COVID
On November 4, 2021 OSHA, Department of Labor released COVID-19 Vaccination and Testing; Emergency Temporary Standard (https://public-inspection.federalregister.gov/2021-23643.pdf).
It is an Interim Final Rule taking effect on January 4, 2022 as an emergency temporary standard (ETS) to protect unvaccinated employees of large private employers (100 or more employees) from the risk of contracting COVID-19 by strongly encouraging vaccination. Covered employers must develop, implement, and enforce a mandatory COVID-19 vaccination policy, with an exception for employers that instead adopt a policy requiring employees to either get vaccinated or elect to undergo regular COVID-19 testing and wear a face covering at work in lieu of vaccination.
This ETS will preempt inconsistent state and local requirements, including requirements that ban or limit employers’ authority to require vaccination (see the Summary and Explanation for paragraph (a), Section VI.A. of this preamble), and will therefore provide the necessary legal authorization to covered employers to implement mandatory vaccination policies, if they choose to comply in this preferred manner.
Public comments may be submitted within approximately 30 days.
In general, affected employers will be required to show proof 100% of employees are vaccinated or adopt a policy for daily testing and require wearing face masks indoors for unvaccinated people. The cost of testing may fall upon the employer. Additionally, OSHA may enforce these requirements via monetary and/or criminal penalties in the case of egregious non-compliance or fraud.
2022 401 (k) Contribution Limits
The IRS released Notice 2021-61 defining the 2022 contribution limits for 401 (k) plans (https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-drop/n-21-61.pdf)
In general employees may now contribute up to $20,500 in 2022 which is $1,000 more than in 2021. Employer contribution limits also increase for 2022 by $2,000. Employee catch-up contributions for employees age 50 or older remain unchanged at $6,500. Additionally, 2022 IRA contributions remain unchanged
We encourage employers to speaking with their broker/consultants and labor law counsel to determine the next action steps.
Victor A. Deksnys, Alliance Partner, victor@deksnys.com, 1+415-806-0554
Aligned Growth Partners, LLC
