What are the 7 Things You Should Do When You Hire a New Employee?

  1. Get a W-4. This is a federal tax form that tells you how much federal income tax to withhold from an employee’s wages.  The amount of federal withholding is based on marital status and withholding allowances, but your employees can specify a dollar amount to be withheld from their wages that is in addition to the standard withholding amount.  Ask all new employees to give you a signed W-4 when they start work.  Make the form effective with their first wage payment.  If a new employee doesn’t give you a completed W-4, withhold income tax as if he or she is single, with zero withholding allowances.  A W-4 remains in effect until the employee gives you a new one.
  2. Record the employee’s name and social security number. You’re required to get each employee’s name and social security number so that at the end of the year, you can show this information on the Form W-2. The W-2, also known as a Wage and Tax Statement, is the document an employer is required to send to each of their employees and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) at the end of the year. The W-2 reports the employee’s annual wages and the amount of taxes you withheld from his or her paychecks for the prior year.
  3. Verify their work eligibility. Employers must verify that each new employee is legally eligible to work in the United States using the I-9 Form. The employee must attest to his or her employment authorization and also must provide you with certain documents showing their identity and employment authorization. You must determine whether the document(s) reasonably appear to be genuine and then fill out the employer’s section of the Form I-9. This form does not have to be filed with the government; just keep it in your records.
  4. Report them to the new hire registry.  Employers are required to report any new employee to the Florida New Hire Reporting Center within 20 days of the employee’s start date.  This is to help with collection of child support.  You can report online to the Florida Department of Revenue’s reporting website at servicesforemployers.floridarevenue.com, or you can file a paper copy of the Florida New Hire Reporting Form with the Department of Revenue. You will have to report the employee’s name, address, Social Security Number, and date of hire.
  5. Tell Your Insurance Company. Report all new employees to the insurance company that provides your company’s workers’ compensation insurance policy. Because workers’ comp is based on payroll, adding a new employee will increase your premium. But better to start paying the increase immediately rather than waiting until your payroll audit and having to pay what you owe in one lump sum.
  6. Make sure the employee’s pay meets minimum wage and overtime requirements. Employees must be paid at least the Florida minimum wage for all hours worked, and must receive overtime pay of at least time and a half their regular rate of pay for all hours worked over 40 hours in a workweek. There are some exceptions for executive, administrative, and professional employees who make at least $684 a week in salary and have certain job duties.
  7. Report the new employee’s pay on your next quarterly unemployment tax reports, both state and federal. Employers are required to pay unemployment tax on the wages they pay employees.  There is a federal unemployment tax and also a state unemployment tax (which is called reemployment tax).  Both taxes are paid quarterly and are based on the prior quarter’s total payroll.

For more information, call the FUBA offices at 800-262-4483 and ask for Karen.

Your Free 2020 Florida Minimum Wage Poster Enclosed With Mailed Newsletter

Florida businesses are required to pay their employees at least the Florida minimum wage rate, which changes every year. Starting January 1, 2020, the Florida minimum wage will increase to $8.56 an hour. All your employees must receive at least this hourly wage for all hours they work.

If you have tipped employees (like food servers), you are allowed to count the tips they receive towards the minimum wage. However, you are also required to pay them an hourly cash wage. For 2020, the cash wage you must pay tipped employees is increasing to $5.54 an hour.

With this change to the Florida minimum wage, Florida employers will be required to display a new minimum wage poster for 2020. One of the benefits of your FUBA membership is that we provide you with all updated posters free of charge. On January 1st, simply post the new notice enclosed with the mailed copy of your newsletter at your workplace to be in compliance with this requirement.

As always, additional posters are free of charge for FUBA members.  You can print them from our website by clicking here. Or, you can request additional posters by emailing us at FUBA@FUBA.org. Please include your name, company name, and mailing address in your email.

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