Disability Employment Policy Resources
Accommodations

All employees need the right tools and work environment to effectively perform their jobs. Similarly, individuals with disabilities may need workplace adjustments - or accommodations - to maximize their productivity.

Under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), an accommodation is considered any modification or adjustment to a job or work environment that enables a qualified person with a disability to apply for or perform a job. The term also encompasses alterations to ensure a qualified individual with a disability has rights and privileges in employment equal to those of employees without disabilities. The obligation to provide reasonable accommodations for job applicants or employees with disabilities is one of the key non-discrimination requirements in the ADA's employment provisions.

Most accommodations are low cost yet yield considerable direct and indirect benefits. In fact, data collected by the Job Accommodation Network (JAN) over the years reveal that more than half of accommodations cost employers nothing, and of those that do cost, the typical one-time expenditure is $500 - an outlay that most employers report pays for itself multiple-fold in the form of reduced insurance and training costs and increased productivity.

The following resources provide more information about job accommodations for people with disabilities:
  • Job Accommodation Network (JAN) - ODEP-funded service that provides free, expert and confidential guidance on workplace accommodations and other disability employment issues. Live phone service is available 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. ET by calling (800) 526-7234 or (877) 781-9403 (TTY). Assistance is also available in Spanish, both via phone and the JAN en Espaņol Web page. Specific resources include:

Information provided by Office of Disability Employment Policy 
Minimum Wage Increases for 2016

Minimum wage workers deserve a raise. That's why President Obama has urged Congress for nearly three years to raise the federal minimum wage − stuck at $7.25 per hour since 2009. While the costs for the basics like housing, food and transportation have all gone up, the national minimum wage has not. In the absence of a national raise, states and localities have taken action. Since 2013, 17 states and the District of Columbia have raised their minimum wage rates. Today, a total of 29 states as well as the District of Columbia have a minimum wage higher than $7.25. Thanks to this momentum, the minimum wage rates in 14 states go up in January.

Also going up in January is the federal minimum wage for workers on certain federal contracts. In 2014, President Obama took action to raise the minimum wage where he could and issued an executive order bringing the minimum wage for workers on federal service contracts to $10.10 per hour. At the time, he also guaranteed that the wage would be adjusted annually to keep up with inflation. In January, their minimum wage will see a slight bump to $10.15 per hour. It's a small increase because inflation was modest over the last year, but every penny counts for an employee putting in the hard work yet still struggling to get by.

Information provided by US Department of Labor blog

Read the complete article here
Scheduled Internal Reporting

Federal regulations requires internal reporting on a scheduled basis to determine the degree to which equal employment opportunity and organizational objectives are attained. Our reporting package provides the HR professional and in-line managers with an easy to read evaluation of the company's affirmative action efforts so that mid-course corrections may be made. One such report is the Comparison of Utilization and Shortfall, and only requires current workforce data to give results.

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