State Employment Law Articles

Beginning Feb. 2, 2026, all claimants and lay witnesses must appear on video with their faces fully visible during virtual hearings.

The city of Columbus, Ohio, recently enacted an ordinance that will require most employers to provide reasonable, good-faith estimates of a position’s wages or salary in job postings. The ordinance makes Columbus at least the fourth major municipality in Ohio to require some form of wage or salary d

Paid sick leave and family leave laws in California continue to expand at a rapid pace. In this episode, Jen reviews the latest changes to the Healthy...

Takeaways

Effective January 1, 2026, the minimum wage rate in the State of Washington will increase to $17.13 per hour for employees sixteen years of age or older. For minor employees (fourteen or fifteen years of age), the minimum wage rate will be $14.56 per hour (or 85 percent of the

On December 4, 2025, the New York City Council overrode a mayoral veto to enact two new pay data reporting laws, Int. 0982-2024-A and Int. 0984-2024-A , that will require large employers to submit annual reports with pay data by race, ethnicity, and sex, modeled after the former federal EEO-1 Compon

New Local and State-Wide Laws in Pennsylvania Prohibit Discrimination Based on a Variety of Protected Categories In the past month, Pennsylvania and its two largest cities, Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, enacted legislation that will affect employers across the Commonwealth. Pennsylvania adopted legis

On December 9, 2025, the California Court of Appeal, Third Appellate District, issued a published decision in Sierra Pacific Industries Wage and Hour Cases , affirming the trial court’s denial of Sierra Pacific Industries’ motion to compel arbitration and upholding the imposition of evidentiary and

In Florida, two recent court rulings and a number of laws enacted in 2025 will directly impact employers. This article summarizes the two cases and the new laws, which address open carry of guns, medical marijuana use by employees, restrictive covenants with employees, workers’ compensation rules, a

California Doubles Down on Diversity Data: The New Era of DEI Transparency in Venture Capital In October 2023, California enacted Senate Bill 54 (SB 54) to promote transparency in venture capital funding by requiring firms with a California nexus to report demographic data on the founding teams of t

The Court of Appeals of the State of Oregon recently held in Trumper v. Women’s Healthcare Associates, LLC that an at-will employee could not bring a wrongful discharge claim where she did not challenge the lawfulness of her employer’s COVID-19 vaccination mandate and otherwise failed to identify a

Starting January 1, 2026, all California employers must issue a new annual written notice to every employee explaining key workplace rights — from workers’...

On September 3, 2025, Governor Phil Murphy signed Assembly Bill No. 4429 (A4429), which amends the state’s “captive audience” law by expanding the restrictions on employer-mandated communications and meetings concerning political matters to cover an employee’s decision to join or support a labor org

California employers face a complex minimum wage compliance landscape, in which state law sets a floor and cities and counties often set higher local minimums. As remote and hybrid arrangements proliferate, the obligation to pay the correct minimum wage turns on where employees actually perform thei

Illinois has enacted significant amendments to the Workplace Transparency Act (WTA), effective January 1, 2026, that will materially affect employment, separation, and settlement agreements with Illinois employees, applicants, contractors, and consultants. The amendments broaden what constitutes an

The Court of Appeals of the State of Oregon recently held in Athena v. Pelican Brewing Co. that the pay required for meal periods lasting less than thirty minutes is considered a wage under Oregon law, rather than a penalty. This distinction provides for a private right of action for

Takeaways

Delaware Adopts Amended Paid Leave Regulations on the Eve of Program’s Launch On December 1, 2025, Delaware published amended paid family medical leave (PFML) regulations that take effect on December 11, 2025. While the amendments are not extensive, they will significantly impact many employers set