On March 12, 2015, Utah Governor Gary Herbert signed into law Bill S 296 outlawing employment discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity. Under the law, employers with 15 or more employees may not refuse to hire, promote, discharge, demote, or terminate a person or retaliate against, harass, or discriminate against a person because Read more
Effective July 1, 2015, Vermont will become the latest state to prohibit an employer from requesting or requiring an employee or applicant to disclose their social media account information. Research indicates that more than 77 percent of companies use social media to research and recruit job candidates. Information gained from social networking websites is also Read more
On May 7, 2015, the Rhode Island Department of Labor and Training signed the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the U.S. Department of Labor. Like the MOU between the U.S. Department of Labor and states like Alabama, California, Florida, and Massachusetts, Rhode Island’s agreement was created to battle employee misclassification. State agencies in Rhode Island Read more
On July 1, 2015, minimum wage workers in the city of Chicago, Illinois will get a raise. Last December, the Chicago City Council passed an Ordinance raising the City’s minimum wage to $10.00 per hour, well above the current $8.25 per hour statewide minimum wage rate. The Chicago Minimum Wage Ordinance also provides for future Read more
The Attorney General’s Office of Massachusetts has recently released an updated Fair Employment posting that includes information on two new laws. All employers with six or more employees are protected under the Massachusetts General Laws Chapter 151B and are required to replace any outdated postings. As previously mentioned in our blog, the Massachusetts Domestic Workers’ Read more
WHAT IS THE ZIP CODE PROJECT? The Zip Code Project sets up a district-wide “foot patrol” to educate employers and increase compliance with District labor laws and in particular the Wage Theft Prevention Amendment Act (WTPAA). The WTPAA went into effect February 26, 2015 and requires employers to post a WTPAA specific notice in the Read more
On May 5, 2015, a Georgia federal court found employer, Atlas Logistics Group Retail Services, LLC liable of violating the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act (GINA). In 2012, Atlas found that an employee(s) were using the warehouse facilities to store groceries as lavatories. To find the person or people responsible, Atlas decided to start an investigation Read more
All Maryland employers are required to post the updated 2015 Equal Pay for Equal Work workplace notice. The Maryland Equal Pay for Equal Work law requires an employer to provide equal pay to men and women who work in the same establishment and perform work of comparable character. The Equal Pay for Equal Work does Read more
On April 13, 2015, the governor of Nebraska signed a bill (L 627) relating to pregnancy under the Nebraska Fair Employment Practice Act. Beginning September, employers with 15 employees or more will be required to offer their employees reasonable accommodations with respect to pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions. Reasonable accommodations may include “more frequent Read more
More states are passing laws that require employers to provide reasonable accommodations for workers whose ability to perform their job functions is limited by pregnancy, childbirth, and related conditions. It’s a labor law trend that in all likelihood will continue to spread to more jurisdictions. Since employers may face serious consequences for failure to provide Read more
