State Employment Law Articles

School children are back at school following winter break, and that may mean employee requests for time off for parent-teacher conferences, school assemblies, and more. While less known, California law has a collection of statutes affording parents protected time off. One of those protections is Cal

Data privacy and security regulation is growing rapidly around the world, including in the United States. In addition to strengthening the requirements to secure personal data, individuals are being given an increasing array of rights concerning the collection, use, disclosure, sale, and processing

Happy Data Privacy Day from the Jackson Lewis Privacy, Data and Cybersecurity Team!

The Massachusetts Department of Family and Medical Leave has released draft regulations for the Massachusetts Paid Family and Medical Leave Act (G.L. c. 175M). The proposed regulations, released on January 23, 2019, track many of the statute’s requirements. In addition to the draft regulations, the

Gender identity and gender expression will now be protected under New York State's anti-discrimination law. Governor Andrew Cuomo signed the Gender Expression Non-Discrimination Act (GENDA) into law on January 25, 2019.

In 2018, the California Supreme Court issued an opinion (Dynamex Operations West, Inc. v. Superior Court of Los Angeles County) establishing a new standard (“ABC test”) for determining whether an individual is an independent contractor or employee in the context of claims brought under the State’s I

Earlier today, the Illinois Supreme Court handed down a significant decision concerning the ability of individuals to bring suit under the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA). In short, individuals need not allege actual injury or adverse effect, beyond a violation of his/her rights un

On January 23, 2019, the newly-created Massachusetts Department of Family and Medical Leave (Department) released proposed regulations clarifying the rights and responsibilities of employers and employees under the new Massachusetts Family and Medical Leave Law (MFMLL). The MFMLL will require all pr

On January 11, 2019, a California federal district court issued a decision bolstering the argument that employee non-solicitation clauses are unenforceable under California law. In Barker v. Insight Global, the judge declined to interpret narrowly another recent California state court of appeal deci

On January 17, 2019, Colorado Senate Democrats introduced the “Equal Pay for Equal Work Act” (SB 19-085) to prohibit a wage differential based on an employee’s sex. The bill also contains a salary history ban and pay transparency requirements. If passed, this would be among the most aggressive equal

An employer successfully compelled arbitration under an arbitration agreement that the plaintiff-workers had with their staffing agency, even though the staffing agency was not a defendant in the lawsuit.

Effective January 1, 2019, California SB 1343 greatly expanded Golden State employers' anti-harassment training requirements. The law not only extends coverage to employers with more than five employees, but it also mandates that employers provide anti-harassment training to all employees – not just

As California employers lay out their plans for compliance training in the coming year, the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing (DFEH) has clarified how to handle training supervisory employees who may have received AB 1825-compliant training sometime in 2018. The DFEH has taken the

The opportunities and challenges that artificial intelligence (AI) and automation are creating for the labor market are gaining increasing attention in both policy circles and society at large. The creation of the American Workforce Policy Advisory Board, whose members are expected to be announced e

Executive Summary. In groundbreaking legislation last year, New York State amended its Human Rights Law ("NYSHRL") to prohibit sexual harassment against non-employees of all types, including models, stylists, and artists in the fashion industry who are classified (correctly or not) as independent co

A new sick leave law is in effect in New Jersey. The law applies to all private sector employers with employees in NJ, regardless of size. It provides paid sick leave (PSL) to almost all private sector full-time and part-time employees who work in NJ (excluding construction employees covered by a co

New York and California are often characterized as two of the most employee-friendly states in the country. In continuation of that perception, New York City and California are announcing new employee leave initiatives.

The Superior Court of Delaware recently issued a decision confirming the state's protections for medical marijuana users. On December 17, 2018, in Chance v. Kraft Heinz Foods Co., the court held that the federal Controlled Substances Act (CSA), which prohibits the use and sale of marijuana, does not

One week after taking office, Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer signed a directive that prohibits state departments and agencies from asking about current or previous salaries until after extending a conditional offer of employment with proposed salary. Executive Directive No. 2019-10, intended to

Rejecting an argument that the use of the phrase “other nonproductive time” rendered the statute unconstitutionally vague, a California Court of Appeal recently upheld the state’s law regarding compensation of piece-rate workers. Nisei Farmers League v. California Labor & Workforce Dev. Agency, 2019