are maternity-leave lawsuits. So this Mother's Day, business owners may want to give their maternal employees an incredibly useful gift: clear communication about maternity leave at your workplace. It's a gift that keeps on giving, since you'll be in a better position to avoid potential legal problems.

Here are a few suggestions to avoid getting sued over maternity leave or pregnancy discrimination:

Everyone has a mom, and every small business owner needs to know the laws that protect and provide for their new mom employees.

Employers should strive to be vigilant and current in their understanding of the federal and state laws relating to motherhood and the workplace. Here are five laws that can be particularly important for business owners:

Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer is making Mother's Day a little more special for her maternal employees, with a new extended maternity leave policy.

Mayer, a working mom herself, got a fair share of backlash when she issued a ban on telecommuting two months ago. But she seems to be making amends with Yahoo's new offer of longer paid leave for new moms -- and dads.

Should your company follow suit and offer extended maternity (and paternity) leave too?

It's not uncommon for for employees to check Facebook multi-task while working. Employers have tried a variety of methods to keep their ants focused on work, but it's hard to compete with cute puppy pics. One tactic is for employers to to monitor employee emails.

But is it legal to read employees' email messages?

We knew the drill in grade school: You say you're sick, then you hand over a doctor's note. The grow-up world isn't all that different, as employers commonly ask employees to verify sick leave with a note from a doctor.

Sure, asking for a doctor's note is, for the most part, legal -- but demanding a prying doctor's note isn't. Requiring too much information from employees for sick leave can land employers in legal trouble.

Here are five do's and don'ts when asking for a doctor's note:

There's an art to writing a help wanted ad. They have to be to-the-point, yet descriptive. You want to get it out to people, but you also don't want to get swamped with responses.

No matter what, be careful. With the wrong wording or recruitment process, your help wanted ad might be circled with a big fat red pen -- for a discrimination lawsuit.

Here are a few tips to prevent your help wanted ads from seeming discriminatory: