Your Rights as a Pregnant Woman in the Workforce

According to reports by The Guardian, roughly 54,000 women lose their jobs each year due to maternity leave or pregnancy discrimination. Discrimination may include harassment, pressure to resign, reductions in pay or benefits, or outright termination. Sadly, a 2016 report by the Partnership for Women and Families explains that Alabama ranks fifth in the nation for the most charges of pregnancy-related discrimination per capita. It seems the most affected industries are healthcare, retail, and hospitality.

Alabama Protections

Unfortunately, Alabama remains one of just four states (Alabama, Indiana, South Dakota, and North Carolina) that have no state legislation offering clear protections against pregnancy discrimination. However, Alabama does protect certain other related rights of women in the workforce.

Breastfeeding Rules

Under Section 207(r) of the Fair Labor Standards Act (the law that governs minimum wage and  overtime laws), an employer with 50 or more employees shall provide a reasonable break time to express breast milk, and a place to do so within the workplace, until the child turns one year of age.  Caveat – if an employer violates this statute, Congress did not allow the employee to bring suit under the Act.  Under Alabama Code Sect. 22-1-13, a woman may breastfeed her children in any place (public or private) where she is lawfully permitted to be. Although the law is silent as to whether employers are required to allow breastfeeding at work, the law is written broadly and could arguably cover this.

State Employees

Likewise, under Alabama regulations at Sect. 670-X-14, state employees must be allowed to use their sick time for pregnancy-related disability. This means they may use accrued sick time as soon as their doctor determines they can no longer work, due to the pregnancy. The, upon being cleared to return, they must do so in order to preserve protections.

Federal Protections

Even though Alabama offers no statutory protections to clearly outlaw discrimination against pregnant women in the workforce, the federal Pregnancy Discrimination Act (PDA) applies to many women in Alabama. The law, when it applies, requires employers to comply with federal law and not discriminate against women based on pregnancy.

The federal law only applies to employers with 15 or more employees. The law treats pregnancy just like any other disability, requiring that “women affected by pregnancy or related conditions must be treated in the same manner as other applicants or employees who are similar in their ability or inability to work.” See Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC).

What Does Federal Law Prohibit?

While not exhaustive, here are a few of the basic protections and prohibitions provided in the federal law:

• Employer cannot “single-out” pregnancy-related conditions in order to prohibit pregnancy employees from working
• Employer must allow a pregnant employee to continue working so long as she can do so with reasonable accommodations but only if the employer grants reasonable accommodations to other employees for non-pregnancy related issues.
• Must hold a job just as long as the employer would for any other disabled worker
• Must have a leave procedure that is the same for pregnant and disabled employees

Other Options for Pregnancy Leave

If you become pregnant and cannot take advantage of the Pregnancy Discrimination Act, you may still be eligible for protections under the Family and Medical Leave Act, which, if applicable, can allow a new mother to take up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave. However, FMLA only applies to large employers with 50 or more employees, and you must generally have been employed for at least a year for the law to apply.

If you believe you are the victim of employment discrimination based on your gender or because you are pregnant, contact Five Points Law Group to discuss your situation and learn more about protecting your rights. As illustrated above, Alabama employers routinely violate federal equal employment laws, making Alabama one the least compliant states in the country. An experienced Birmingham employment discrimination attorney can work to protect your rights and your career.

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When Employers Use Wage Violations to Save Money

Some businesses believe that providing a safe and comfortable workplace is too expensive or will hurt the bottom line. This can lead them to cut corners on safety, turn a blind eye to rampant discrimination, and even perpetuate a system of wage violations. Sadly, employers often make the critical mistake of thinking that cutting corners and violating employee rights will save them money. In most cases, the opposite is true. Here are just a couple common ways that employers try to save money by cheating workers out of their pay.

Overtime Violations

While clearly designed to save money, when an employer fails to pay an employee his or her rightfully earned overtime pay, this hurts everyone. The employee makes less, his or her family has less to contribute to the economy, and the employer now has a worker who feels cheated. A lot of employers will tell a worker that he or she is ‘exempt’ from overtime laws. In some cases this is true, but often the employer is just using an excuse to avoid paying a fair wage.

You Can Not Discuss Money

An alarming number of employers tell their employees that they cannot discuss their salaries or wages with each other. In fact, according to the National Labor Relations Act, about half of all workers are subject to so-called ‘pay secrecy’ policies. These policies have a couple purposes. First, they prevent employees from gathering and collectively bargaining (unionizing). Second, they help to perpetuate income inequality between genders, races, and other protected classes.

The Department of Labor offers a helpful fact sheet on pay secrecy that explains some of the finer points of this improper type of policy. Many states outlaw pay secrecy entirely, while others (such as Alabama) have no such state-level restrictions. Nevertheless, it is generally impermissible to restrict employees from discussing pay.

Poor Conditions Cost Businesses Money

While employers sometimes get creative about violating employees’ rights to save money, the fact remains that doing so is bad for workers and bad for business. According to research reported by the Harvard Business Review, when an employee has poor working conditions or is paid less than a living wage, that worker can easily become ‘disengaged.’ This means the employee no longer takes an active interest in the success and overall mission of the business. According to the research, disengaged employees are absent from work 37% more frequently than engaged workers. This costs businesses a lot of money each year.

Get Help with Your Employment Case Now

Employers usually have the resources to let their powerful attorneys and risk managers threaten you and convince you that you have no options. The fear of unemployment or financial destitution often causes people to simply live with a horrible work environment. While not every situation can be resolved, the hardest part can be figuring out your rights and knowing how to take action.

If you are the victim of a hostile work environment, or you have experienced wage or overtime violations, you deserve better. Do not try to deal with your employer alone. Let the skilled attorneys of 5 Points Law Group fight for your rights. You work hard for your money; let us work hard for you.

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Understanding How the New Tax Law Affects Estate Law

With just 494 pages, the new tax law creates a lot of major changes. While most Americans are rightly concerned about how the changes will impact their ability to deduct state income taxes and property taxes, there are less publicized aspects of the tax plan that could really impact retirees and those planning for retirement. The law should also make some people take a second look at their old estate plans.

For those individuals who have planned well and amassed significant assets, there are three basic principles to consider – the estate tax, the gift tax, and generation-skipping. These provisions of the Tax Code work in tandem to allow wealthier tax payers to pass money to others without incurring additional taxes.

Estate Tax

In 1916, Congress passed the Revenue Act, which created the modern day estate tax. The IRS taxes estates with assets in excess of the applicable limit. For 2017, the effective exemption was $5.49 million for an individual and $10.98 million for married couples. So, at death, we simply add up all of the applicable assets of the estate. Only the amount in excess of the exempt amount is taxed, but it is taxed at the top rate of 40%. So, a clean example might be an individual with $10 million in total assets. At death, the executor will have to file an estate tax return with the IRS and pay 40% on $4.51 million dollars. This reduces the overall amount passed to the decedent’s heirs by about $1.8 million. That is a pretty big hit.

The new tax law increases the individual exemption to $11 million and $22 million for couples, effectively doubling the amount that can be passed through an estate without triggering taxes. Currently, only about 12,000 federal estate tax returns are filed each year. After all, not many people have those kinds of assets. It is likely that far fewer people will now be subject to the tax.

Gift Tax

From 1916 until 1932, wealthy Americans cleverly learned to avoid paying the estate tax altogether, simply by giving away their money during life. In other words, the same individual from our example above could simply give his or her children $5 million a day before death, and thereby bring his or her total assets below the threshold. Granted, the numbers were different back then, but the issue was the same. People were circumventing the tax.

In 1932, Congress created this tax to limit the total amount that someone can transfer during life. This effectively creates a limit on how much you can give away each year and in total, when combined with the estate exemption limit.

The Gift and Estate Taxes Work in Tandem

In 2017, the annual gift tax exemption was $14,000. In 2018, it bumps up to $15,000. This is the amount that you can give away each year (per person) before triggering a reduction in your lifetime estate tax. Married couples double their exemption. Here is how it works:

Consider a simple example. Assume a single person in 2018 has over $12 million in assets at death. During his last year of life, he wants to give away enough to bring down his taxable estate, which is now just $1 million. He is ‘allowed’ to give away $15,000 per person, so if he has four children, he could arguably give each $15,000, thus reducing his taxable estate by $60,000 in that year.

If this individual planned early by gifting $15,000 per year over a long period of time, he could significantly lower his taxable estate before death. Married couples can double this effort.

Generation Skipping Tax

In 1976, Congress found yet another loophole being exploited. Some were making gifts to grandchildren and great grandchildren in order to maximize their annual gift exemptions. This is taxed as well, however.

Preparing for 2025

The new tax law really opens the door for wealthier taxpayers to reconsider their estate plans. You may have limited time to act to protect your estate, because the new law sunsets in 2025, unless Congress acts to extend it before then. Call (205) 263-0743 to speak with the attorneys of Five Points Law Group to discuss your estate planning changes today.

Preparing for High Cost of Nursing Home Stay

Not all estate planning is about wealth building. In fact, these days most Americans are less concerned about what happens if they die, but rather, they are more worried about what will happen if they live too long. According to the Social Security Administration’s (SSA) life expectancy tables, the average American male who is currently 65 can expect to live 84.3 years of age. A woman aged 65 can expect to live to 86.6.

The SSA reports that 25% of those living past 65 will also live to be over 90, and about 10% of them will live past 95. With longer life and better medical care, people may be living longer, but longer life also means higher medical costs.

Think Your Savings are Safe?

A married couple that has saved $1 million for retirement has done pretty well. By all measures of success, such a couple should feel reasonably proud of their savings and confident that it will last through 20 years of retirement (65 to 85), assuming they have a modest annual budget, they own their home, and healthcare costs can be handled through Medicare.

Average Cost of American Nursing Home Care

A 2015 Cost of Care Survey by Genworth suggests that the national U.S. average cost of long-term skilled nursing home care is about $80,000 per year.  For Alabama, it is around $69,000, and for the Birmingham area, it runs $73,825. According to Lifehappens.org, studies show that the average length of a nursing home stay is about 835 days, costing a total of $200,000. Of course, some people with chronic or severe conditions may require lifelong nursing home care at the end of life. Imagine a five-year nursing home stay: It could easily cost $400,000.

Paying for Care

Fortunately, there is Medicare, right?  Well, not exactly. Medicare only pays for up to the first 100 days of long-term care. Technically, Medicare is only designed to pay for short-term rehabilitation. So, if you need rehab after an injury, Medicare will pay for it, so long as you are making progress and your physicians believe you will recover and be able to return home. If, however, you require long-term care, Medicare will stop, and you will have to pay out of pocket for the care. That is unless you have planned ahead.

Long-Term Care Insurance

Many seniors over the age of 60 are smart to invest in a long-term care insurance policy, but these policies are not cheap. If you have saved a million dollars, you should have to start putting your budget toward high premiums, not to mention the fact that these policies are often quite limited and only cover a year or two of care.

Medicaid as the Primary Payer of Nursing Home Care

For the majority of Americans in nursing homes, Medicaid will pay the bill. For those with a lot of assets, it can be a challenge to understand that there are options for becoming eligible for Medicaid in order to preserve hard-earned wealth. There are often creative estate planning solutions that can shift assets to a spouse living outside of the nursing home in order to avoid having to use your entire retirement income on the nursing home bill. By setting up a qualifying trust or simply changing the ownership of certain assets, many seniors are able to preserve their savings, while ensuring that they are well-positioned to use Medicaid if they ever require nursing home care.

Birmingham Estate Planning Attorneys

If you are approaching retirement or are already in retirement, you should consider the likelihood that you may need to stretch your retirement savings for 30 or more years. Will your savings last that long if you or your spouse require nursing home care? The attorneys of 5 Points Law Group are dedicated to helping you preserve wealth and protect your savings. Call (205) 263-0743 to schedule a private consultation to review your unique retirement and estate plans today.

 

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