This Assignment is for a HR/Compensation course:
The purpose of this assignment is to help you better understand the impact Federal legislation has on the rewards programs of organizations. You will find a bill/resolution under consideration in the current Congress and analyze it for possible impact on the employer, employees and the economy in general.
Go to THOMAS a service of the Library of Congress: http://thomas.loc.gov/.
Since the 116th Congress (1919-2020) has just started, not many bills have been introduced yet. Click on Advanced Search. Make certain that the boxes for the 115th and the 116th Congress are checked.
Under Legislation Types unclick all Legislation. Click on H.R. below All House and S. under All Senate. This will assure that your search only turns up bills that could be voted into law.
Under Words and Phrases enter in your search term(s). PICK ONE. Some suggestions include:
Fair pay
Executive pay
Equal pay
Unemployment insurance
Employee ownership
Paid time off
Employer sponsored health care
Living wage
Pay discrimination
FLSA (Fair Labor Standards Act)
Minimum wage
FMLA (Family and Medical Leave Act)
Employee health care
Prevailing wage
ERISA (Employee Retirement Income Security Act)
Pensions
COBRA (Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act)
Health insurance portability
Collective bargaining
Card check
Wage differentials
While all of these will turn up legislation relevant to compensation and benefits, most will also turn up legislation which is not relevant to C&B. Make sure you select something relevant. For example, if you enter and search on the word compensation the first bill you will get HR 303, which provides for disability compensation for retired members of the Armed Forces. This is not something which impacts a business organization.
Click on the bill/resolution number. Click on the tab labeled Text. A summary of the bill may also be available under the tab labeled Summary..
Assignment Instructions
In three to five pages summarize the key points of the bill/resolution that you think would impact organization pay/benefit programs. Summarize the bill (in your own words).
Read the text of the bill when you do this: frequently the impact of the bill on organization pay systems is not clear from the summary provided by THOMAS.
Describe the impact you think the bill/resolution, if enacted, would have on the organization and on its employees.
As an example, in a previous executive pay scandal, a law was passed which limited executive base pay to no more than $1 million. (An organization could pay more, but could not deduct the excess from its taxes as a business expense.) Employers could pay performance-based bonuses and give stock options, however, since (presumably) these payments would motivate executives to high performance and increased share prices (good for all employees, shareholders and the economy in general). Of course it also motivated executive to cut corners and behave unethically (and criminally) to simulate high performance and to drive up share prices. What unexpected consequences might the bill/resolution you study have?
You may want to go to the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Roll Call, CQ Weekly and other sources to help with legislative consequences. If you do make sure you properly cite everything you use.
** I Have attached the original Assignment Instructions & a Word Document of a list of websites **
** Make sure you cite all sources used. (minimum 4 sources; please use websites on the list/word document) ***
