The debate over the scope of the National Labor Relations Board’s (the “Board”) remedial authority under the National Labor Relations Act (“NLRA”) continues to intensify, and the Sixth Circuit has now added its voice to the...more
On October 14, 2025, Cuyahoga County became the first county in Ohio to pass its own version of the CROWN Act, expanding local anti-discrimination protections to include natural hairstyles. The ordinance prohibits...more
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit recently reaffirmed that temporal proximity, the closeness in time between an employee’s protected activity and an adverse employment action, is not, by itself, enough to prove...more
11/6/2025
/ Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) ,
Appellate Courts ,
Civil Rights Act ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Employment Discrimination ,
McDonnell Douglas Formula ,
Pretext ,
Retaliation ,
Summary Judgment ,
Title VII ,
Wrongful Termination
Update – October 27,2025 – As of October 27, 2025, the Cleveland Salary Transparency Act is now in effect. Cleveland Employers should ensure they are in compliance by including clear salary ranges or scales in their job...more
In a recent decision that reinforces the importance of consistent policy enforcement, the Sixth Circuit upheld the dismissal of an age discrimination lawsuit filed by a nurse terminated from the Cincinnati VA Medical Center...more
7/22/2025
/ ADEA ,
Age Discrimination ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Discrimination ,
Employee Rights ,
Employer Responsibilities ,
Employment Discrimination ,
Employment Policies ,
Enforcement ,
Federal Labor Laws ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Termination
What Employers Need to Know -
On April 28, 2025, the Cleveland City Council passed Ordinance No. 104-2025, introducing significant changes to hiring practices for employers within the city. This legislation mandates pay...more
On the heels of President Trumps Executive Orders signaling the administration’s intent to eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs in the federal and private sector, the EEOC has issued two technical...more
The Ohio General Assembly recently enacted HB 106, which has been signed by Governor DeWine, providing employees with the right to a written or electronic paystub. Effective April 9, 2025, employers in Ohio will be required...more
As 2025 begins under President Donald Trump’s administration, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) is experiencing significant changes. President Trump has issued executive orders addressing policies related to...more
3/3/2025
/ Abortion ,
Anti-Discrimination Policies ,
Diversity and Inclusion Standards (D&I) ,
Employment Discrimination ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Executive Orders ,
Gender Identity ,
Pregnant Workers Fairness Act ,
Title IX ,
Title VII ,
Trump Administration
Senator Louis Blessing, III, Republican, and William DeMora, Democrat have introduced Senate Bill 11 which seeks to ban employers from requiring their employees to adhere to non-competes and certain stay or pay provisions. ...more
2/13/2025
/ Employee Rights ,
Employees ,
Employment Contract ,
Employment Litigation ,
Employment Policies ,
Independent Contractors ,
Labor Regulations ,
New Legislation ,
Non-Compete Agreements ,
Restrictive Covenants ,
State Labor Laws
Last week, the U.S. Department of Labor published its listing of annual increases for 2025. Included in this list are higher penalties for OSHA workplace safety violations for employers. While these increases are in line with...more
1/27/2025
/ Compliance ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Employee Training ,
Employees ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Federal Civil Penalties Inflation Adjustment Act Improvements Act of 2015 ,
OSHA ,
Penalties ,
Risk Management ,
Workplace Safety
In a recent decision, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) reversed a 76-year-old precedent and held that employers violate the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) when they compel employees to attend meetings where the...more
NLRB General Counsel Jennifer Abruzzo issued Memorandum GC 25-01 on October 7, 2024, announcing her goal to remedy the alleged harmful effects she views inherent to overly broad non-compete and stay-or-pay provisions by...more
In a recent decision involving the validity of a last chance agreement, the Sixth Circuit concluded that the embedded release of all claims against the employer was not knowingly and voluntarily entered into by the employee...more
A Texas federal court has struck down the FTC’s proposed nationwide ban on non-compete agreements, just weeks before it was set to take effect. This decision by the United States District Court for the Northern District of...more
The effective date of the FTC’s Final Rule prohibiting non-compete agreements quickly approaches, yet there is still no definitive resolution as to whether it is constitutional. Nor has there been any preliminary injunction...more
The Supreme Court recently a long-standing doctrine established by the 1984 decision, Chevron v. Natural Resources Defense Council. The Court returned the duty of interpreting ambiguous statutory provisions involving federal...more
7/12/2024
/ Administrative Procedure Act ,
Chevron Deference ,
Chevron v NRDC ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Government Agencies ,
Judicial Authority ,
Loper Bright Enterprises v Raimondo ,
NLRB ,
Regulatory Authority ,
Relentless Inc v US Department of Commerce ,
SCOTUS ,
Statutory Interpretation
Within the last two weeks of June 2024, courts across the country reached opposite conclusions about the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s authority to implement legislation that requires employers to provide...more
7/11/2024
/ Abortion ,
Anti-Retaliation Provisions ,
Chevron Deference ,
Constitutional Challenges ,
Employee Rights ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Final Rules ,
Injunctions ,
Pregnancy Discrimination ,
Pregnant Workers Fairness Act ,
Reasonable Accommodation ,
SCOTUS
The DOL has issued its final rule on overtime exempt workers, surpassing all expectations and setting a minimum salary threshold sixty-five percent (65%) higher than current thresholds in a two-step process. Last year, we...more
FTC RULE BANS NON-COMPETE CLAUSES FOR NON-SENIOR EMPLOYEES -
Non-compete clauses have long been a contentious issue in employment agreements, with concerns raised about their potential to stifle competition and limit...more
The Department of Labor has long labored to rein in the practice by some employers of labeling workers as independent contractors instead of employees to avoid the requirements under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) to pay...more
The COVID-19 Public Health Emergency officially ended on May 11, 2023, when the Department of Health and Human Services allowed the federal Public Health Emergency for COVID-19 to expire, but people are still getting...more
12/14/2023
/ Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Masks ,
Public Health Emergency ,
Reasonable Accommodation ,
Remote Working ,
Social Distancing ,
Vaccinations ,
Virus Testing ,
Workplace Safety
The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has recently finalized a rule broadening the joint employer test.
The new rule replaces a 2020 policy that excused joint employers from bargaining unless workers could demonstrate...more
In the pursuit of economic fairness, Ohio finds itself at a crossroads with the One Fair Wage petition (One Fair Wage), a movement aiming to amend Article II, Section 34a of the Ohio State Constitution to increase the minimum...more
10/20/2023
/ Compliance ,
Economic Stimulus ,
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) ,
Minimum Wage ,
Poverty ,
Price Inflation ,
Productivity ,
Public Assistance ,
Resorts & Restaurants ,
Small Business ,
State Constitutions ,
Wages
In a recent and highly unusual turn of events, the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit (Seventh Circuit) has ordered U.S. Marshals to take corporate officials of Haven Salon + Spa (Haven) into custody for...more
10/11/2023
/ Appeals ,
Attorney's Fees ,
Back Pay ,
Compliance ,
Contempt ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Corporate Fines ,
Criminal Prosecution ,
Employee Rights ,
Labor Disputes ,
NLRA ,
NLRB ,
Noncompliance ,
Reinstatement ,
Reputational Injury ,
Workplace Safety