Imagine one of your employees bashes your company or their coworkers on Facebook. You might think that you could fire that employee. But you would probably be wrong. Or consider whether you should Google job applicants.

In early April, after a three-year hiatus, the Social Security Administration (SSA) resumed sending No-Match Letters, advising employers that an employee’s reported name or Social Security number (SSN) does not “match” a name or SSN combination in the SSA database.

For many employers, properly calculating overtime can feel like an unending process. Factoring in meal and break times can be complicated since meal times are generally unpaid and breaks are paid time.

The images tend to be memorable and camera-friendly - federal agents stage a well-publicized bust on a jobsite and cart off hundreds of undocumented workers. Today, however, the U.S. Department of Justice and U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement (ICE) have shifted their focus away from undocumented workers and are targeting the employers who hire them, often through audits and lawsuits.

A recent survey by allbusiness.com determined that the average cost to defend a Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA) lawsuit is $80,000, even if you win. 

Now more than ever, it’s important to dot the i’s and cross the t’s when it comes to reporting your employees’ workplace injuries and illnesses. Recently, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) began sending inspectors to company offices and worksites to assess the accuracy of their injury and illness records.

Do you use Facebook? If you are over 40, the answer is maybe. If you are under 40, the answer is almost certainly yes. Did you know that Facebook was developed by a Harvard college student who wanted to create a website where people could rate how hot other Harvard students were? Half a billion dollars in venture capital later, it is the cornerstone of what has become known as social networking.

When was the last time you thought about violence in your workplace? Many employers would say “never.” But did you know that a recent study on workplace violence found 57 percent of respondents reported a violent incident at their workplace?

While many consider severance agreements to be the domain of senior executives and white-collar workers, in fact they are increasingly becoming standard operating procedure in many industries, including the trades, when discharging employees of any type.

Employers are responsible for preserving the health and safety of their workers. And the government agency that oversees employers’ compliance is OSHA, the Occupational Health and Safety Administration.