By James Marco

On Nov. 6, 2017, Albany County Executive Daniel P. McCoy signed an amendment to Albany County’s Human Rights Law that prohibits employers from inquiring about a job applicant’s wage history until after a job offer has been made.

The law went into effect 30 days later. Albany County now joins New York City, Philadelphia, Massachusetts, Delaware, Oregon, and California who have similar laws.

While salary inquiries have often been used by employers to weed out candidates they consider too expensive, or as a checkpoint for someone that is simply looking to increase their salary, this new law is really an opportunity for employers to take control of this topic. Without accurate market data, a sound compensation philosophy, and a strategy by which to execute a well-designed compensation system, employers may guess wrong and either miss out on a qualified candidate, or pay too much for a skillset they think they need.

By Rose Miller

My team and I were reviewing all the work we handled in 2017. It’s an exercise we do annually and use it to prepare for the new year. I compared our work with a list provided by the Society of Human Resources.

Prior years have been active, but 2017 takes the cake. Nearly every month presented a change that required some type of response from the human resources side of running a business. Many changes required guidance from our labor attorney friends. Yet to implement those changes, most solutions required the skills, knowledge and abilities found with a team of experts.

Here are the list of 2017 changes affecting human resources in chronological order:

• Federal and State minimum wage and salary basis changes that caused wage compression issues.

• Women’s March—time out of work and increased awareness of inequities at work.

By robert l. kind

As the new tax reform took shape in late 2017 and then was approved just a few days before Christmas, contractor services team were examining what elements could have the most impact on contractors and small business owners.

What is commonly being called the Tax Cut and Jobs Act (TCJA) of 2017 has caused a lot of discussion on whether companies will come out as winners or losers in 2018. While it has enhanced some tax breaks for contractors, it has also reduced or eliminated others.

Let’s start with the good news first. Here are some of the positive outcomes we think may be coming contractors’ way with the new law.

Expanded use of cash basis accounting method

Many contractors with average receipts over $10,000,000 have been required to use the percentage of completion method for tax purposes. The TCJA provides that, for tax years beginning after Dec. 31, 2017, taxpayers that have average annual gross receipts of $25 million or less during the preceding three years are not required to report on the percentage of completion method and can elect to be treated on the cash basis of accounting. The cash basis of accounting should present a more favorable deferral of income for a contractor.