State Employment Law Articles

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce has challenged the Seattle City Ordinance giving drivers of app-based transportation companies that use independent contractors to provide services (such as Uber and Lyft) the right to collectively bargain. (See our post, Seattle City Council Enacts Ordinance Giving Driv

The California Department of Fair Employment and Housing (“DFEH”) recently issued guidelines on transgender employee rights, addressing what types of questions employers may ask transgender employees and applicants. The guidelines also address how employers can implement dress code and grooming stan

California’s City of Santa Monica’s City Council has adopted an ordinance that enacts minimum wage and paid sick leave requirements for covered employees as well as new regulations pertaining to service charges and surcharges. Ordinance Number 2509 became effective on February 25, 2016, although its

Executive Summary: The Fifth Circuit has issued a decision which may affect Texas employers who utilize employment arbitration agreements. In Nelson v. Watch House Int'l, L.L.C., No. 15-10531 (5th Cir. Mar. 2, 2016), the court found an employment arbitration agreement unenforceable where the "saving

New California regulations declaring that “[e]mployers have an affirmative duty to create a workplace environment that is free from employment practices prohibited by” the California Fair Employment and Housing Act and that “[e]mployers have an affirmative duty to take reasonable steps to prevent an

On April 1, 2016, new California regulations take effect requiring employers to develop written anti-discrimination and harassment policies that meet numerous new and detailed requirements.1 These regulations require employers to develop and distribute anti-discrimination and harassment policies to

In 2013 the Department of Labor announced new regulatory language that substantially limited the scope of the Fair Labor Standards Act’s companionship exemption. Those regulations, of course, were challenged through litigation which remains ongoing, and their implementation by the USDOL was delayed

On March 2, 2016, Oregon Governor Kate Brown signed the first geographically-tiered minimum wage hike in the country. Senate Bill 1532 also gives Oregon the nation’s current highest projected state-wide minimum wage.

If you were to ask most employers whether reporting is a core function of employee benefit plan administration, they would likely say yes, particularly as many are currently in the middle of completing IRS Forms 1094-C and 1095-C. On top of the numerous reporting requirements for group health plans

On February 22, 2016, the First Circuit issued its decision in Schwann v. Fedex Ground Package System, Inc. This decision clarified the extent to which the Massachusetts Independent Contractor statute, G.L. c. 149 § 148B (“§ 148B”), as applied to motor carriers, is preempted by the Federal Aviation

The circumstances under which a company or organization may require an employee to undergo a medical examination can be confusing for employers, and for good reason: The “rules” are cobbled together from a variety of sources and are from the model of clarity. The Appellate Division of the Superior C

The pace of employment legislative activity in Sacramento picked up as February drew to a close. The following highlights some of the more notable issues under consideration in the Golden State.

2016 may be the most dynamic year yet for paid sick leave developments in Washington State. Two months into the new year we have already seen significant changes to the Seattle sick and safe time law, a new paid leave ordinance taking effect in Tacoma, and a new ordinance enacted in Spokane. At the

Amendments to Philadelphia’s “Ban the Box” legislation, the Fair Criminal Records Screening Standards, will go into effect on March 14, 2016.

Employers with operations in Birmingham, Alabama, may breathe more easily now. Governor Robert Bentley has signed into law a prohibition against individual municipalities in the state from enacting their own minimum wage laws. The Alabama Senate passed the measure and the Governor signed the bill on

On January 7, 2016, Governor Brown’s office submitted a 22-page Budget Change Proposal for 2016-2017 (http://web1a.esd.dof.ca.gov/Documents/bcp/1617/FY1617_ORG7350_BCP474.pdf) in an effort to “stabilize and improve the handling of Private Attorneys General Act cases.”

The Birmingham City Council has voted to implement a new ordinance increasing the minimum wage to $10.10 beginning February 24, 2016, for all employers within the city limits.

New York City’s Fair Chance Act (FCA), which became effective on October 27, 2015, imposes obligations on covered employers and employment agencies well beyond all other "ban-the-box" laws.1 On November 5, 2015, the New York City Commission on Human Rights (the Commission) released its 13-page Inter

The budget change proposal for the 2016/17 Fiscal Year [document: ] submitted by Governor Brown last month contains significant proposed changes to the operation of the Labor & Workforce Development Agency (“LWDA”), the agency responsible for overseeing the Private Attorney Generals Act of 2004 (“PA

Last week, California Attorney General, Kamala D. Harris – who has been mentioned as a potential nominee to fill Justice Antonin Scalia’s recently vacated seat on the U.S. Supreme Court – issued the California Data Breach Report (Report). The Report provides an analysis of the data breaches reported