Redstone Government Consulting Blog | Contractor Employee Compensation

Are You SURE All of Your Workers Are Properly Classified?

In January of this year (2021), we told you that the United States Department of Labor (DOL) under the Trump administration announced a final rule clarifying the standard for whether a worker is an employee or an independent contractor under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). This rule reaffirmed the “economic reality” test as the primary factor for determining employee status. The final rule was published in the Federal Register on January 7, 2021 and the Rule was set to have an effective date of March 8, 2021.

Topics: Contractor Employee Compensation, Human Resources, Accounting & Billing System, Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA)

DCAA Takes the Lead Over OFPP

In 2013, Congress put in place a new process for the calculation and publication of the compensation limitation (Cap) for all federal contractor employees. The process places the responsibility to calculate and publish the cap using the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) Employment Cost Index (ECI) data on the Office of Federal Procurement Policy (OFPP). OFPP has failed in this responsibility for the last few years.

Topics: Contractor Employee Compensation, Incurred Cost Submission, Defense Contractors, Incurred Cost Proposals, Cost-Type Contracts, DCAA Audit Support, Government Regulations, DOD Contractors, Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR)

A recent DoD-IG (Department of Defense-Inspector General Report (DODIG-2019-070) has unfortunately reinforced DCAA’s audit interpretations of the reasonableness of contractor compensation (reference to FAR 31.205-6(b)). The IG (apparently with help from DCAA) reviewed ACO (Contracting Officer) actions to resolve/disposition DCAA (Defense Contract Audit Agency) advisory audit reports which included assertions that contractors had claimed unreasonable compensation (primarily for contractor executives). 

Topics: Contractor Employee Compensation, Defense Contractors, DOD IG

Topics: Contractor Employee Compensation, Contracts Administration, Defense Contractors

On June 30, 2015, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) increased the McNamara-O’Hara Service Contract Act (SCA) Health & Welfare benefits from $4.02 to $4.27. A notice is not sent directly to contractors and unfortunately for them the importance of this change lies with timing. For those contractors that are currently working diligently on preparing cost proposals, this increase will directly affect you. According to the DOL memorandum that put this change into effect, “all invitation for bids opened, or other service contracts awarded on or after June 30, 2015, must include an updated SCA WD issued in accordance with the regulatory health and welfare (H&W) fringe benefit determination methodology.” So if you have recently submitted a proposal subject to the SCA, we suggest that you ensure that your H&W meets the SCA H&W requirement of $4.27.

Topics: Contractor Employee Compensation, Contracts Administration, Defense Contractors

In an Executive Orders (EO) issued on Labor Day, President Obama continued to display his willingness to manage the personnel policies of government contractors. This latest EO, one of many directed solely at Government contractors, will require contractors to provide up to seven days paid sick leave (annually) for employees. The EO comes with the typical unsupported rhetoric that “we’ve seen that many companies, including small businesses, support these policies because they understand it’s helpful with recruitment and retention” and a separate assertion “that paid sick leave will improve contractor performance”. Perhaps unintended, but it is noteworthy that the White House did not state that many companies support the notion that paid sick leave will “improve contractor performance”; by implication, the White House could not find any companies which were sufficiently naive to buy-in to that highly speculative and wholly unsupported assertion.

Topics: Contractor Employee Compensation, Government Compliance Training

Topics: Business Systems Review, Compliant Accounting Infrastructure, Contractor Employee Compensation, Contracts Administration, DFARS Business Systems

Although we once again failed to receive an invitation to attend the Federal Government’s Annual Halloween Ball, we have it from a reliable source that the following were the top four costumes for Government Officials and/or Agencies.  In addition, we’ve identified the most likely reasons for the popularity of the top four costumes.

Topics: Business Systems Review, Contractor Employee Compensation, Small Business Compliance, DFARS Business Systems

OK for Government Employees, but not Contractor Employees

As a by-product of government shutdowns, we’ve now seen two occasions where government employees were paid for non-productive time while in furlough status (in fact, the furloughed employees were explicitly prohibited from working notwithstanding the fact that in both 1995 and now in 2013, employees were “made whole” once the government was funded.  Although it was through no fault of the government employees who have been compensated for non-productive time, the fact remains that the taxpayer is footing the bill for idle, non-productive time on the part of thousands of government employees.

Topics: Government Shutdown, Contractor Employee Compensation, Government Compliance Training

All one has to do is read a recent article written by David Cox, President of the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), to derive the answer to this question, and the answer is that contractor employee compensation should be brought in line with the salaries that public sector employees (e.g., federal civilian personnel) are paid. 

Topics: Cost and Pricing and Budgeting, Contractor Employee Compensation