On September 24, 2019, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit certified to the Supreme Court of California the question of whether that court’s landmark 2018 decision in Dynamex v. Superior Court should be applied...more
9/26/2019
/ ABC Test ,
Appeals ,
CA Supreme Court ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Due Process ,
Dynamex ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Franchises ,
Independent Contractors ,
Joint Employers ,
Misclassification ,
New Legislation ,
Question of Law ,
Retroactive Application ,
State Labor Laws
On September 18, 2019, California Governor Gavin Newsom signed Assembly Bill 5 (AB 5), a bill that will dramatically alter whether, and under what circumstances, businesses may classify workers as independent contractors...more
9/24/2019
/ ABC Test ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Dynamex ,
Employee Definition ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Freelance Workers ,
Gig Economy ,
Governor Newsom ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Independent Contractors ,
Joint Employers ,
Labor Regulations ,
Misclassification ,
New Legislation ,
Popular ,
Retroactive Application ,
State and Local Government ,
State Labor Laws ,
Wage and Hour
On September 18, 2019, California Governor Gavin Newsom signed into law sweeping legislation—Assembly Bill 5 (A.B. 5)—that will dramatically reshape the contours of California’s workforce and economy, and potentially...more
9/19/2019
/ ABC Test ,
Dynamex ,
Employee Definition ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Freelance Workers ,
Gig Economy ,
Governor Newsom ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Independent Contractors ,
Labor Regulations ,
Misclassification ,
New Legislation ,
State and Local Government ,
State Labor Laws ,
Wage and Hour
On September 11, 2019, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) announced that it would not seek approval from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to collect detailed employee compensation data on its Form...more
9/11/2019
/ Corporate Counsel ,
Data Collection ,
Deregulation ,
EEO-1 ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Equal Pay ,
Gender-Based Pay Discrimination ,
OMB ,
Pay Data ,
Pay Discrimination ,
Pay Gap ,
Regulatory Oversight ,
Reporting Requirements ,
Wage and Hour
Students across the country are heading back to school, but most state legislatures are either in recess or have adjourned for 2019. States that were still in session in August did advance several significant bills, while the...more
9/5/2019
/ #MeToo ,
Domestic Violence ,
Employee Definition ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Gender Identity ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Independent Contractors ,
Labor Regulations ,
Leave of Absence ,
LGBTQ ,
Medical Leave ,
Misclassification ,
NYHRL ,
Paid Family Leave Law ,
Paid Time Off (PTO) ,
Sexual Harassment ,
State and Local Government ,
State Labor Laws ,
Wage and Hour ,
Wage Theft
On Friday, August 30, 2019, the California State Senate Appropriations Committee approved controversial legislation—Assembly Bill 5 (A.B. 5)—that would potentially reclassify millions of independent contractors as “employees”...more
9/4/2019
/ ABC Test ,
Dynamex ,
Employee Definition ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Freelance Workers ,
Gig Economy ,
Governor Newsom ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Independent Contractors ,
Labor Regulations ,
Legislative Agendas ,
Misclassification ,
Pending Legislation ,
Regulatory Agenda ,
State and Local Government ,
State Labor Laws ,
Wage and Hour
Labor Day became an official federal holiday in 1894. Although the world of employment has obviously changed significantly over the last 125 years, the pace of workplace transformation seems to have accelerated in the past...more
9/3/2019
/ #MeToo ,
Affordable Care Act ,
Ban the Box ,
Employer Mandates ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Health Insurance ,
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) ,
Immigration Procedures ,
Independent Contractors ,
Joint Employers ,
Labor Regulations ,
Labor Shortage ,
LGBTQ ,
Marijuana ,
Misclassification ,
OFCCP ,
Pay Equity Laws ,
Rate of Pay ,
Right to Work ,
Salary/Wage History ,
Sexual Harassment ,
Silica ,
Transgender ,
Unemployment ,
USCIS ,
Visas ,
Wage and Hour ,
Workplace Safety
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) recently released guidance in an FAQ to employers as to how they should report non-binary employees on Form EEO-1....more
8/16/2019
/ Binary Options ,
Data Collection ,
EEO-1 ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Equal Pay ,
Gender Expression ,
Gender Identity ,
Gender Neutral ,
Gender-Based Pay Discrimination ,
New Guidance ,
Pay Data ,
Pay Discrimination ,
Pay Gap ,
Regulatory Oversight ,
Regulatory Requirements ,
Reporting Requirements ,
Wage and Hour
Assembly Bill (AB) 5, currently pending in the California legislature, would impose the “ABC” test on California businesses and workers, dramatically altering the legal standards applied in evaluating whether a worker is an...more
8/9/2019
/ ABC Test ,
Dynamex ,
Employee Definition ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Gig Economy ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Independent Contractors ,
Legislative Agendas ,
Misclassification ,
Pending Legislation ,
Risk Assessment ,
State Labor Laws ,
Wage and Hour
Although most state legislatures have adjourned for 2019 or are in recess, those still in active session finalized several new employment laws in July. California advanced a bill that would codify a judicially established...more
8/5/2019
/ #MeToo ,
Anti-Discrimination Policies ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Independent Contractors ,
Labor Regulations ,
Marijuana ,
Medical Marijuana ,
Misclassification ,
New Legislation ,
Non-Compete Agreements ,
Paid Time Off (PTO) ,
Pay Equity Laws ,
Pay Gap ,
Sexual Harassment ,
State and Local Government ,
State Labor Laws ,
Wage and Hour ,
Work Schedules
On July 24, 2019, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo signed legislation creating a statewide panel to study the impact of automation, artificial intelligence (AI), and robotics on New York. The 13-member panel, to be known as...more
On July 18, 2019, voting largely along party lines, the U.S. House of Representatives passed legislation that would increase the federal minimum wage from the current $7.25 an hour to $15.00 an hour by 2025. ...more
In 2018, the Supreme Court of California turned much of the established law regarding worker classification on its head with its decision in Dynamex Operations West Inc. v. Superior Court....more
7/19/2019
/ ABC Test ,
Dynamex ,
Employee Definition ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Franchises ,
Gig Economy ,
Independent Contractors ,
Misclassification ,
Rulemaking Process ,
State and Local Government ,
State Labor Laws ,
Vicarious Liability
It seems almost every day we are presented with more evidence that automation is having profound consequences on the nature of work in America—in expected and unexpected ways....more
On June 24, 2019, the Department of Labor made public its long-awaited proposed rule establishing a process for DOL to advance the development of Industry-Recognized Apprenticeship Programs (IRAPs). On the same day, DOL...more
A bipartisan bill introduced on May 21, 2019 in the U.S. Senate seeks to prepare America’s employers and workers for the 21st century economy by establishing a national Artificial Intelligence (AI) strategy and investing $2.2...more
The federal government’s Spring 2019 Unified Agenda of Regulatory and Deregulatory Actions (regulatory agenda), which provides insight into federal agencies’ priorities for the near and long term, was released on May 22,...more
5/28/2019
/ Employee Benefits ,
Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Federal Contractors ,
GINA ,
H-1B ,
Joint Employers ,
Labor Regulations ,
NLRB ,
OFCCP ,
OSHA ,
Rate of Pay ,
Regulatory Agenda ,
Request For Information ,
Rulemaking Process ,
Tips ,
TRICARE ,
Wage and Hour ,
White-Collar Exemptions
The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) will require covered employers to file EEO-1 compensation data for both calendar years 2017 and 2018 by September 30, 2019, the agency indicated in a notice sent on May...more
On April 25, 2019, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia ordered the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) to collect detailed data on employee compensation and hours worked from covered employers...more
4/26/2019
/ Civil Rights Act ,
Data Collection ,
EEO-1 ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Equal Pay ,
Gender-Based Pay Discrimination ,
Pay Data ,
Pay Discrimination ,
Pay Gap ,
Regulatory Oversight ,
Regulatory Requirements ,
Reporting Requirements ,
Rulemaking Process ,
Title VII ,
Wage and Hour
The U.S. Supreme Court announced on April 22, 2019 that it will decide whether gay, lesbian, and transgender workers are expressly protected under federal civil rights law on the basis of their sexual orientation. The Court...more
4/22/2019
/ Altitude Express Inc v Zarda ,
Bostock v Clayton County Georgia ,
Civil Rights Act ,
Corporate Counsel ,
EEOC v RG & GR Harris Funeral Homes ,
Employer Liability Issues ,
Employment Litigation ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Gender Discrimination ,
Gender Identity ,
LGBTQ ,
SCOTUS ,
Sex Discrimination ,
Sexual Orientation Discrimination ,
Title VII
In legislative terms, the month of March came in like a lion and went out (almost) like a lamb, as the pace of new bills introduced at the state level slowed considerably. Roughly 300 new labor and employment-related bills...more
4/5/2019
/ Criminal Background Checks ,
Drug Testing ,
Employment Discrimination ,
Equal Pay ,
Labor Relations ,
Legislative Agendas ,
Non-Compete Agreements ,
Popular ,
Proposed Legislation ,
Sexual Harassment ,
Wage and Hour
In an April 3, 2019 filing in the federal district court that had ordered reinstatement of EEO-1 pay data reporting requirements, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) explained its inability to comply with the...more
4/4/2019
/ Corporate Counsel ,
Data Collection ,
EEO-1 ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Equal Pay ,
Gender-Based Pay Discrimination ,
Pay Data ,
Pay Discrimination ,
Pay Gap ,
Reporting Requirements ,
Wage and Hour
On March 4, 2019, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia surprised the employer community by vacating the White House Office of Management and Budget's (OMB) stay of the revised EEO-1 form’s pay data reporting...more
3/6/2019
/ Data Collection ,
EEO-1 ,
Employment Discrimination ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Equal Pay ,
Federal Contractors ,
Gender-Based Pay Discrimination ,
OMB ,
Pay Discrimination ,
Pay Gap ,
Reporting Requirements ,
Rulemaking Process ,
Wage and Hour
State and local legislatures considered over 1,000 labor and employment bills in February, more than 600 of them new. ...more
3/4/2019
/ #MeToo ,
Appearance Policy ,
Ban the Box ,
Big Data ,
Criminal Background Checks ,
Dress Codes ,
Equal Pay ,
Gender-Based Pay Discrimination ,
Joint Employers ,
Legislative Agendas ,
Non-Disclosure Agreement ,
Paid Family Leave Law ,
Pay Gap ,
Proposed Legislation ,
Race Discrimination ,
Religious Discrimination ,
Salary/Wage History ,
Sexual Harassment ,
State and Local Government ,
Vaccinations
Many agencies are experiencing lingering effects after the longest-ever partial government shutdown, including the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). Recognizing these effects will include delays and...more