Compliance with New Jersey’s wage and hour and pay equity laws can be challenging. Over the last few years, the laws have become more robust and noncompliance more costly. Given that employers often rely upon their CPAs for guidance on compensation issues, it’s important to stay up to date on the key areas where employers often experience compliance challenges.

1. Minimum Wage Continues to Rise

For the last several years, New Jersey’s minimum wage has increased annually on Jan. 1 to reach a minimum wage of $15 per hour for most non-exempt employees. Looking ahead to 2024, minimum wage for most employees will increase to $15.13 (or higher).

2. Ensure Exempt Employees Are Properly Classified

There is a common misconception that so long as an employee is paid on a salary basis, they are exempt from overtime. For an individual to be properly classified as exempt, they must: (1) earn a salary of at least $684 per week; and (2) perform certain job duties and responsibilities that fall within one of the recognized exemption tests (e.g., administrative, executive, professional). The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) has proposed a rule that would increase the salary threshold to $1,059 per week, among other changes. Unless the employer can prove the exemption criteria are satisfied, the employee should be classified as non-exempt and paid overtime for all hours worked in excess of 40 hours in a workweek.

3. Proper Calculation of Overtime

Overtime is calculated as one and a half times the “regular rate” of pay. But calculating the regular rate can be complicated because additional remuneration that an employee receives, such as commissions, shift differentials and non-discretionary bonuses, need to be included in the calculation. These issues are complex and must be examined closely.

4. Consider Whether Contractors Are Actually Employees

Many companies routinely engage independent contractors to perform various services. However, these 1099 workers may be misclassified. Typically, misclassification issues arise when an independent contractor files for unemployment. New Jersey follows the ABC test, under which there is a presumption of employee status unless all of the following factors are established:

1. The worker has been and will continue to be free from control or direction over the performance of the service;
2. The work is either outside the usual course of business for the company requesting the work, or the work is performed outside of the company’s place of business; and
3. The worker is customarily engaged in an independently established trade, occupation, profession or business.

If this test can’t be satisfied, the individual should be classified as an employee and subject to typical withholding taxes, benefits, etc.

5. Stay Up to Date on Equal Pay Disclosure Laws

New Jersey requires equal pay for equal work, and pay disparities are fodder for high-stakes, expensive litigation. Many states and municipalities have recently enacted laws requiring that employers include information regarding the salary range for a position on a job posting. New Jersey does not currently have a state-wide salary range disclosure requirement, but it is likely that legislation will be enacted. Already, Jersey City has an ordinance requiring employers to post a minimum and maximum salary or hourly wages on any job postings. There are also certain reporting requirements for public contractors.

Failure to properly pay wages may result in significant exposure to damages, penalties and fines. A successful plaintiff can recover triple the amount of unpaid wages owed, plus attorney’s fees and costs. The best way to avoid exposure for wage and hour and equal pay claims is to conduct periodic audits of pay practices to determine whether there are any issues that need to be rectified. Employment policies and practices should be reviewed and updated regularly, especially given the frequent updates to these significant laws.

With the professional world changing drastically over the last three years due to the pandemic, it is important for companies to prioritize the professional development of their employees more than ever. Many employees, especially incoming staff that are just starting their careers, may not know what the professional world was like prior to the pandemic. And these employees could find it hard to jump start or continue their professional development.

How can this be done in the 2023 post pandemic era? Here are three ways:

1. Promote continuous learning to make learning a habit.

By not only promoting but helping to fund continuing professional education (CPE) for both non-CPA and CPA employees, learning will be encouraged. In the remote/virtual world, this can easily be done via Zoom, webinars, self-study, etc. Offering compensation or partial payment for advanced certifications such as the CPA, CFE and Masters programs is an extra incentive for employees to make these a priority in their professional development plans. For in-office employees, companies can offer study hours after normal work hours to encourage employees to take time to study for their certifications/programs and work with their fellow colleagues. My firm promotes this and even offers dinner for anyone participating in study hours.

2. Host events to meet and share expertise/experience.

Hosting events in-person or virtually for internal and external individuals to attend goes a long way. For example, “Lunch and Learns” are useful. My office does a “Pizza with the Partners” every month where a partner shares their own professional development and journey of how they became a partner. The office offers pizza lunch, which is an extra incentive for staff to join. This can also be done virtually via Zoom or Microsoft Teams.  

3. Offer mentor or career counselor programs.

Having formal programs where mentors/career counselors are assigned to employees based on their current needs or growth plan is popular. It’s best to require frequent check-ins (both formal and informal) with these programs. Firms can also include a monthly or quarterly stipend to be used for lunch or coffee, which motivates the mentors and mentees to meet and discuss various goals and growth progress.

These are just a few tips that can help companies promote the professional development of in-office, hybrid or remote employees. More-experienced employees should also help the newer employees with their professional development to ensure continuous growth.

Today, more and more accounting firms are offering or are considering offering advisory services to meet client needs and expectations. In fact, a recent Thomson Reuters report found that 95% of tax professionals believe their clients want more advisory services.

Here are five steps to master the art of advisory services:

1. Establish the “Why”

Before choosing the services to offer and planning how to implement them, think about why you want to offer them in the first place. Is it to do the following:

• Achieve higher revenue?
• Meet client needs?
• Enjoy more fulfilling work?
• Obtain a combination of all three?

2. Define Your “Dream” Services

Accounting firms can offer a wide range of advisory services, but you don’t have to offer all of them. In fact, you should focus on offering only the services that:

• Interest you and your team
• Benefit your clients

Remember, you can offer profitable services, but they won't be fulfilling if they’re not interesting to you and your team. Without fulfillment, you risk burnout.

Common advisory services include the following:

• Financial planning
• Cash flow management
• Financial strategy
• Exit planning
• Wealth management
• Strategic management
• Tax planning

Carefully consider each type of service, what it entails and whether the work will be fulfilling for your team and needed by clients. Once you have a list of advisory services that you want to offer, you can start taking steps to include them in your offerings.

3. Take Incremental Steps to Offer Advisory Services

Smaller firms need more resources to expand into a half-dozen new services. Even if you do, you risk not being able to accommodate your clients in the way that they deserve. Often, it’s best to take incremental steps to begin offering these services.

You can judge demand by:

• Reviewing past conversations with clients. See if they’re asking for services that you can start offering and what services they are interested in.
• Asking clients about their five-year goals. When asking clients about their goals, you’ll gain insight into what they desire and what it will take to get there. Perhaps a client wants to be able to buy a second home and take one nice vacation per year. You can offer financial planning as an advisory service to help them inch closer to this goal.

The last thing that you want to do is underperform for your current client base when you begin offering advisory services. Start with the steps above and then:

• Offer one or two in-house advisory services.
• Learn how the new services impact operations.
• Revisit adding more services in the future.
• Consider partnering with other firms (more below).

4. Test Cloud-based Tools

Advisory services can add a new layer of complexity to your firm. For example, let’s assume that you have the expertise to handle budgeting and forecasting in-house. You can use this specialization to your advantage by offering it to your clients. However, there are cloud-based solutions that will help crunch the numbers for you and allow for faster implementation.

You should test out cloud-based tools that can help you begin offering these services with as little friction as possible.

5. Partner with Other Firms

What if you want to begin offering other advisory services, such as financial planning, but it’s not something you prefer to provide in-house or have immense experience in? In these cases, you can partner with another firm. Partnering allows you to keep the services you love and offload the work you would rather have someone else do.

Investment Advisory Services Offered through:TFS Advisory Services, a service of TFS Securities, Inc.