A Message from the President

In This Issue

RSVP for October Meeting

Announcements

Featured Article

SHRM Showcased

Dependent Coverage Age Limits

Welcome New Members

Board of Directors

Quote of the Month

Future Meeting Dates

RSVP for Our Next Meeting

Announcements

The Health and Productivity Taskforce will now be a permanent committee for CiHRG.  This action was taken at the last board meeting as a result of the Strategic Plan.
 
Be looking for the Wage and Benefit Survey to be sent to you via email in the next few months.
 
Are you interested in an elected board position?  Please contact Tammy Hoggatt, President.
 
The 2009 dues renewal forms will be sent to all members under separate email.

FEATURED ARTICLE: 

The presidential election campaign kicked into full gear in late August as the political parties jumped into convention mode. Now's the time to consider the employmentrelated prescriptions offered by nominees
Barack Obama (D) and John McCain (R). Here's a quick look at the candidates' platforms on workplace issues. No spin-we'll leave that to the pundits. Just some details gleaned from the economic plans outlined
on the candidates' official websites:

Barack Obama, Democrat Labor: Obama will strengthen the ability of workers to organize unions. He will fight for passage of the Employee Free Choice Act. Obama will ensure that his labor appointees support workers' rights and will work to ban the permanent replacement of striking workers. Obama will also increase the minimum wage and index it to infl ation to ensure it rises every year.  Ensure freedom to unionize: Obama believes that workers should have the freedom to choose whether to join a union without harassment or intimidation from their employers. Obama cosponsored and is a strong advocate for the Employee Free Choice Act, a bipartisan effort to assure that workers can exercise their right to organize. He will continue to fight for EFCA's passage and sign it into law. Fight attacks on workers' right to organize: Obama has fought the Bush National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) efforts to strip workers of their right to organize. He is a cosponsor of legislation to overturn the NLRB's "Kentucky River" decisions classifying hundreds of thousands of nurses, construction and professional workers as "supervisors" who are not protected by federal labor laws. Protect striking workers. Obama supports the right of workers to bargain
collectively and strike if necessary. He will work to ban the permanent replacement of striking workers, so workers can stand up for themselves without worrying about losing their livelihoods. Raise the minimum wage: Barack Obama will raise the minimum wage,
index it to infl ation and increase the Earned Income Tax Credit to make sure that full-time workers earn a living wage that allows them to raise their families and pay for basic needs. Work/family balance: Obama will expand the Family and Medical Leave Act... and encourage flexible work schedules. Expand the Family and Medical Leave Act. The FMLA covers only certain employees of employers with 50 or more employees. Obama will expand it to cover businesses with 25 or more
employees. He will expand the FMLA to cover more purposes as well, including allowing workers to take leave for elder care needs; allowing parents up to 24 hours of leave each year to participate in their children's academic activities; and  expanding FMLA to cover leave for employees to address domestic violence. Encourage states to adopt paid leave. As president, Obama will initiate a strategy to encourage all 50 states to adopt paid-leave systems. Obama will provide a $1.5 billion fund to assist states with start-up costs and to help states offset the costs for employees and employers. Protect against caregiver discrimination. Workers with family obligations often are discriminated against in the workplace. Obama will enforce the recently-enacted Equal Employment Opportunity Commission guidelines on caregiver discrimination. Expand flexible work arrangements. Obama will create a program to inform businesses about the benefits of fl exible work schedules; help businesses create fl exible work opportunities; and increase federal incentives for telecommuting. Obama will also make
the federal government a model employer in terms of adopting flexible work schedules and permitting employees to request flexible arrangements.

John McCain, Republican: Workplace fl exibility in a changing
economy. John McCain understands that today's changing economy is making it harder for parents to balance the demands of family life and their jobs. He believes that strong families require that parents be involved in the lives of their children. Flexible work arrangements
can help families strike the right balance. John McCain was proud to support the Family Medical Leave Act in 1993 that ensured men and women are able to take leave to care for a newborn child, adopt a child or care for an immediate family member with a serious health condition
and return to a position that is substantially equal in pay, benefi ts and responsibility. This was a needed minimum standard to ensure that parents were not penalized for making the important decision to raise a family. John McCain co-sponsored the Family Friendly Workplace Act, which sought to allow employers to provide fl exible work schedules to help employees balance the demands and needs of work and family, such as allowing employees to take compensatory time-off rather than be paid overtime and to work more than 40 hours in one week and
correspondingly less in another week. John McCain also understands that our changing economy forces many families to deal with the disruptions that come with a job change. He believes that families
should be able to hold onto the health and retirement benefi ts that they have chosen.  He also believes that workers should be able to choose new training that fi ts their personal situation so that they can build
new skills as their careers change. John McCain believes that to keep
America competitive in the world economy, employers need to be able to attract and retain workers. This requires employers to offer fl exible work arrangements and allow workers to bring their health and retirement benefi ts with them or choose new plans. John McCain also believes that as our workforce ages, many older Americans want to continue to stay in jobs. These workers have the experience and skills
that help keep America competitive. More flexible work arrangements would enable these workers to continue their careers and help keep our economy competitive. John McCain is calling for a National
Commission on Workplace Flexibility and Choice. This Commission would bring together a bi-partisan set of leaders representing workers, small and large employers, labor and academics. The Commission
would make recommendations to the President on how modernizing our nation's labor laws and training programs can help workers better balance the demands of their job with family life and to enable workers to more easily transition between jobs. The Commission would examine the following issues that John McCain believes are important to work place flexibility and choice:
     - Modernizing the nation's labor laws so that they allow for more fl exible scheduling arrangements;
     - Ensuring that the nation's labor laws don't get in the way of working at home;
     - Promoting telework so that workers can spend less time commuting;
     - Making health more portable so that workers don't lose their
benefits when they switch jobs;
     - Ensuring that workers can choose retirement plans that best suit their needs; and
     - Providing workers with more choice in job training assistance so that they can build the skills they need for new and better jobs.

Managing Editor, Heidi J. Henson, J.D.; Contributing Editors, Sandra Stoll and Joy Waltemath, J.D.

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SHRM Showcased at Both Political Conventions

States Raise Age Limits for Dependent Coverage

To address the problem of the growing number of young adults age 19 through 29 who lack health insurance, an increasing number of states are enacting laws to extend dependent benefits to older children and young adults. For example, effective Oct. 1, 2008, dependent coverage in Florida must be offered to eligible adult children of policyholders "at least until the end of the calendar year in which the child reaches the age of 30." Florida law previously required that dependent coverage be offered up to age 25.
 
According to the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL), Utah became the first state to allow coverage for unmarried dependents to continue up until their 26th birthday, regardless of college enrollment status, in 1994. A 2006 New Jersey law, amended in 2008, provides coverage for unmarried dependents up to age 30, as long as they do not have any dependents of their own. By NCSL accounts, at least 30 states have enacted legislation to extend dependent coverage.
 
Why Are So Many Young Adults Uninsured?
 
NCSL estimates that 30 percent of the U.S. population between the ages of 19 and 29 is uninsured-over 13 million individuals. Why are so many young adults uninsured?
 
Typically, parents who cover their children as dependents on their policy do so through their employer's health insurance benefits. Until the relatively recent changes to state laws, most employer-covered health plans did not cover dependents after age 19 if they were not enrolled in college full time. And even for full-time students, coverage would end at age 22 or 23.
 
Terry Perry, SPHR, the managing principal of PinkSlip LLC, an HR consulting firm, and member of SHRM's Total Rewards Special Expertise Panel told SHRM Online in a Sept. 17 interview that this policy was based on the assumptions that a high school graduate planning to attend college would do so shortly following high school graduation, would attend full-time for four years and, upon obtaining his or her degree, would find a job that offered medical benefits.
 
Today, she said, because of economic conditions, some students are delaying college, and even those that do enter right after high school are taking much longer to get their degrees. "And it's taking longer for students to find work," she said, "and even longer for students to find a career path-meaning a job that is likely to offer benefits."
 
In response to the growing number of uninsured Americans in their 20s, and the federal government's failure to offer any solution, the states have taken action, Perry said, noting that the "new norm" is for dependent coverage to last up until age 25 or 26. To date, only New Jersey and Florida have extended this to age 30, but Perry said that she believed that, in the relatively near future, "30 will become the new norm."
 
Laws Differ from State to State
 
The 30 or so state laws requiring dependent benefits to be offered past the age of 19, regardless of college enrollment, differ in many aspects, but there are a few things that these laws do not do.
 
No law requires an insurer to provide dependent coverage. Rather, the laws read that, if such coverage is offered, it must extend to age 25 or 26 or 30, depending on the state. Further, because of provisions of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act, the laws do not apply to employers that choose to self insure, according to Lane Transou, SPHR, the president of the Houston Business Group on Health and a member of SHRM's Total Rewards/Compensation and Benefits Special Expertise Panel.
 
But in addition to the age at which dependent coverage terminates, the definition of dependent varies from state to state. For example, in New Jersey, according to Bryan Churgin, an attorney in Littler Mendelson's Newark office, to qualify as a "dependent," the individual must be:
 
· Under 30 years of age (31 as of Jan. 14, 2009).
· Unmarried. 
· Without a dependent of his or her own. 
· A New Jersey resident or full-time college student. 
· Not covered under any other group or individual health benefits plan or entitled to Social Security benefits.
 
In addition to the high age limit, this law is notable in that it contains no requirement that the adult child be financially dependent on his or her parent and no requirement that the child be unable to obtain other insurance-only that he or she is "not covered." Therefore, even if an otherwise eligible adult child has a well-paying job that offers health insurance benefits, if he or she chooses not to enroll, he or she may still be eligible for coverage under the parents' policy, Churgin said.
 
Contrast this with the law in Texas, which requires any dependent coverage to extend up to age 25. In addition, eligibility depends on financial dependence-that is, parents seeking to cover adult children "still have to claim them on their income tax returns," Transou said. Further, the child must "not be otherwise qualified for other coverage," rather than "not covered by other insurance."
 
Prior to amendment this year, Florida's law required coverage up to age 25, contained a financial support requirement and required that the child be either a full-time student or living in the policyholder's house, according to Juan C. Lopez-Campillo, an attorney in Littler's Orlando office. The amendment, effective May 21 and applicable to policies issued or renewed after Oct. 1, extended the age to 30, as long as the child is unmarried, does not have children of his or her own, is a resident of Florida or a full- or part-time student and "is not provided coverage as a named subscriber, insured, enrollee or covered person under any other" health insurance policy or individual health benefits plan.
 
"There has been no interpretation to date of what is meant by 'not provided coverage,'" Kimberly D. Webb, also an attorney in Littler's Orlando office, said. "Does that mean that if coverage is available the child is no longer qualified, or does that mean that if the child actually has alternative coverage, the child is no longer qualified? We do not know, but I suspect that language will be litigated before too long."
 
Issues for HR
 
Perry noted that when New Jersey first changed its law, the employer she worked with had problems. "The provider did not understand the law" and denied claims that they should not have denied, she said. In addition, "employees didn't understand the law. They thought they could put any adult child on it. For example, children who had children-employees didn't understand why their child was not eligible while other same age children were eligible." She said that while not perfect, things had gotten better. "It is smoother now than it has been in the past."
 
Given the many laws and the many differences among them, HR and benefits specialists working for multistate employers may face special challenges. "Our friends in Washington have not been paying attention to how hard this is for a company with multistate operations," Transou said.
 
Joanne Deschenaux is SHRM's legal editor.
 

Featured Article

"Candidates prioritize different workplace issues"

reprinted with express permission by CCH a Wolters Kluwer Business and HUMAN RESOURCES MANAGEMENT-Ideas & Trends

QUICK LINKS

CiHRG Membership Directory

CiHRG Website

SHRM Website

Welcome New Members

Amy Acree, Human Resources Specialist, Cunningham Children's Home
 
Laura Czys, Recruitment Coordinator, Human Kinetics
 

CiHRG Board of Directors

Tammy Hoggatt, SPHR
President

Stacey Cultra,
President-Elect

Sue Key, PHR
Secretary

Deanna Wright, SPHR
Treasurer

Amy Dillman, Chair
Legislative Committee

Greg Gonda, Chair
Diversity Committee

Becky Krueger, PHR, Chair, Membership Committee

Jenn Lance, Chair
Student Affairs Committee

Cathy S. McArthur, Chair
Workforce Readiness Committee and Public Relations Committee

Beth Wileaver, PHR, Chair, Professional Development Committee

Barbara Wleklinski, Chair
Conference Committee

October Quote 

"There is no season when such pleasant and sunny spots may be lighted on, and produce so pleasant an effect on the feelings, as now in October."
- Nathaniel Hawthorne

FUTURE MEETINGS

NOVEMBER 11th

DECEMBER 9th

2008 MEMBERSHIP DRIVE CONTINUES

Our goal is to increase membership by 20% (28 memberships) in 2008.  We are already over half way there!   As of September, membership has increased from 138 - 158.  All members who successfully bring a guest to a CiHRG meeting during the period of March through November will be eligible to win a free CiHRG membership for 2009.   The member who brings the MOST guests (who join CiHRG during 2008) will be awarded a free membership in 2009!

For more information about the 2008 CiHRG membership drive, please contact Becky Krueger, Membership Chair, at (217) 255-5014 or e-mail Becky Krueger

Note:  Guests who attend a meeting for the first time receive a complimentary lunch.  Thereafter, lunches are $12 per person.

CiHRG Greeters Wanted

Do you want to get involved with CiHRG, but don't have much time?  Then, we have the perfect opportunity for you!  We are looking for current CiHRG members to serve as greeters at each of our monthly luncheon meetings.  If you are interested, please e-mail Becky Krueger, Membership Chair, at Becky Krueger