Unlimited paid time off (“PTO”) is one of the new “it” workplace policies. Adopted as both a means to attract and retain employees as well as to avoid having to coordinating and track specific grants of paid PTO or vacation– a task which can be arduous, particularly for smaller businesses – some employers have done … Continue Reading
July 1 Minimum Wage Increases A number of jurisdictions will see a minimum wage increase effective July 1, 2019; please find our updated minimum wage chart here. In addition to those listed, Nevada just (on June 12, 2019) passed a law to raise the minimum wage to $12/hour by 2024.… Continue Reading
It’s been an active few weeks since our last State Law Round-Up in mid-April 2019, with a number of bills being signed into new laws and case developments impacting employers in many US states over the past few weeks. Colorado Failure to Pay Wages as Theft Effective January 1, 2020, an employer’s failure to pay … Continue Reading
Minimum Wage Updates On March 28, 2019, Maryland’s legislators voted to raise the state’s minimum wage to $15.00 per hour by January 1, 2025 for employers with 15 or more employees and July 1, 2026 for employers with 14 or fewer employees.… Continue Reading
Expanding on their previous post on the subject, on April 3, 2019, Law360 published the following article authored by Squire Patton Boggs labor and employment attorneys Laura Lawless Robertson and Melissa Legault. The U.S. Department of Labor recently issued a trio of opinion letters offering employers guidance in implementing the Family and Medical Leave Act and the Fair Labor … Continue Reading
On March 14, 2019, the U.S. Department of Labor (“DOL”), Wage and Hour Division, released an opinion letter, FMLA2019-1-A, stating that employers cannot delay the designation of FMLA-qualifying leave or designate more than 12 weeks of leave (or 26 weeks of military caregiver leave) as FMLA leave.… Continue Reading
Minimum Wage Updates On January 17, 2019, New Jersey’s governor and state legislators agreed to a deal that will raise the state’s minimum wage to $15.00 by 2024. The current minimum wage in New Jersey is $8.85 an hour. Under the new law, the state’s minimum wage will increase to $10.00 an hour on July … Continue Reading
Massachusetts Imposes One-Year Cap and Other Restrictions On Non-Compete Agreements The Massachusetts Noncompetition Agreement Act (see link, at Section 24L) (“MNAA”) effective October 1, 2018, places new restrictions on the length and applicability of non-compete agreements between employers and employees who work within the state of Massachusetts. (Note that the law defines employees to include … Continue Reading
New Jersey has joined nine other states in requiring employers to provide sick leave to their employees. On May 2, 2018, Governor Phil Murphy signed the New Jersey Paid Sick Leave Act, which requires businesses of all sizes to provide up to 40 hours of paid sick leave to employees per year. Of note for … Continue Reading
Come January 1, 2018, employees in California and New York will enjoy new and expanded rights to time off work, with pay, to attend to certain family needs. New York, whose law was enacted in 2016 (see our prior post here), boasts its law as being the nation’s “strongest and most comprehensive” on paid family … Continue Reading
On September 20, 2017, the Seventh Circuit in Severson v. Heartland Woodcraft, Inc. held that a long-term leave of absence is not a reasonable accommodation under the Americans with Disabilities Act (“ADA”). As we all know, the ADA prohibits employers from discriminating against “qualified individuals” with disabilities, defining such individuals as applicants or employees who, with … Continue Reading
The California Court of Appeals’ recent decision in Bareno v. San Diego Community College is a good reminder for employers about the pitfalls of terminating an employee based on a “technical” policy violation and how easy it is for an employee to put an employer on notice that the employee is taking a protected California Family … Continue Reading
With the general election days away, employers should familiarize themselves with their state’s voting leave laws. Voting leave laws vary across the country. A number of states, however, do not have specific laws permitting time off to vote. These states include: Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Idaho, Indiana, Louisiana, Maine, Michigan, Mississippi, Montana, New Hampshire, New Jersey, … Continue Reading
Illinois passes two new leave laws; bars non-compete agreements for low wage workers. First, the Child Bereavement Leave Act, which became effective July 29, 2016, requires Illinois employers with 50 or more employees to grant up to two weeks (10 days) of unpaid leave to eligible employees who have lost a child (and 6 weeks … Continue Reading
Today (June 22, 2016), Chicago’s City Council passed an ordinance requiring employers to provide paid sick leave to employees beginning on July 1, 2017. Mayor Emanuel spoke in favor of the ordinance following the Council’s vote, noting his “fervent wish” that the state of Illinois would follow suit and pass a statewide paid sick leave … Continue Reading
Minneapolis is the first city in the Midwest to jump on the sick leave bandwagon. On May 27, the Minneapolis City Council passed a sick and safe time ordinance that requires employers of employees working in Minneapolis to provide sick leave to those employees. Beginning July 1, 2017, employers of 1-5 employees must provide unpaid … Continue Reading
Many employers maintain policies that restrict the amount of time an employee can take off from work, or that prohibit employees who are ineligible for leave under the Family and Medical Leave Act to take time off from work at all even when ill or injured. But a new resource document issued by the EEOC … Continue Reading
New mothers and fathers will soon be entitled to receive fully paid and protected parental leave under the legislation approved unanimously by San Francisco’s board of supervisors. The legislation makes San Francisco the first city in the U.S. to require employers to provide six weeks of fully paid leave for new parents when the city’s … Continue Reading
Today (April 4, 2016) California Governor Jerry Brown signed SB 3, raising California’s minimum wage to $15 by 2023. Under that law, minimum wage in the state of California (currently $10.00 per hour) will increase as follows: Beginning date Small employer (1-25 employees) Large employer (26 or more employees) January 1, 2017 $10.00 $10.50 January … Continue Reading
Yesterday, Oregon Governor Kate Brown signed into law legislation that increases that state’s minimum wage from $9.25 to up to $14.75 by 2022, the highest of any state. The first increases go into effect on July 1, 2016. Under SB 1532 [PDF], minimum wage rates vary based upon the employer’s location, as set forth in … Continue Reading
Spokane, Washington has become the next city to pass a paid sick leave law. On January 26, 2016, the Spokane City Council overrode the Mayor’s veto of ORD C35300 [pdf] (originally passed by the Council on January 11). The new law will become effective on January 1, 2017. The law states that it applies to … Continue Reading
As 2015 draws to a close, our final state law round-up will provide information about minimum wage increases taking effect in 2016, some recent developments on the local sick leave law front, and other issues to take note of heading into 2016. 2016 State and Local Minimum Wage Rates With the federal minimum wage still … Continue Reading
Are you struggling how to know how to calculate holiday pay at the moment? Do you add in commissions or overtime or not? If you need some reasonably definitive guidance on these issues, perhaps I could steer you firmly away from the very recent Acas publication on the point, which with the best will in … Continue Reading
On February 25, 2015, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division issued a Final Rule revising the definition of spouse under the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) so that eligible employees in legal same-sex marriages may take FMLA leave to care for their spouse or family member. Effective March 27, 2015, the term … Continue Reading
