New laws in Minnesota will change how employers need to handle parental leave, tips, and recordkeeping. Most of the changes were part of the state’s omnibus bill for 2024 and are set to take effect on August 1, 2024....more
7/31/2024
/ Compliance Dates ,
Employee Benefits ,
Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) ,
New Guidance ,
New Legislation ,
Paid Leave ,
Paid Sick Leave ,
Parental Leave ,
Pregnancy ,
Recordkeeping Requirements ,
Safe Leave ,
Sick Leave ,
State Labor Laws ,
Tipped Employees ,
Tips ,
Wage and Hour
On August 23, 2023, the Minnesota Department of Labor and Industry (DLI) announced that minimum wage rates will be adjusted for inflation and increase 2.5 percent on January 1, 2024.
The DLI’s announcement of a minimum...more
On May 24, 2023, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz signed into law a sweeping omnibus jobs and economic development and labor funding bill that will invest $500 million in a fund to match federal investments in infrastructure and...more
On May 17, 2023, the Minnesota state legislature passed an omnibus jobs and economic development and labor funding bill that could have serious implications for employers in the state, including a ban on noncompete clauses,...more
5/22/2023
/ Contract Terms ,
Employment Contract ,
Governor Walz ,
Non-Compete Agreements ,
Paid Sick Leave ,
Pending Legislation ,
Pregnancy ,
Reasonable Accommodation ,
Restrictive Covenants ,
State Labor Laws ,
Workplace Safety
On February 1, 2023, Minnesota governor Tim Walz signed a law to prohibit discrimination based on hair texture and hair styles, adding Minnesota to the growing list of states to enact such legislation, commonly referred to as...more
On January 17, 2023, a New York trial court judge struck down the state’s vaccine mandate for healthcare workers, ruling that the New York State Department of Health (DOH) acted outside its authority and noting that “the...more
On February 4, 2022, Governor Tim Walz signed House File (H.F.) 1203 into law, which extends the presumption that certain frontline healthcare workers contracted COVID-19 at work if they test positive. The prior presumption...more
As companies returned to work following the holidays, changes to Minnesota’s nursing mothers statute and pregnancy accommodations law (Minn. Stat. § 181.939) went into effect on January 1, 2022. Minnesota employers may want...more
Many hospitals and other healthcare organizations started mandating COVID-19 vaccinations for some or all of their workers over the last six months. Now all of the specified Medicare and Medicaid-certified provider and...more
11/5/2021
/ Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Covered Employer ,
Health Care Providers ,
Healthcare Facilities ,
Healthcare Workers ,
Hospitals ,
Medicaid ,
Medicare ,
OSHA ,
Temporary Regulations ,
Vaccinations
On April 30, 2020, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued new guidance titled Strategies to Mitigate Healthcare Personnel Staffing Shortages. As maintaining appropriate staffing levels is essential to...more
While hospitals are working hard to provide necessary care for COVID-19 patients, other medical practices and physician groups are diligently working to maintain their workforces and keep physicians busy during this time....more
The Kentucky Court of Appeals recently held that a hospital acted lawfully in terminating the employment of a nurse for violating the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA). The nurse had been...more
On May 29, 2014, Minnesota signed into law Minnesota’s medical cannabis bill (SF No. 2470), which passed the House 89-to-40 and the Senate 46-to-16. The law establishes a registry program for Minnesota residents to legally...more
In this, our final post in this blog series on wage and hour issues in the 21st century, we address another frequent area of concern for employers: exempt employees....more
Telecommuting has become a popular work option for several employers in the recent past. Reasons that employers and employees may consider telecommuting as an option include: increase in flexibility of hours worked, more...more
Along with the ubiquitous nature of smart phones, employers are increasingly using GPS technology to track company vehicles to determine if employees working on remote job sites are where they are supposed to be and to locate...more
Have you considered the wage and hour challenges facing employers in the new electronic communication age? If you have, you may have only considered half of the challenge....more
In this, our fifth post in this series discussion on wage and hour issues in the 21st century, we address one of the latest and greatest threats to employers in the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) arena: meal breaks. Although...more
In this post—our third in a series on wage-and-hour issues in the 21st Century—we focus on the tools of the trade, so to speak. It is important to understand what counts as “hours worked” and what may or may not count, to...more
In this, the second post in our series on hot topics in the wage-and-hour arena, we focus on some of the off-the-clock pitfalls that face employers. Off-the-clock issues are particularly challenging given the new way that...more
Technological advancements and flexible workplace arrangements have drastically increased the potential exposure to employers for off-the-clock work performed by non-exempt employees. With the number of lawsuits involving...more