State Employment Law Articles

The California Legislature recently passed AB 1461 which, if signed into law, would require all food-handling employees of food facilities that provide meal subscription plans to obtain food handler cards in accordance with existing requirements. All for-profit food facilities that offer meal subscr

With the flurry of action by California lawmakers in the final weeks of the legislative session, there are approximately 640 bills waiting for action by California Governor, Jerry Brown. Here is a list of legislation which California employers should be watching.

September 15 was the last day in 2017 for bills to pass both houses of the California Legislature and be forwarded to the governor. Governor Jerry Brown (D) has until October 15, 2017 to sign, veto, or otherwise not act upon these bills. Those bills that become law will take effect on January 1, 201

September 15, 2017 was the last day for the California Legislature to pass bills and send them to the Governor for approval. This post contains the list of key labor and employment bills that passed and will either be vetoed or signed into law by the Governor.

Executive Summary: A new Massachusetts law, the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act, will expand existing legal protections for pregnant employees beginning April 1, 2018. Most notably, employers will be required to provide reasonable accommodations for pregnancy and related conditions, including lactatio

September 20, 2017 Author: Peter G. Pappas In American Air Filter Co., Inc. v. Price, No. 16 CvS 13610, 2017 WL 2797794 (N.C. Super. Ct. June 26, 2017), the plaintiff’s former employee signed an employment agreement that renewed automatically each year. The agreement contained a non-compete covenant

Executive Summary: On Thursday, September 14, 2017, the Florida Supreme Court held that referral sources can be valid legitimate business interests under Florida’s non-compete statute, potentially warranting enforcement of a restrictive covenant/non-compete agreement. In determining whether referral

A pair of New York state appellate decisions has serious implications for employers that offer 24-hour home care for clients by ruling that sleep and meal periods must be included in the hourly wages of home care attendants. On September 13, 2017, the Appellate Division (Second Department), in Andry

Executive Summary. Yesterday, in two long-awaited decisions, the New York State Appellate Division, Second Department ruled that home care workers who worked 24-hour shifts, commonly referred to as “live-in” shifts, were required to be paid for all 24 hours, regardless of the sleep and meal times th

California’s legislature is close to passing three bills to expand the state’s fair pay laws. The bills, introduced in early 2017, were designed to expand upon, or clarify, the amended California Fair Pay Act (CFPA).

Although the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act has been the law in Illinois since 2008, in the past year, there have been at least 12 class actions filed against employers in Illinois state and federal courts seeking to redress alleged violations of the Act.

In a recent decision examining Kansas non-compete law, the United States District Court for the District of Kansas partially granted a company’s motion to enjoin its former employee’s violations of the non-compete and customer non-solicitation provisions of his employment agreement.

The New York Paid Family Leave Benefits Law requires all employers covered by the New York Workers’ Compensation Law to provide coverage for paid family leave (PFL) benefits for their employees on or before January 1, 2018.1

Washington recently enacted new workplace accommodation protections for pregnant employees.

Last week, a California Court of Appeal held that a unionized employee’s statutory wage and hour claims (meal and rest breaks, overtime) had to be arbitrated pursuant to the grievance-arbitration provisions of the applicable collective bargaining agreement (CBA). The employee had filed claims in cou

State wage regulations promulgated by the Connecticut Department of Labor prohibit use of the “fluctuating work week” method of calculating overtime pay for mercantile (retail) employees, the Connecticut Supreme Court has held. Williams v. General Nutrition Centers, Inc., 326 Conn. 651 (Conn. 2017).

Effective December 31, 2017, the North Carolina Employee Fair Classification Act, signed into law on August 11th, creates the Employee Classification Section of the North Carolina Industrial Commission. This new Section will be authorized to receive and investigate reports by employees claiming to b

A recently published opinion from the Superior Court of Pennsylvania provides guidance on when nursing home management companies may be found liable to their residents in nursing malpractice actions.

With another Labor Day approaching, employers are once again thinking about the many tasks that need to be completed before year end. Let’s add one more – remembering to add Delaware to the list of jurisdictions prohibiting employers from asking applicants’ compensation history pre-offer. The synops

The New York State Department of Taxation and Finance (DOTF) issued much-needed guidance regarding the tax treatment of deductions from employee wages used to finance paid family leave premiums, and the tax treatment of paid family leave benefits to be received by eligible employees.