Banco Popular de Puerto Rico

While lawmakers on both sides of the aisle mostly are teeing off on the "Gang of Six" debt reduction plan’s entitlement cuts and tax hikes, Brian H. Graff, executive director and CEO of The American Society of Pension Professionals & Actuaries, takes issue with the proposal’s cuts to tax deductions for retirement savers.

All this time, I thought it was just retirement plan participants who didn’t understand the fees they were paying. Turns out, according to a recent Spectrem Group study, plan sponsors don’t understand plan fees all that well either.

In a recent EBN podcast with Prescription Solutions’ Patrick Stroh, he outlined a new tool that not only allows benefits professionals to use predicting software to see how much a pharmacy benefit plan would cost by adding in, taking away or tweaking certain elements — network size, copays, etc. — but allows employees to weigh in with their preferences as well. Kind of like giving a 6-year-old a credit card, no?

Given the current status of the bipartisan talks on raising the debt ceiling, I’m not sure how willing to flex and bend congressional leaders are at the moment. Still, I give members of the Society for Human Resource Management credit for trying to stretch lawmakers’ thinking on modernizing the 73-year-old Fair Labor Standards Act to allow employers and employees greater flexibility.

Okay, maybe I’m just out of touch with today’s workforce. First, employees say they will take a promotion without a pay raise. And now, a new survey shows that job seekers are looking for a caring company over a high base salary. The poll, conducted by Monster.com and Unum, finds that the top-rated item on would-be employees’ wish lists was a company “that truly cares about the well-being of its employees.” …

I’m looking for 14 words (posted in the comments) or 140 characters (posted to me on Twitter at @ebnews_editor) to finish the sentence, “Being a benefits professional means …”

I wanted to ask for your input on what makes certain rewards/recognition programs more effective than others. Company culture and demographics play a part, obviously, but perhaps there’s a more universal thread that binds such programs and can help employers catch lightning in a bottle, so to speak.

Last month, I wrote an editorial asking whether it was time to evolve, adjust or phase out the five-day, 40-hour workweek. I received about a dozen emails in response to the editorial. Since open communication is a parent of progress, I thought I’d share a couple with you.

Show off your health care reform smarts in our 30-question quiz based on various provisions of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. Challenge your teams to take the quiz and offer a prize to the staffer with the highest score. Or, take the quiz with your broker or consultant to ID areas of improvement in your collective PPACA knowledge.

As I type this, it’s not yet noon, but I’ve already sent 30 emails. So, it seems I have a lot to thank Ray Tomlinson for. Forty years ago last week, Tomlinson sent the world’s first email. Today, according to the Society for Human Resource Management, 294 billion emails get sent daily.