Canadian Payroll Reporter

6 Canadian HR Reporter, a Thomson Reuters business 2014 News in Brief a look at news, facts and figures shaping the world of payroll professionals Average weekly earnings up by 0.7 per cent in March: StatsCan › OTTAWA — average weekly earnings of non-farm payroll employees were $932.69 in March, up 0.7 per cent from $926.13 in February, statistics Canada reports. statistics Canada revised the February numbers from the previously reported $925. on a year-over-year basis, weekly earnings increased 3.1 per cent in March. the increase in weekly earnings during the 12 months to March reflected a number of factors, including wage growth, changes in the composition of employment by industry, occupation and level of job experience, as well as average hours worked per week. non-farm payroll employees worked an average of 33 hours per week in March, the same as in February and just slightly more than the average of 32.9 hours in the previous March. Year-over-year earnings of non-farm payroll employees increased in all provinces, with the biggest growth in alberta, new- foundland and labrador, British Columbia and Quebec. the smallest growth was in saskatchewan. Payroll most likely area of finance to be outsourced: Survey › MENLO PARK, Calif. — Within a company's finance department, payroll is the function most often outsourced, a recent survey found. staffing firm Robert Half and the Financial executives Research Foundation surveyed almost 1,600 finance and accounting department executives in Canada and the United states for their annual benchmarking study. the survey found 47 per cent of both Canadian and U.s. companies outsource payroll. the next most commonly outsourced function in finance is tax, with 37 per cent of Canadian employers and 42 per cent of U.s. employers outsourcing it. Payroll outsourcing is common for both large and small companies. the survey found 73 per cent of firms with annual revenues of $5 billion or more out- sourced payroll. in businesses with revenues of less than $99 million, close to 52 per cent outsourced payroll. outsourcing of payroll was less common for firms in the middle. thirty-eight per cent of firms with revenues between $100 million and $499 million out- sourced payroll, compared with 29 per cent in firms with revenues of $500 million to $999 million and 32 per cent in businesses with revenues between $1 billion and $4.9 billion. the study says the focus on payroll and tax for outsourcing "reflects the effort by finance departments to reallocate resources toward activities that deliver higher value to the organization and away from manual, time-consuming activities." the survey also found 66 per cent of Canadian companies and 59 per cent of U.s. companies still reconcile accounts manually. the study says this strains both a company's staff and its resources. overall, the survey found accounting and finance managers in Canada work about 46 hours per week and non-management employees work about 40 hours per week. this compares to 47 hours per week for managers in the U.s. and 42 hours for non-managers. the study is available at http://s3.amazonaws.com/DBM/M3/2011/Downloads/RH_FeRF_Benchmarking2014.pdf. Survey finds many workers avoiding vacations › MENLO PARK, Calif. — almost 40 per cent of workers in the United states do not use all of their paid vacation time, a recent survey shows. the survey, conducted by staffing firm Robert Half, asked 436 office workers whether they typically use all of the paid vacation days their employer provides. thirty-nine per cent said they do not, while 58 per cent said they do. of those who do not take all of their vacation time, 38 per cent said they were saving the time in case they needed it, while 30 per cent said they had too much work to take vacation. other reasons for not taking vacation included employees not liking to take time off, fear that mangers would be unhappy and employers not giving employees vacation time. Paul McDonald, senior executive director of Robert Half, said vacations are important for employees and their employers. "all work and no play doesn't just lead to burnout — it also erodes creativity," he said. "supervisors should encourage their teams to take a break and recharge, especially their top performers, who are often the most aggressive vacation savers and most susceptible to burnout." Credit: Shutterstock.com calendar years remit monthly. The previous Quebec government an- nounced the change in its February bud- get. Quebec will revise its tax regulations to incorporate the proposal once the federal government changes its regulations. It is ex- pected the change would apply to amounts employers withhold starting in 2015. Non-refundable tax credit The budget also reiterated an announce- ment from the February Quebec budget that the province plans to amend its tax legisla- tion to incorporate another federal budget proposal. This one would introduce a non- refundable tax credit for eligible ground, air and marine search and rescue volunteers. The proposed federal tax credit would allow an eligible individual to claim a 15 per cent non-refundable tax credit based on an amount of $3,000. For Quebec, the tax rate that would be used to determine the amount of the tax credit is currently 16 per cent. The federal government proposes to implement the tax credit this year. Quebec would revise its tax legislation to incorporate the proposal once federal amendments become law. Other measures in the budget The budget also includes the following mea- sures that may impact payroll: The government plans to set up a com- mittee to review the province's tax system and suggest ways to improve it. Leitão said the committee would table its recommen- dations before the next budget. The government will set up an oversi- ght committee to ensure regulations are streamlined in order to reduce the regula- tory burden on businesses. It will also create a one-stop service called Entreprises Qué- bec to make it easier for businesses to do business with the provincial government. It also proposes to improve the "Businesses" and "Mon dossier" web spaces on its home- page to allow for online transactions with government departments and agencies. In an effort to reduce tax evasion, begin- ning Jan. 1, 2015, Revenu Québec will re- quire that employment agencies whose cu- mulative amount of contracts with a client company exceeds $2,500 in a calendar year obtain a Revenu Québec certificate verifying they have filed required returns and have no outstanding amounts due. More information on the Quebec budget is available at www.budget.finances.gouv. qc.ca/budget/2014-2015a/index_en.asp. Quebec budget confirms tax credit for rescue volunteers from BUdGET on page 2

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