Traditionally, January 1 has been the key date for which employers must prepare to implement new labor and employment compliance obligations for new laws passed within the previous year. For the past several years, we have reported on employment and labor laws taking effect mid-year. Increasingly, new compliance challenges are not taking a summer vacation.
This year, preventing employment discrimination remains a significant employment law and regulatory concern, with legislatures continuing to expand the protected classifications beyond those protected under federal law, and creating new limitations on what demographic and pay-related information an employer may seek from job applicants. Leave protections and entitlements, always a major player in the legislative landscape, are again significant this year, with some states enacting new paid family and medical leave benefits programs, and others expanding their existing paid sick and safe leave laws so that employees may use accrued leave for bereavement and other reasons beyond the traditional sick and safe leave purposes. Other popular topics for regulation this year include the contingent workforce and freelance/gig economy, child labor, and reproductive health.
Washington State again leads the pack as the most active jurisdiction in enacting eight new state-wide and local laws and regulations that take effect in early summer. Colorado takes second place, enacting at least seven new laws that take effect during summer 2023. Minnesota gets an honorable mention, as although it has enacted only a handful of bills that will become effective this summer, those include heavy-hitter topics like marijuana legalization and paid family and medical leave (effective July 1, 2023, but employees cannot begin using leave until 2026). The state also enacted an omnibus jobs bill that includes a host of new employment laws, including a few that take effect in July and August.
Our annual “July is the New January” update, which tracks many labor and employment laws and ordinances across the country that take effect mid-year, is not all-inclusive. Although this Insight touches on some industry-specific laws, the focus is on generally applicable labor and employment laws enacted in states and larger municipalities. In addition, this report does not discuss changes to the minimum wage and related wage and hour legislation. See As Temperatures Rise, So Do Minimum Wage, Tipped, and Exempt Employee Pay Rates Across the United States for information on new wage rates taking effect across the country.
Finally, note that many state legislatures are still in session, so additional laws that will take effect this summer are bound to be enacted after publication. And new laws—particularly at the local level—are often subject to amendment. This article is intended to provide insight on the types of laws state and local legislatures are enacting, some of which have effective dates right around the corner.
Arkansas
California
Colorado
Connecticut
Florida
Georgia
Hawaii
Idaho
Indiana
Iowa
Kansas
Kentucky
Louisiana
Maine
Maryland
Michigan
Minnesota
Missouri
Nevada
New Jersey
New Mexico
New York
North Dakota
Ohio
Oklahoma
South Dakota
Tennessee
Utah
Vermont
Virginia
Washington
West Virginia
Wyoming