Question: We know that anyone making less than $455 a week is considered nonexempt and eligible for overtime pay. But is it OK to pay someone a fixed salary of less than $455 a week? And if so, what happens when that person works more than 40 hours in a week?

Answer: First, you can pay someone a fixed salary of less than $455 a week, according to employment law attorney John Lowe. That person still is considered nonexempt.

Second, if that person works more than 40 hours in a week, you’re obligated to pay overtime. Because of the overtime factor, it’s wise to have the person record the hours worked each week. That’s something you wouldn’t have to do with an exempt, salaried employee who doesn’t get OT pay.

That’s what happened to an Illinois man, who’s now in court as a result of his great gig.

Anthony Armatys accepted a job with New Jersey-based Avaya, Inc., before he changed his mind and declined. But the company’s payroll system never removed his name from the list of employees.

So Armatys stayed quiet and received his salary until Avaya’s auditors discovered the mistake — nearly four and a half years later, the Associated Press reports.

Armatys has plead guilty to theft. Prosecutors are recommending six years in jail plus restitution.

Though the company will probably get the money back, some more careful auditing could have done the trick.

Research for the 2010 Salary Guides from Robert Half International provides insight into compensation and hiring trends within each field, and identifies positions where national average salaries are holding strong or seeing slight gains.

In the IT sector, look for these niches to have the best prospects:

Network administrators: Cloud computing, Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) and Software as a Service (SaaS) have made running a network more complicated. Further, chief information officers interviewed for the fourth-quarter Robert Half Technology IT Hiring Index and Skills Report cited network administration as the most in-demand skill set. Network administrators can expect to see starting salaries in the range of $54,500 to $80,250 in the coming year.

Information systems security manager: Protecting the confidentiality, integrity and availability of information from internal and external breaches is a must-have for companies of all sizes, making security professionals integral to the IT department. The salary range for an information systems security manager is expected to be $96,500 to $130,750.

Systems engineer: As companies implement new technologies, technical service roles remain critical to the organization. Systems engineers are in demand to help companies develop and maintain technical infrastructure, hardware and system software components in support of a variety of IT projects. Base compensation for these professionals is projected to range from $64,250 to $93,250.

To see the full story on jobs that will see the highest pay increases, visit here.

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics produced data showing in 2008, women who were full-time wage and salary workers had median weekly earnings that were about 80% of the median for their male counterparts. Median weekly wages were $638 for women, $798 for men. In 1979,  women earned about 62% of what men made.

Here’s a percentage comparison to men between ‘79 and ‘08, by typical age groups in the workforce:

• Age 20-24: ‘79 — women made 61% of what men made; ‘08 — women made 80% of what men made
• 25-34: ‘79 — 68%; ‘08 — 88%
• 35-44: ‘79 — 58%; ‘08 — 77%
• 45-54: ‘79 — 57%; ‘08 — 77%
• 55-64: ‘79 — 60%; ‘08 — 78%

Clearly, women who work in in entry-level positions that typically go to workers under age 25 come the closest — 88% — to equaling the pay of their male counterparts. In most other age groups, women make about three-quarters of what male counterparts make.

Apart from the cold numbers, there’s the big question: Even with the gains, women still make less. Why?

Some of course will point to sex discrimination. Others will say it’s because women more often than men drop out in mid- or early-career to raise children, and then have to play catch-up later on.

For whatever reason, the gap exists.

To see the full BLS report, “Highlights of Women’s Earnings 2008,” go here.

Here’s a sampling of what other Accounting/Payroll professionals are being paid, according to the Robert Half International 2009 Salary Survey. Keep in mind, however, that specific job duties and geographic location can widely influence these salary ranges:

Large companies ($250M + in sales):
Payroll Manager/Supervisor: $50,500 – $74,000 (3.8% increase over 2008)

Payroll Coordinator/Administrator: $36,750 – $48,500 (up 3.6% over last year)

Payroll Clerk: $30,500 – $39,00 (3.7% increase)

Midsize companies ($25M to $250M in sales):
Payroll Manager/Supervisor: $43,000 – $57,750 (3.6% over 2008)

Payroll Clerk: $29,750 – $38,250 (up 3.4% from last year)

Small Companies (up to $25M in sales):
Payroll Manager/Supervisor: $37,250 – $47,500 (up 3.4% over 2008)

Payroll Clerk: $27,750 – $34,750 (up 3.3% over last year)

Site name: GlassDoor.

URL: http://www.glassdoor.com/index.htm

Who runs it: Sausalito, CA-based GlassDoor

What it provides: At the time we tested the site, it advertised it was in beta, but that will probably change, since the company just announced that it just raised $6.5 million in venture capital — a mere droplet in the sea of venture-capital bucks, but still a good sign that the site is progressing.

Right now, for starters, you can access in-house appraisals of what it’s like to work for many of the major employers in the United States, posted by people who actually work for those companies. The site’s public-relations blurb says the number of companies is 14,000 and rising.  That means if you’re looking for a job or want to know what it’s like at a competitor, you can get the inside scoop.

Other fun stuff that falls into the category of softcore corporate voyeurism: You can look up what insiders have to say about the top people at some of the major firms. For instance, put “Yahoo” in the search box and you’ll get a review of CEO and Director Jerry Yang (who turned down a bazillion-dollar buyout from Microsoft). He gets a 36% approval rating, and the company overall score 3.4 on a scale of 1 to 5. There’s some real nitty-gritty commentary about other companies, too, such as “we hold too many meetings.” Who doesn’t?

OK, here’s the cool part. By clicking on the “Salaries” tab, you can also look at some of those companies and see what they’re paying people like you. Or you can post your salary anonymously, along with some registration information, and see what the range and average is nationwide.

We entered a salary and sought more information, but had to wait a couple of hours after completing the registration before getting the activation e-mail. That could have been because of our e-mail system or the fact that they’re still fine-tuning the in-beta Web site. Sometimes, this stuff happens, but it’ll probably happen less when they start spending that $6.5 million.

Compensation specialists refer to the common approach at the “peanut butter plan” because it’s aimed at spreading raise money thinly and evenly.

Here’s how it typically works:

1. A manager gets a lump-sum amount to apportion to employees for raises. The amount usually breaks down to be 3%-4% of total salary.
2. The manager then awards top performers raises of 4%-5% and low performers 2%-3%.
3. And everyone ends up happy, right? Wrong.

According to research by SuccessFactors.com, under that scheme, companies tend to retain low performers — who are happy with almost any raise — and lose high performers, who go elsewhere for raises that typically amount to at least 10%.

And that’s not all. The research shows companies that use the peanut-butter approach — thin spreads between high and low performers — tend to be less successful than those that have wider raise spreads. In the test of 41 companies, those that had wider spreads experienced better revenue growth (33.85% more) and net income growth (8.5% more).

The conclusion: The bigger the in raises between high and low performers, the better the company.

Here’s why: Big companies tend to have inflexible rules about compensation, benefits and perks. And often those rules are tied to profit margins — when profits drop, so do comp, bennies and perks. Smart smaller outfits. however, can adjust and mix-and-match benefits and perks to match individual employee needs.

For example: A lot of companies, big and small, are going to face the situation of shrinking raises for employees. The big-company approach to that situation often is, “Sorry, that’s the way it goes.”

But smaller firms can adjust.

• Can’t offer raises this year? Well, then, what if one employee needs to come in late one day a week because of childcare issues? Offering that type of benefit in lieu of a raise can go a long way toward convincing the employee that working for a little guy — even one offering no immediate salary increases — might not be such a bad deal after all.
• Can’t give your top salesperson a bigger slice of commissions? How about letting her family sign on to the company’s cell-phone plan and get a cheaper rate?
• Better still, instead of offering a perk in place of money, ask employees what they’d choose. Sure, you’ll get some wild requests that you’ll have to turn down, but most people have a sense about what’s practical and reasonable — the maintenance worker is unlikely to ask for a company car. Plus, asking them saves you the trouble of trying to dream up the perfect perk for each employee.

The bottom line is that larger firms usually can’t match the flexibility that smaller firms have. So if you’re the HR manager for a smaller company take advantage of what you have.

The study for the Journal of Applied Psychology appears in a 19-page paper titled Is the Gap More Than Gender? A Longitudinal Analysis of Gender, Gender Role Orientation, and Earnings. 

It contends that guys who think of themselves as traditional “breadwinners” and who believe that a woman’s place is in the home — or, at best, in a subservient position at work — make about $12,000 a year more in salary than men who think of women as equal partners at work and in the home.

Put another way, men who change diapers make about a $1,000 a month less than men who don’t change diapers.

The study uses a factor called “Gender Role Orientation” (GRO).  If you’re a man who has a GRO of -1, that means you think of women as your equals. If you’re a man who thinks a woman’s place is in the home, your GRO is +1.

The study shows that -1 group makes an average annual salary of $39,000. The +1 groups pulls in an average of $51,000 a year.

Does COBRA cover notices about life insurance?

Question:
We offer company-sponsored life insurance to our employees. The policy has a conversion option if an employee is laid off. Are we obligated under COBRA to send out notices informing people of their conversion rights?

Answer:
No. COBRA regulations cover continuation of health insurance and do not apply to life insurance. That’s the word from Ed Fensholt, an attorney who specializes in COBRA.

Some state insurance regulations cover companies’ obligations about conversation notifications, and you may want to check your state’s regs to see that your procedures are OK.

Handling salaried nonexempts

Question:
We know that anyone making less than $455 a week is now considered nonexempt and eligible for overtime pay. But is it OK to pay someone a fixed salary of less than $455 a week? And if so, what happens when that person works more than 40 hours in a week?

Answer:
First, you can pay someone a fixed salary of less than $455 a week, according to employment-law attorney John Lowe. That person still is considered nonexempt.

Second, if that person works more than 40 hours in a week, you’re obligated to pay overtime. Because of the overtime factor, it’s wise to have the person record the hours worked each week.