On April 4, 2016, the Supreme Court of California ruled on employers’ obligations, under certain circumstances, to provide seating for employees under Industrial Welfare Commission Wage Order No. 7-2001, which states that...more
On April 1, 2016, recent changes by the California Fair Employment and Housing Council to the regulations implementing the state’s Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA) took effect. Among the changes are an expanded training...more
On March 29, 2016, the Supreme Court of the United States issued a per curiam opinion in a case on the validity of public-sector “agency shop” arrangements, which permit unions to charge a fee (in order to pay for select...more
On March 28, 2016, the Supreme Court of California issued another ruling on the enforceability of arbitration agreements. In Baltazar v. Forever 21, Inc. (S208345), the court considered the enforceability of an arbitration...more
On the first day of decisions since the unexpected passing of Justice Scalia, the Supreme Court of the United States ventured into the thorny area of preemption under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) and...more
On January 1, 2016, New York City’s Mass Transit Benefits Law, Local Law 53, went into effect, requiring employers with 20 or more full-time employees working in New York City to offer commuter benefits to those full-time...more
According to a 2015 survey, nearly two-thirds of people in the United States and over 2 billion people worldwide own smartphones. For some smartphone users, their phones are their only avenue of access to the Internet....more
Today, President Obama is expected to announce that the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) plans to require employers to report what they pay their employees—by gender, race, and ethnicity—to the federal...more
On January 20, 2016, the Supreme Court of the United States decided another case in a line of cases addressing the issue of class action mootness. Specifically, the justices ruled that an unaccepted settlement offer or offer...more
On January 20, 2016, the Wage and Hour Division (WHD) of the U.S. Department of Labor released an Administrator’s Interpretation (AI) on joint employment under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) and Migrant and Seasonal...more
On January 20, 2016, the Supreme Court of the United States addressed the first of several ERISA-related cases on its October 2015 docket, reversing the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals and concluding that the trustees of...more
On Monday, January 11, the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs’ (OFCCP) final rule on pay transparency, which prohibits federal contractors from discriminating against employees and applicants “who inquire about,...more
California employers are preparing for the effects the Fair Pay Act—the new law signed by Governor Brown last October that significantly changes California’s gender equality pay law. Senate Bill 358 (SB 358), which went into...more
On October 10, 2015, California Governor Jerry Brown signed Assembly Bill 1513, which added new requirements with regard to employees who work on a piece-rate basis. The new law, which amends California Labor Code section...more
Approximately three months after the comment period closed on the proposal from the Obama administration and U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) to revise the Part 541 overtime regulations, the DOL issued its Fall 2015 Semiannual...more
On October 7, 2015, Governor Jerry Brown signed Senate Bill 703 (SB 703), protecting transgender employees whose employers engage in business with state agencies. Specifically, the bill expands on the state’s pre-existing...more
The Healthy Workplaces, Healthy Families Act of 2014, which Governor Jerry Brown signed on September 10, 2014, goes into effect today, July 1, 2015. The Act requires California employers to provide employees with one hour of...more
On June 30, 2015, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) announced its long-awaited proposed rule that would revise the regulations concerning the white collar exemption contained in section 13(a)(1) of the Fair Labor Standards...more
On June 25, 2015, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled that tax credits are available to individuals in states that have a federal Exchange under Section 1321 of the Affordable Care Act (the Act or the ACA). In a...more
A federal judge in Texas recently ruled in favor of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) in a case challenging the Board’s “ambush” election rules. The lawsuit, Associated Builders and Contractors of Texas, Inc. v....more
On April 7, 2015, the California Department of Industrial Relations (DIR) and the state safety and health agency announced that the current heat illness prevention regulation has been amended. The Office of Administrative Law...more
In addition to implementing a minimum wage rate increase, the ordinance that the Emeryville City Council unanimously approved on June 2, 2015 will provide paid sick leave to employees in Emeryville—over and above what is...more
As of this week’s vote, the small California city of Emeryville, which is located in San Francisco’s Bay Area, is slated to have one of the highest minimum wage rates in the country. As expected, on June 2, 2015, the...more
On June 1, 2015, the Supreme Court of the United States decided whether an employer’s obligations under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 are triggered only when an applicant has informed the employer of his or her...more
The Supreme Court of the United States is poised to decide a case that should clarify employers’ obligations to provide applicants with accommodations for their religious practices. Simply put, the question is whether...more