State Employment Law Articles

Joining New York City, Albany County, and Westchester County, Suffolk County has become the latest jurisdiction in New York to pass a bill that prevents employers from inquiring into the salary and benefits history of job applicants.

A majority of the provisions of Oregon’s Equal Pay Act will go into effect on January 1, 2019. The Act’s ban on salary history inquiries went into effect in October 2017. Beginning 2019, the Bureau of Labor and Industries (BOLI) will enforce the Act, including the inquiry ban, and employees and appl

New York’s Suffolk County is the latest local jurisdiction to adopt legislation prohibiting employers from asking about the prior salary histories of prospective employees. The salary history ban amends the Suffolk County Human Rights Law, which defines an employer as persons or entities that employ

On November 19, 2018, Oregon’s Bureau of Labor and Industries (BOLI) issued its administrative order and rules implementing the Oregon Equal Pay Act of 2017 (the “Pay Equity Law”), which includes restrictions on salary history inquiries, expands existing remedies available to employees, and provides

On November 21, 2018, the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania issued an opinion in the Dittman v. UPMC case holding that employers have a legal duty to exercise reasonable care in safeguarding their employees’ sensitive personal information stored by the employers on internet-accessible computer systems.

On November 8, 2018, the Secretary of the Puerto Rico Department of Labor and Human Resources published a new regulation governing the administration of Puerto Rico's unemployment insurance program. The Regulation to Administer the Unemployment Insurance Program (“Regulation”), which implements Puer

By overwhelming majorities, voters in Arkansas and Missouri have approved incremental minimum wage increases over the next several years.

Effective March 18, 2019, New York City employers with at least four workers must provide lactation rooms for employees and maintain a written policy for distribution to employees upon hire.

On November 16, 2018, the Austin-based 3rd Court of Appeals declared Austin’s paid sick and safe leave ordinance unconstitutional. Specifically, the court held the ordinance is preempted by the Texas Minimum Wage Act and is, therefore, unconstitutional.

Since passing the California Fair Pay Act (“CFPA”) on October 6, 2015, California has remained a trailblazer in its efforts to address and decrease gender pay inequity. The CFPA requires all employers pay employees performing “substantially similar work” the same wage regardless of gender, ethnicity

The New Jersey Appellate Division recently issued a decision adding yet another hurdle for employers in the Garden State to overcome in drafting and enforcing arbitration agreements. In Flanzman v. Jenny Craig, Inc.,1 the court found that because an arbitration agreement did not establish the forum

The Kentucky Supreme Court has rejected a challenge to Kentucky’s “right-to-work” law, holding the law does not violate the Kentucky Constitution. Zuckerman v. Bevin, Nos. 2018-SC-000097 and 2018-SC-000098 (Nov. 15, 2018).

Austin’s paid sick leave ordinance, which was supposed to go into effect this past October, has been held unconstitutional by the Third Court of Appeals in Austin. The court of appeals held that the ordinance establishes a “wage” and, as such, it is preempted by Texas Minimum Wage Act. The Texas Min

On November 16, 2018, the Texas Third Court of Appeals delivered a significant blow to Austin's Earned Sick Time Ordinance, the first law in the Lone Star State that would have required private sector employers to provide employees with paid time off. While the measure is not completely dead, its pr

Among the approximately 1,000 bills signed by California Governor Brown last month was Assembly Bill 1654 ("AB 1654"), which allows a class of employees to waive the remedies created by the Private Attorney General Act of 2004 (PAGA). As the number of PAGA lawsuits continues to increase in Californi

Voters in Oakland, California recently approved ballot "Measure Z," titled the "Oakland Minimum Wage Charter Amendment." The measure imposes new minimum wages and employment standards for some hotel workers, authorizes the City to administratively enforce its employment standards through investigati

A California court recently issued a decision clarifying when certain commuting time does not constitute work time under state law. In Hernandez v. Pacific Bell Telephone Company, the California Court of Appeal, Third Appellate District, held that an employer's provision of a company vehicle to empl

The Pennsylvania Superior Court, in an unpublished opinion, recently declined to extend the statute of limitations for workplace exposure claims brought by employees. In the time since the Tooey case was decided in 2013, Pennsylvania law has allowed employees to bring lawsuits against their employer

California Governor Jerry Brown recently signed a slew of employment-related bills into law, many of which will take effect on January 1, 2019. These laws will have an immediate impact on the workplace and will require employers in the Golden State to revamp existing practices and procedures.

New guidance issued by the Massachusetts Department of Revenue requires Massachusetts employers with six or more employees to file an annual health insurance responsibility disclosure (HIRD) form. The form became available on November 1, and must be submitted by November 30 of this year and each yea