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New 401K Rules for 2026 

The IRS has announced the official 401(k) contribution limits for 2026.   2026 401(k) Contribution Limits:  Category   Limit  Employee Contribution (Under Age 50)  $24,500  Age 50+ Catch-up Contribution (Ages 50-59, 64+)  $8,000  Age 60-63 “Super” Catch-up Contribution  $11,250  Total Employee + Employer Contributions  $72,000  Key Details:  Important Note for High Earners in 2026: Starting in 2026, participants

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Dear David: Protection from Retaliation Claims 

Question: When is an employer’s action considered to be retaliation?    Answer: Retaliation remains one of the most common employment claims across the U.S. One of the biggest risks for employers is not what action is taken, but when it is taken. Courts and agencies often look at the timing between an employee’s protected activity, such

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Print Excellence Awards Call for Entries

Do you have what it takes to be proclaimed the “Best in the West”? Enter your best work and find out!  PIA is excited to kick off the “Call for Entries” for the 2026 Print Excellence Awards competition. Each year this regional event rewards the best craftsmanship and technology in the dynamic printing, imaging and

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Dear David: Injuries in the Workplace

Question: One of our employees cut their hand on the edge of a broken filing cabinet at work. We asked if they wanted medical treatment, but they declined. Should we still have them fill out an accident report?    Answered by the HR Experts: Advice provided by Mineral. This Q&A does not constitute legal advice and

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Dear David: Work-Related Injury & FMLA

Question: We have an employee out due to a work-related injury. Do we still need to send them Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) paperwork if they’re already on workers’ compensation?    Answered by the HR Experts: It depends. The FMLA and workers’ compensation serve different purposes. The FMLA provides unpaid job-protected leave, while workers’ compensation

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The Next Generation of Print Employees

Introduction Not long ago, Museum of Printing President and Rochester Institute of Technology Professor Emeritus Frank Romano recorded a WhatTheyThink video about print education entitled Print Basics Are Not. Frank’s point was that in his lifetime, print education (which had been taught in virtually every high school in the past) had for all practical purposes

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Digital Embellishments: Present and Future

Introduction Production digital printing delivers many advantages such as on-demand printing, 1:1 personalization, and just-in-time manufacturing. One of the lesser-promoted advantages has been, for a certain subset of devices, the ability to add colors or special effects beyond the process colors of cyan, magenta, yellow, and black (CMYK). These digital embellishment effects, sometimes called CMYK+

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Dear David: Talking Politics at Work

Question: We usually don’t mind employees chit-chatting while they work, but some recent politics-related conversations have gotten rather loud and heated. Can we tell employees not to discuss politics at work?    Answer: You can limit political speech and associated conduct that are not work-related—provided you don’t infringe on protected Section 7 rights or applicable state

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Dear David: How should employee files be organized?

Question: How should employee files be organized?   Answer: We recommend having five separate files for each employee, as outlined below:  These files should be kept in a secure location that is only accessible to those in the HR function or with a legitimate need to review the information—for instance, in locked cabinets inside a locked

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Print for Deeper Comprehension 

Introduction  On some level, I think we all understand that print is a better medium for deeper reading comprehension, but it is nice when a group of researchers takes the time to attach electrodes to some middle schoolers to prove it. That is exactly what Dr. Karen Froud and her team did in a 2024

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