Committee forwards revised telecommuting policy to council after staff outlines out-of-state compliance costs

The Beaufort County Finance Committee voted to forward a proposed update to the county’s personnel handbook on telecommuting to county council after Human Resources staff outlined legal and cost implications of allowing employees to work permanently from outside South Carolina.

Director of Human Resources Catherine Mead told the committee that outside counsel advised a post-hire agreement requiring out-of-state employees to follow South Carolina law would not prevent other states’ administrative agencies or courts from asserting jurisdiction over complaints. "It would not suffice as it would not keep another state's administrative agencies or courts from asserting jurisdiction," Mead said when summarizing counsel’s advice.

Mead provided preliminary cost estimates for the three employees identified as currently working from out of state: workers’ compensation coverage and related employer costs are estimated at about $350 per employee per year; unemployment payroll tax at about 1% of salary; and initial attorney review costs (labor-law and workers’-comp attorneys) that the county estimated at roughly $12,075 plus an additional ~$3,300 for workers' comp counsel. The average salary used in that calculation for the three employees was about $75,470, Mead said.

Committee members debated grandfathering the three current employees and whether the elected official who employs them could absorb the additional costs in that official’s budget; staff noted the county is currently not withholding other states’ income taxes and is not filing unemployment insurance in those states for these workers, which raises compliance concerns.

Mead and other staff said the draft policy would allow hybrid and in-state telecommuting but would not permit permanent, full-time out-of-state telecommuting without county-administrator approval; she noted the existing policy already required administrator approval for out-of-state remote work but that compliance was uneven. "The policy that we adopted 01/01/2024 already indicated that out of state remote work must have approval from the county administrator," Mead said.

The committee had no objection to forwarding the revised policy to the full council; the measure will appear on the council agenda for consideration.

Next steps: staff will bring a revised policy to county council; committee members requested clarifying language about grandfathering and suggested staff identify the duties and reporting expectations for positions that might be eligible for remote work.