State Employment Law Articles

TakeawaysWashington’s pay transparency statute imposes strict obligations on employers.Employers can reduce their exposure by acting proactively to ensure compliance.Related links

A good development for employers from the district court. At the beginning of the year, Senate Bill (SB) 399 became effective, restricting employers from requiring participation in mandatory meetings addressing religious or political topics, including those concerning labor organizations. Shortly th

On October 1, 2025, California’s Governor signed Senate Bill (SB) 303, which states that an employee’s assessment, testing, admission, or acknowledgment of their own personal bias, when made in good faith and solicited or required as part of a bias mitigation training, does not, by itself, constitut

Governor Newsom has signed Senate Bill (SB) 617, which expands the information employers are required to include under the California Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act (CalWARN). Employers are now required to state whether they plan to coordinate services for affected employees throu

On September 11, 2025, the California Legislature passed a bill that would ban “stay or pay” terms in employment contracts, which require employees to pay their employer back for certain costs if they leave the job. Governor Gavin Newsom has not signed it yet.

The California Occupational Safety and Health Standards Board (Cal/OSHA Standards Board) authorized a limited advisory committee to consider clarifications and training requirements for interior framing work, opening the door to further dialogue and clarification of the new fall protection rules. At

On September 18, 2025, the California Occupational Safety and Health Standards Board (Cal/OSHA Standards Board) voted to adopt revisions to regulations on construction safety orders for confined spaces. The Office of Administrative Law (OAL) has thirty days to approve the draft regulation at Title 8

On September 18, 2025, the California Occupational Safety and Health Standards Board (Cal/OSHA Standards Board) declined to adopt an emergency request to provide pay and sick leave protections for agricultural workers affected by the avian influenza. The request, from Valley Voices, a California cen

Florida’s New Open Carry Landscape: What Business Owners Need to Know About Customers, Employees, and Their Right to Set the Rules The legality of firearms possession in Florida continues to evolve, with an important change as of September 25, 2025. After the First District Court of Appeal struck do

On September 26, 2025, Delaware Governor Matt Meyer signed into law legislation that will require employers in Delaware to include wage or salary ranges and information on benefits offered in job postings, becoming the latest in a growing number of states to enact a pay transparency law.

Nebraska’s Healthy Families and Workplaces Act (HFWA), as amended by Legislative Bill (LB) 415 (effective September 3, 2025), requires most private employers with eleven or more employees to provide earned paid sick time (PST) beginning October 1, 2025. The Nebraska Department of Labor (NDOL) has is

New York Amends Healthy Terminals Act for 2026 Earlier this year, New York amended its Healthy Terminals Act (HTA) as part of the FY 2026 budget. Effective January 1, 2026, wage, benefit, and leave obligations for covered airport workers at JFK and LaGuardia Airports will be tied to the federal

Colorado Supreme Court Rejects 6-Year Statute of Limitations for Wage Claims, Holds 2- or 3-Year Period Applies Colorado employers finally have clarity that all wage claims in Colorado are subject to a two-year statute of limitations, or three years for a willful violation. On September 15, 2025, in

The California Legislature recently sent to the governor Senate Bill (SB) 294 , which aims to ensure that employers consistently inform employees about key labor protections, immigration-related rights, and constitutional protections in the workplace. The bill, titled “The Workplace Know Your Rights

California’s Long-Awaited Final Regulations on Automated Decisionmaking Create New Compliance Challenges for Employers After a lengthy rulemaking process, the California Privacy Protection Agency (the “Agency”) has finalized regulations under the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) governing the

On September 10, 2025, the First District Court of Appeal in McDaniels v. State of Florida ruled, contrary to the Florida Supreme Court’s 2017 decision in Norman v. State of Florida , that 790.053, Florida Statutes (Florida’s “Open Carry Ban”), enacted in 1987, was unconstitutional. Prior to this ca

Takeaways

On August 21, 2025, the mayor of the City of Long Beach approved an ordinance ( Ordinance No. ORD-25-0010 ) requiring food and drug retail establishments to employ at least one human cashier at all times and to assign at least one employee to supervise every three self-checkout lanes. The ordinance

In Kruitbosch v. Bakersfield Recovery Services, Inc. , the California Court of Appeal, Fifth Appellate District, held that an employee had stated a cognizable claim for sexual harassment hostile work environment based on the employer’s response to a nonsupervisory coworker’s offsite, nonwork-related