The United States Supreme Court recently heard oral argument in Trump v. Slaughter, a case centering on the March 2025 removal of Rebecca Kelly Slaughter as Commissioner of the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”). As the court deliberates, a decision in favor of the government could limit or overturn Humphrey’s Executor v. United States (“Humphrey’s Executor”) and reshape the operation of independent federal agencies.
State and local legislatures were active throughout 2025 in passing employment laws and ordinances concerning topics such as artificial intelligence, pay transparency, and paid leaves, to name a few. As always, minimum wages continue to increase in many jurisdictions and various posters have been updated. See our charts on U.S. state minimum wage and salary threshold developments located here and here.
Earlier this year, Colorado adopted Senate Bill 25-144, expanding its Family and Medical Leave Insurance (“FAMLI”) program to become the first state to provide paid leave for employees taking care of an infant hospitalized in a neonatal intensive care unit (“NICU”).
The National Labor Relations Board is set to regain a quorum of three Members following the Senate’s confirmation of Board nominees Scott Mayer and James Murphy on December 18, 2025. Mr. Mayer is joining the Board from a large aviation manufacturing company, where he served as chief labor counsel. Mr. Murphy is a former Board lawyer. Both are set to join David Prouty, who has been the sole member on the Board since former Chairman Marvin Kaplan’s term expired this past August. With the confirmation of the two new Board members, the Board will now be comprised of a majority of Republican appointees, with Member Prouty being the sole Democrat on the Board.
In response to the horrific November attack on National Guard members in Washington, D.C. and other geopolitical events, the President and U.S. immigration agencies have implemented initiatives and rolled out proposals to expand existing travel bans and dramatically increase vetting and personnel data collection of visa applicants and travelers entering and exiting the United States. The following is a brief summary of these impactful policies.
Overview
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has implemented major changes to Employment Authorization Document (EAD) policies. These updates end the automatic 540‑day extension for most EAD renewals and reduce the maximum EAD validity period to 18 months for certain categories, including adjustment of status applicants, asylum seekers and refugees.
It is a common practice across employers of all sizes and industries to pay employees on a biweekly (every two weeks) payroll cycle. With 52 weeks in a year, that means 26 pay periods in a year. But every decade or so, an unusual circumstance arises in which employees who are paid biweekly will have 27 pay periods. The reason for this is that 26 biweekly pay periods only add up to 364 calendar days (26 pay periods x 14 days per pay period), which is one day short of a typical year and two days short of a leap year. Thus, a calendar year typically equates to 26.07 pay periods. About every eleven years, that 0.07 discrepancy adds up to 14 days, and thus amounting to an additional biweekly paycheck. This anomaly applies in 2026, and if not addressed, could result in extra pay for employees who are paid on a salary basis.
The UK Government’s recent Command Paper – A Fairer Pathway to Settlement signals the most significant overhaul of immigration and settlement policy in decades. The proposals aim to replace the current five year route to Indefinite Leave to Remain (ILR) with a merit-based system where settlement is earned through contribution and integration rather than granted automatically after a fixed period. For HR professionals, these changes will have far-reaching implications for workforce planning, compliance and employee engagement.
What’s Changing?
Under the proposed model, most migrants will face a 10 year qualifying period for settlement, double the current term. This baseline can be shortened for high earners, key public service workers or those demonstrating “exceptional integration”, while individuals with immigration breaches or reliance on public funds may face longer waits of up to 20 or even 30 years in extreme cases.
Eligibility will be assessed against four pillars:
We sighed a collective sigh of relief when the Belgian government finally reached the budget agreement last week. The negotiations had been really difficult, which is not surprising considering the challenges the government faces: €8 billion had to be found somewhere to keep Belgium’s debt at an acceptable level (acceptable as in not driving us Belgians straight to bankruptcy).
The relief was short-lived however, as details of some of the budgetary measures were released. One measure that has Belgian employers scratching their heads is the government’s decision that automatic wage indexation will not be fully implemented on two occasions during this legislative period.
On 25 November, the Polish government published the principles that will form the basis of its new legislation implementing the outstanding provisions of the Pay Transparency Directive. Readers of our blog will be aware that Poland has already published legislation to implement the transparency provisions in the Directive (see our previous blog) and these will come into force from 24 December 2025.
