Covenant of Good Faith and Fair Dealing

Every employer/employee rela­tion­ship is gov­erned by the covenant of good faith and fair deal­ing. This means you must treat sim­i­lar employ­ees the same, you may not ter­mi­nate an employee for uncon­sti­tu­tional rea­sons or in vio­la­tion of pub­lic pol­icy, and you can’t deprive an employee of a con­tract benefit.

Unions

This sec­tion doesn’t cover unions. If you have employ­ees who want to union­ize, you should con­tact your attor­ney to fig­ure out your response.

Ben­e­fits

Employee ben­e­fits such as health care, dis­abil­ity, retire­ment, life insur­ance, edu­ca­tional assis­tance, depen­dent care, etc. is a broad topic requir­ing exper­tise from your finan­cial plan­ner. Gen­er­ally you don’t have to pro­vide any ben­e­fits to your employ­ees (health care reform may bring some changes to larger employ­ers). How­ever, if you offer ben­e­fits, make sure you offer them equally to all employ­ees and that you fol­low report­ing, notice and plan require­ments to get the proper tax cred­its and deduc­tions. If you have 20 or more employ­ees and offer group cov­er­age, then COBRA applies to you. There are many other laws that apply to these ben­e­fits. Be care­ful what you say in your employee hand­book about ben­e­fit oblig­a­tions. Don’t lock your­self in; oth­er­wise you might make your­self a self-insurer.

Fam­ily Med­ical and Leave Act

If you have 50 or more employ­ees, the law might require you to pro­vide employ­ees with up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave for cer­tain fam­ily and med­ical rea­sons. You must return that employee to the same or sim­i­lar posi­tion once the leave period is over.

Taxes

Employ­ment taxes is a broad topic. You should con­tact your CPA with your employ­ment tax questions.

Minors

Alaska Laws for minors under the of age 18 pro­vide that the minor may not work more than six days a week, may not work in haz­ardous occu­pa­tions, and must get 30 minute breaks. If the child is under the age of 16, the child may not work more than a com­bined nine hour day which includes their time at school and no more than 23 hours a week. Babysit­ting and domes­tic work are exceptions.