Forward Style Inc. Employee Policy Memo - Research Paper Example

With this in mind, Forward Style Inc. has established a robust employee benefits plan that integrates benefits required by law and optional ones aimed at attracting and retaining employees. Below is a comprehensive coverage of required and optional benefits. Benefits required by law Social insurance, including social security, unemployment insurance, worker’s compensation Federal and state laws require all employers to provide social insurance to their employees. Under this law, employers and employees are required to pay the same rate of social security taxes.

Social security insurance aims at ensuring that employees unable to work, owing to a medical condition, collect monthly benefits to meet their everyday needs. Conversely, federal laws require companies to pay unemployment insurance, which is a form of compensation offered to workers whose employment is terminated by no fault of their own. State unemployment insurance programs provide unemployment benefits (monetary payments) for a specified duration until the employee finds new employment. State laws typically dictate eligibility, duration of benefits and benefit amounts payable to unemployed workers (US Department of Labor, 2012).

Lastly, state compensation laws require employers to provide workers’ compensation insurance coverage to ensure that workers who fall sick or are injured on the job receive compensation. Such benefits include payment of medical bills, as well as payment for lost earnings. However, worker’s compensation is only two-thirds of an employee’s salary. Family and medical leave of 6 paid weeks and up to 6 additional unpaid weeks Federal laws also require employers to provide their employees with family and medical leave under the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), ratified in 1993.

The act is applicable to workers who have been employed at least one year and have worked for at least 1,250 hours in the last year. The Act warrants employees to receive up to 12 weeks of job-protected, albeit unpaid leave. However, this duration applies for any 12-month duration and covers the following reasons: care of a worker’s serious health condition; birth and care of an employee’s child or foster child, and care of a close family member, for instance, a parent, spouse or child with a severe health condition.

Under FMLA, the company is also required to provide group health benefits throughout an employee’s leave as if the worker continued working rather than taking leave. FMLA is applicable to private workers with more than 50 employees (Conison, 2008). Disability insurance Several territories and states, including Rhode Island, New Jersey, California, New York and Hawaii command businesses to offer insurance coverage to cover partial wage replacement for eligible employees for non-work injuries or illnesses (US Department of Labor, 2012).

Disability insurance is taken with local insurance companies. In other territories and states, employers are not required to offer disability insurance. These programs, however, provide short-term benefits, which are typically low amounts. Optional benefits Private retirement plan Although the federal government provides a wide array of resources with the aim of assisting organizations find a well-suited private retirement and pension plan for their employees, the government does not require employers to establish a private retirement plan.

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