Employer-Paid

The Arizona Legislature adjourned a two-day special session Monday without voting on a proposal to keep 20 weeks of federally funded extended unemployment benefits flowing to thousands of jobless people.

NFL employees have had their salaries trimmed by 12 percent since April, and seven teams have instituted pay cuts or furloughs of workers outside the huddle since the owners' lockout of players began March 12, The Associated Press has found in interviews around the league.

Stories are popping up everywhere about employers who are refusing to hire workers who smoke, or are tacking on a premium penalty, or even offering a quitting incentive, hoping to reduce health care costs and increase productivity.

Some analysts predict that a large number of employers will terminate their health plans in 2014 and simply pay the annual penalty of $2,000 per employee.

Aetna Inc. said Monday it will buy the Medicare supplement business of Genworth Financial Inc. for about $290 million, as it becomes the latest health insurer to announce a plan that capitalizes on the aging baby boomer population.

Alabama schools will soon have to check if students are in the country legally and people stopped for any reason could be arrested on suspicion of immigration violations under a sweeping law being called the nation's most restrictive against illegal immigration.

Medical marijuana patients can be fired from their jobs in Washington state even if they only use the drug outside the workplace, the Washington Supreme Court ruled Thursday.

A round-up of the week’s employee benefits news, reports and controversy from around the web