Ownership Reporting, Pregnancy Rules, and Happy Birthday Means Happy Employees

[Gene Marks, host]

Hey everybody, this is Gene Marks. Welcome to this week's episode of the Paychex THRIVE Podcast Week in Review. This is where we take a few items out of the news that impacts your business and my business, and you give a little take to see if we can understand what it all means.

So, I've got three items of news this week. Let's get right to it. The first has to do with the U.S. Treasury Department and anti-money laundering rules. This is affecting your business and mine, according to a report in Reuters. The U.S. Treasury Department's Anti-Money Laundering Bureau will soon publish a guide and establish a support center to help small businesses understand their impending obligations to report information about their true or beneficial ownership.

The announcement comes as Treasury's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network has faced scathing criticism from Republicans in Congress who are concerned that, to date, millions of small businesses across the country have not been notified of the forthcoming legal requirement, let alone been educated on compliance.

So, there is going to be rules coming out — a final rule — outlining beneficial ownership information and reporting requirements which significantly affect small businesses. That final rule in September — it's a 330-page rule — it will come into force on Jan. 1 of 2024. Companies formed or registered before Jan. 1, 2024, will have one year to comply, while companies formed or registered after the date will have 30 days from the date of formation or registration to comply.

There will be something called a small entity compliance guide that will describe in simple easy to read language, of course, from the federal government, how this provision works. My understanding is, guys, is that I think we're going to be getting forms from the U.S. Treasury Department. We're going to report back to the U.S. Treasury Department about the ownership of our companies because they're trying to make sure that, you know, of any potentially bad actors that might be foreign owned. So, they want to get ahead of that.

Of course, we're ensured up and down that our data will be safe and secure — haha ­— but it will certainly be another compliance thing that we're going to have to do. Again, keep an eye out for this small entity compliance guide that will give us directions for how to do this. But it'll be something, if you formed your company before Jan. 1 of 2024, you know, we have a year to comply with this, to fill out this form and return it. So, just be aware that is coming.

The next bit of news has to do with pregnant workers. This is from the Society of Human Resources Management. (They) are reporting that the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the EEOC, has posted a notice of proposed rulemaking last week about pregnant workers, as the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act, a law that requires employers to make reasonable changes in the workplace to support employees with pregnancy-related limitations.

It's a rule that is going to be up for public comment right now by Aug. 11. So, it is already on there, as well. And the idea of the rule, according to the EEOC Vice Chair Jocelyn Samuels, who I interviewed on the Paychex THRIVE podcast, said that it provides concrete, real-world examples that will help workers understand their rights and help employers comply with the new law and reap the benefit of retaining skilled employees.

So, just be aware of that. When you have pregnant workers, there are a lot of things that impact them and a lot of accommodations we need to be making as employers. These are accommodations related to job restructuring, part-time or modified word schedules, more frequent breaks, you know, unpaid leave, assignments to light duty, telework.

These are all things that may or may not impact our pregnant workers, and we want to make sure that we are in compliance with. So, this new rule, these regulations, it expands the scope. It's out for comment right now, and then it will end its comment period soon and ultimately go into effect.

So, just be aware that if you do have a, you know, a pregnant worker, you know, in your employ, you want to make sure that you are in compliance with these new rules that are not only the law, but also these expanded new rules from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

And finally, birthdays. As it turns out, according to a new survey that was done by Snappy, a gifting companies, they do gifts. So, let's bear that in mind, guys. They say, according to a new survey, that employers who give birthday gifts have a higher company morale and employee retention. Now, I'm not saying you've got to buy all of your gifts from Snappy, although maybe that's implied, you know, sometimes I hold these studies and a little bit of dubious thought, but it is still some interesting data.

Let me read you some of the data that came from this survey that I thought would be interesting to you. First of all, you know, there's birthday songs, the “Happy Birthday” to you song? Apparently 4 in 10 —4 out of 10 — Americans enjoy when people sing “Happy Birthday” to them. The remaining 60%, not so thrilled. So, that “Happy Birthday” song is, you know, it's kind of an awkward embarrassment, and it turns out I'm the only person that doesn't like it when people sing “Happy Birthday” to me.

Another thing that was found is in the survey is that Americans place great value on celebrating birthdays, with working Americans ranking receiving birthday gifts as having greater importance than receiving gifts for any other life milestones, including weddings and even welcoming home a newborn child.

A majority of Americans agree if employers celebrated personal milestones such as birthdays, employee morale would be higher in the workplace; 81% of those surveyed said that. As with employee retention, 75% said that, and two out of three working Americans — this is like two out of three — they all agree that, hey, if I received the birthday gift from my employer, I would be more likely to have improved job satisfaction. Isn't that nice?

One other thing about this survey that I found interesting: American workers expect more from their employers than even their friends or significant others on their birthdays. Listen to this, right? Snappy asked Americans to determine a price point that they felt was appropriate for others to spend on them for birthday gifts and the results might surprise you.

Respondents said that of their personal professional relationships, the company they worked for and the direct boss should be the highest spenders on birthday gifts. That's you. If you're a boss, you've got to be spending more than even friends, giving gifts that cost an average of $64.09 and $58.58. Sixty bucks is what you want to be spending for a birthday gift.

Men report an average price point for gifts of $82, which is twice as high as women. These are for gifts bought for them by their boss. And from the company, it should be even higher: Men want to see gifts worth $88 and women want gifts worth $43.

So, bottom line is, people like their birthdays and they are, according to this survey, more likely to have higher morale and better retention when both their boss and their company gives them a birthday gift. Keep that in mind as one of the benefits you want to provide your employees.

My name is Gene Marks. You've been listening to the Week in Review, a Paychex THRIVE podcast. If you need any help or advice you would like to suggest guests for a podcast, please visit us at payx.me/thrivetopics.

Hope this information helped you keep up on the news that affects your business. I'll be back again next week with more news and some thoughts on how to navigate around that news. Hope you have a great week. We'll talk to you then. Take care.

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