Other articles by Harry Wessel:

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Driver/Transportation
DRIVERS Health Care
ADMINISTRATOR General
Wasatch Property Management
Maintenance Tech General
Independent Fire & Safety
Fire Suppression Systems inspector General
Dismas Charities
Security Monitor Trades/Construction
Osmose Utilites
Foremen Sales and Marketing
Electric Supply, Inc
Outside Sales

Q: Based on some misinformation from management, I signed up for life insurance as one of my company benefits. I thought it was free, until I saw the deduction for it on my first pay stub in January.

A: Your legal options are few, though there's a long-shot possibility you might persuade your employer to reconsider.

Here's the problem: The life-insurance option is part of a larger, "cafeteria" benefits plan, which is governed by IRS rules that do not permit changes in benefits more than once a year, explained Margaret Bernardin, a lawyer with Ford & Harrison in Orlando who specializes in employee benefits.

There are exceptions for "qualifying events" such as a divorce or job change, Bernardin said, but employers otherwise are not permitted to make changes outside the annual enrollment period. Allowing such changes could jeopardize the entire benefits plan, which is paid for with pretax income.

Your only longshot option is to convince your HR folks that your decision was the company's fault, not yours. In that case, Bernardin said, your decision to elect life-insurance coverage would not have been valid from the outset, so cancellation of coverage would not violate IRS rules.

Four of every five U.S. teens plan to get a paying job this summer, with "saving for college" the most likely motivation, according to the seventh annual Junior Achievement Interprise Poll on Teens and Summer Jobs.

In past years, "extra spending money" has been the top motivator. It came in second this time around. Among the nearly 1,500 teens surveyed, 35.7 percent said paying for college was their main motivator, with 28 percent naming extra spending money.

The other top motivators listed by teens were "pay for a car" (14.4 percent), "gain work experience" (13.7 percent) and "help support family" (8.2 percent).

Asked in a survey by the Society for Human Resource Management if their companies were either doing or planning to do anything to help employees with high gas prices, 72 percent of HR professionals answered no. But that's down from 81 percent who answered no to the same question in 2005.

The biggest jump was in the percentage of companies raising their mileage reimbursement rates. Twenty-one percent of the surveyed companies pay the IRS maximum (now 44.5 cents a mile) vs. only 8 percent that were paying the IRS maximum last year.

The other significant jump was in companies offering employees a telecommuting option. That went from 4 percent in 2005 to 7 percent this year.

Opinion by

Harry Wessel