News & Events

April 6, 2015

Early Retirement Incentive Programs: Do’s and Don’ts

  • April 6, 2015
  • Publication: Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM)
  • Related Attorneys: Hope Eastman
  • Related Practice Areas: Employment Law

An early retirement incentive program (ERIP), such as the one recently announced by USA Today, is one of the tools companies use to strategically adapt to their changing workforce needs.

The hallmark of these plans is that they are incentives that employees can choose or not. Care needs to be taken with all such retirement-based programs to comply with the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA) and the Older Workers Benefit Protection Act (OWBPA), which was added to the ADEA in 1990.

The OWBPA contains an exemption to what the ADEA would otherwise ban as follows:

It shall not be unlawful for an employer, employment agency, or labor organization … to observe the terms of a bona fide employee benefit plan ... that is a voluntary early retirement incentive plan consistent with the… purposes of [the ADEA].

The Senate Report accompanying the OWBPA made it clear that if plans are truly voluntary, made available for a reasonable period of time and do not result in arbitrary age discrimination, they will survive an ADEA challenge.

...

READ FULL ARTICLE HERE >

News

March 21, 2023

Michelle Chapin’s Article on the Use of Arbitration Causes in Trusts is Published by the MSBA’s Estate & Trust Law Section

Michelle Chapin, a Principal in Paley Rothman’s Estate Planning department, authored an article titled "(Un)Enforceability of Arbitration Clauses in Maryland Trusts" in the MSBA's Estate & Trust Law Section Newsletter Volume 29 Issue 1.

Read More

Blog

Sec. Deb Haaland – First Native American in the Cabinet

Sec. Deb Haaland is the first Native American to serve in the President’s cabinet and has been instrumental in bringing attention and action to the horrific incident rate of...

Read More

Resource Center

Paley Rothman shares this library of resources with clients and friends of the firm to help them stay ahead of legal and business developments and trends. Here, you will find helpful tips and tools written by our attorneys and relevant to our areas of practice.

Read More