On March 18, 2020, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo signed into law providing emergency paid sick leave to New Yorkers. The proposed bill provides job-protected leave benefits for employees affected by COVID-19. Effective March 18, 2020, employees subject to mandatory or precautionary orders of quarantine or isolation issued by the state of New York, the … Continue Reading
COVID-19 Paid Sick Leave On March 17, 2020, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo announced a three-way agreement with the New York Legislature on a paid sick leave bill for New Yorkers. The proposed bill provides job-protected leave benefits for employees affected by COVID-19. Effective immediately upon passage (which is expected in the next few days), … Continue Reading
On December 6, 2019, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit (which hears appeals from federal district courts located in Connecticut, New York, and Vermont) unanimously held that employees can allege gender-based pay discrimination under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act even if they cannot show that a … Continue Reading
Joining the growing list of states enacting privacy and data security laws, on July 25, 2019, New York’s governor signed into law the “Stop Hacks and Improve Electronic Data Security” Act (the “SHIELD Act”), amending the state’s data breach notification and cybersecurity law. The SHIELD Act applies to “any person or business that owns … … Continue Reading
Riding on the 2018 wave of workplace sexual harassment legislation, on June 19, 2019, the New York state assembly and senate voted to toughen the state’s anti-discrimination and anti-harassment law (S. 6577/A. 8421 and related amendment S. 6594/A. 8424). Governor Cuomo, a proponent of the bill, is expected to sign the bill into law. … Continue Reading
New York City New York City has enacted a first-of-its kind law (Intro. No. 1445-A) prohibiting pre-employment drug testing for the presence of marijuana or tetrahydrocannabinols. The law makes it an unlawful discriminatory practice for an employer, labor organization, employment agency, or agent thereof to require a prospective employee “to submit to testing for the … Continue Reading
Both New York City and California have recently taken steps to ban hairstyle-based discrimination. On Monday, April 22, 2019, the California State Senate passed the CROWN Act (Create a Respectful and Open Workplace for Natural Hair), which seeks to amend California’s anti-discrimination statute, the California Fair Housing and Employment Act (“FEHA”). The CROWN Act, if … 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
As we discussed in our previous posts – see here and here – in April 2018, New York passed legislation intended to combat workplace sexual harassment. Under this new law, employers are required to implement and distribute to employees a written policy prohibiting sexual harassment by October 9, 2018. To assist employers in complying, in … Continue Reading
On August 23, 2018, the New York State Department of Labor (“NYSDOL”) released written guidance addressing new requirements under New York State law that are designed to prevent sexual harassment in the workplace. The material outlines proposed minimum standards, training requirements and other compliance materials for the new state law. This release comes as the … Continue Reading
The New York State Department of Labor has issued new, proposed regulations regarding “just-in-time,” “call-in,” and “on-call” pay – or pay required when an employer unexpectedly cancels a covered employee’s shift or calls them into work, or requires them to be on-call. The draft regulations supplement the state’s existing Minimum Wage Order for Miscellaneous Industries … 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
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
The beginning of 2016 is a busy year for New York employers. Both the state and New York City have enacted a variety of laws expanding protections for employees. Employers need to review their policies to ensure they are in compliance. NEW YORK STATE Effective January 19, 2016, the New York State Human Rights Law … Continue Reading
As we covered in a prior blogpost in May 2015, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio signed into law an expansion of the New York City Human Rights Law impacting how employers may use credit checks. The “Stop Credit Discrimination in Employment Act,” which became effective on September 3, 2015 (the “Act”), makes it … Continue Reading
Humor me for a second. Imagine you are an employee earning either an annual salary or an hourly wage. You are in the middle of your year-end review with your supervisor. You sit down and discuss fun things like strengths, weaknesses, travel destinations and perhaps (but hopefully not) the company holiday party. Then it comes … Continue Reading
Second Circuit Court of Appeals Adopts New Test for Determining Whether Unpaid Interns Should Be Classified and Paid as Employees Unpaid internship programs have come under heightened scrutiny in recent years by the Department of Labor, the Internal Revenue Service, and other regulatory agencies, as well been the subject of a number of high-profile lawsuits. … Continue Reading
Last year, New York amended its wage deduction statute and greatly expanded categories of permissible deductions from employees’ pay. In addition to statutory deductions and deductions for health and welfare plans which have traditionally been permissible, New York employers may now deduct wages for the benefit of the employee, including the following: insurance premiums and … Continue Reading
