HR Specialist: Pennslyvania Employment Law

Jurors in Pennsylvania are notoriously generous to fired employees. And that’s just the beginning. Aggressive attorneys don’t stop with federal laws like FMLA, ADA and FLSA: they use state and local living-wage statutes, rural codes, plus discrimination and other laws to sue employers for sky’s-the-limit damages. This Pennsylvania-specific newsletter arrives monthly to help sue-proof every aspect of HR. Written in plain English, it’s your insurance policy for staying in step with current interpretations of state and local laws – and staying out of court. Learn more about HR Specialist: Pennsylvania Employment Law and the free report you’ll get when you subscribe...
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The Keystone State ranked 29th out of 51 jurisdictions in the Small Business and Entrepreneurship Council’s (SBEC) Business Tax Index for 2009, a score that would have been better if it didn’t have the nation’s highest state corporate tax rate.

The SBEC annually assesses the tax climates for business and entrepreneurs in the 50 states and the District of Columbia.

Only D.C. has a corporate tax rate higher than Pennsylvania’s.

The index includes rankings of the top personal income tax rates in each state (Pennsylvania is 11th at 3.07%) and the top individual capital gains tax rates (13th at 3.07%).

Also rated are top corporate income tax rates (Pennsylvania is last at 9.9%), top corporate capital gains tax rates (also last at 9.9%) and sales, gross receipts and excise taxes as a share of personal income (11th at 2.67%).

Other factors include unemployment tax rates as a share of state average pay (Pennsylvania ranks 22nd at 1.63%), state gas taxes (42nd at 32.3 cents per gallon) and diesel taxes (tied for 46th with California at 39.2 cents per gallon).