How do I get my tax information at the end of the year?

The Confident Companies is required by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to provide each employee with a W-2 Form that states the employee’s compensation and tax withholding amounts for the calendar year on or before January 31st of the following year. The IRS permits the use of electronic W-2 statements to meet this requirement.

The benefits of receiving an electronic W-2 statement are:

• Earlier access
• Once received electronically, significantly less possibility that the W-2 may be lost or stolen
• Access is possible electronically if the employee is away from his/her usual home or work location
• Compensation and tax withholding information may easily be downloaded into many tax preparation software programs

To access your W-2 form:

• Log into your employee profile – If you can’t remember your user name or password, give us a call!
• Click on the Payroll History tab at the top
• In the menu on the left hand side of your screen click on the W-2 link
• Click the View link next to the year to open the W-2 document

Your W-2 form can be saved or printed and the link to your tax form will remain in your employee profile

NOTE: If you worked for more than one of our Confident Companies, you will have a W-2 form for each company you were employed by during the calendar year. If you worked for Confident Staffing, Confident Construction Workforce or Confident Employee Leasing – you will need to log into each of your company specific employee profiles in order to access your records for that company.

If you have trouble accessing your information or if you have any questions about your W-2 form, contact our Corporate Office at 541-773-8888

The post Important W2 Information for Employees appeared first on Confident Employee Leasing.

The law expands the current sex-based pay discrimination law and to include ten protected classes:

1. Race
2. Color
3. Religion
4. Sex
5. Sexual orientation
6. National origin
7. Marital status
8. Veteran status
9. Disability
10. Age

“Work of Comparable Character” Defined

Next, the law explicitly prohibits paying these classes less than others for “work of comparable character”, defined as work that requires “substantially similar knowledge, skill, effort, responsibility and working conditions in the performance of work, regardless of job description or title.”

Acceptable Pay Differences

There are a few exceptions for different compensation levels, however. The law states that the differences must be based on job-related factors, including:

• Seniority or merit
• Work location
• Education
• Training
• Experience
• A combination of these factors

Salary History Ban

The law also bans employers from screening applicants based on salary history. Also, employers are prohibited from inquiring about an applicant’s salary history from both the applicant and his or her previous employer.

Employers may not use salary history when setting compensation, except when establishing pay for a current employee during a transfer or hire to a new position within the same employer.

Employee Notices

Employers are required to provide notice to employees of the law’s requirements via labor law poster. If a poster is not feasible, employers can distribute a written notice to each employee personally by mail or email, or by including it with their paycheck. Also, the notice may be added to an employee handbook or manual in both print and electronic format.

View more here: https://www.govdocs.com/oregons-equal-pay-act-to-take-effect-jan-1-2019/

The post Oregon’s Equal Pay Act to Take Effect Jan. 1, 2019 appeared first on Confident Employee Leasing.

The post Oregon High-Tech Outlook appeared first on Confident Employee Leasing.

Read full article: https://oregoneconomicanalysis.com/2018/02/02/oregon-leading-indicators-and-the-manufacturing-outlook/

The post Oregon Leading Indicators and the Manufacturing Outlook appeared first on Confident Employee Leasing.

As discussed earlier, Oregon incomes continued to rise and the poverty rate ticked down. This post is a quick update on trends we are seeing across Oregon’s metro areas. For rural income trends, we need to wait until December when the 5 year ACS estimates are released.

First, let’s start with the Rogue Valley where household incomes have seemingly lagged underlying economic growth in recent years. The latest figures show solid gains in both Medford (Jackson County) and Grants Pass (Josephine County). The data is a bit noisy so I usually use a two year average to help smooth it and get the underlying trends. This is especially useful for a smaller area, and thus smaller sample size, like Grants Pass. As you can see in the dotted line (annual numbers) the region has seen two strong gains in the past three years, but also a year of large losses. Expectations are that moving forward, there will be more sustained momentum in the Josephine numbers and incomes will continue to increase. That said, some year to year volatility is to be expected. Medford

Traveling north on I-5 a bit, incomes throughout the Willamette Valley continue to show good growth in the latest data. Salem and Corvallis incomes are now at historic highs, while Albany and Eugene incomes are essentially back to where they were at the start of the Great Recession.

Further north, the Portland region continues to see strong gains. Like the state overall, 2017 increases were a bit slower, but continue to outpace most other large metros across the country. The Portland MSA’s median household income now ranks 16th highest among the nation’s 100 largest metros. In 2007, Portland ranked 32nd highest. As noted in the statewide trends, the leveling out of the poverty rate was also seen in the Portland region. Similarly, the poverty rate differences between racial and ethinic groups was evident in Portland as well. As such, it is reasonable to conclude that outside the Portland area, Oregon’s poverty rates continued to decline.

Read the full article here: https://oregoneconomicanalysis.com/2018/09/13/urban-oregon-household-income-2017-update/

The post Urban Oregon Household Income, 2017 Update appeared first on Confident Employee Leasing.

The post Oregon Economic and Revenue Forecast appeared first on Confident Employee Leasing.

The post 09/18/2018 – Employment in Oregon: August 2018 appeared first on Confident Employee Leasing.

Oregon’s food economy overall employs nearly 290,000 workers, or 15% of the state workforce. It accounts for 4-5% of state GDP in recent years. One-third of these workers — nearly 100,000 — are in the production, processing, and distribution segments of the food economy. It is here where Oregon has a distinct comparative advantage, and a growing national share of the market. However, most of us only really interact with the fourth segment of the food economy: food services. The lion’s share of jobs are found in these food services, which includes restaurants, supermarkets, specialty food and beverage stores, food carts and the like. And while these services garner the (inter)national attention, and satisfy our tastebuds, they play a lesser role in terms of the economic impact and what makes Oregon unique from an industrial structure perspective. This is partially because food services are largely driven by population and consumer spending patterns. Even as Oregon may be home to award-winning chefs and renown restaurants, residents of other states also go out to eat. Standard economic data is insufficient to distinguish between the quality of products or services sold.

Where Oregon’s food economy differs from other states is on the production and processing portions of the food economy. The more famous food services are an integral segment, a byproduct and growth off of the fact Oregon is home to successful producers and processors of the local food economy. Specifically, Oregon’s location quotient for food production is 2.6, meaning the concentration of agricultural jobs is two and a half times what it is nationwide. This is primarily driven by crops (grains, fruits, vegetables, etc) and fishing. Additionally, Oregon’s location quotient for food processing is 1.5 meaning the local concentration 50% larger than in the average state.

As seen in the chart above, the growth in food processing really stands out both here in Oregon, and when we look across the country. These processing jobs (food manufacturing plus beverage manufacturing) are being driven not just by overall economic growth, but also a regional shift, or regional competitive effect. Using a shift-share analysis, the overall growth in food processing jobs in Oregon is 70% regional competitive effect. Contrast these processing gains with those seen in food production and food services which are 99% and 97%, respectively, driven by the national growth and the industry mix components of the shift-share analysis. In other words, the growth seen in much of the food economy can be tied to general economic and industry trends. However, Oregon’s food processing growth is predominantly due to Oregon gaining a significantly larger slice of the pie.

To help frame these gains I looked at changes across all states over the past decade. The next few charts focus just on food manufacturing (NAICS 311) and leaves beverages to the side for a moment. Here you can see Oregon is among the top performers for job growth both in the absolute number of jobs gained, and in percentage terms.

What is most surprising to me, however, is how broad-based these gains have been across the various subsectors here in Oregon and across the state from a geographic perspective. Anecdotally, our office has heard reports about the growth of the frozen food companies here in the Willamette Valley as they import more products during the offseason to keep production high and employees working, in addition to some of the bread and bakery growth in the Portland region. However in digging a little bit deeper, it is clear that those ancedotal reports in recent years are just a portion of the overall growth.

Nearly every single subsector of food manufacturing has added jobs in the past decade. Yes, dairy manufacturers are flat over the 10 years but this includes many years of growth followed by a large drop in 2015, only to resume growth again in 2016 and 2017. I am unsure of what is happening there. Additionally it should be pointed out that a small portion of these gains, a few hundred at most, are due to the growth of the recreational marijuana industry. Companies making edibles are classified into food manufacturing, mostly into the bakeries and confectionery product.

Read full article here:https://oregoneconomicanalysis.com/2018/06/27/oregons-food-economy/

The post Oregon’s Food Economy appeared first on Confident Employee Leasing.

The post Oregon Nearing Full Employment in 2016 appeared first on Confident Employee Leasing.

The post Oregon Employment by Age appeared first on Confident Employee Leasing.