By Samantha Halem, Alicia Ward, Catherine Reuben, Sarah Ruter, Julia Russo July 19, 2024
As of July 1st, several new employment laws went into effect, impacting workplaces across the country on the federal, state, and local levels. That’s right, your summer reading list just got infinitely more exciting. But before you roll up those beach towels and put those beers back into the cooler, fear not. We at Hirsch Roberts Weinstein have put together this summary which highlights some of the new laws and their impact. Here’s what you need to know:
Federal
July 1st marked the start of the first phase of the new federal overtime rule, which introduces several key changes under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). Most notably, the standard salary threshold for exemption from overtime increased from $684 per week ($35,568 annually) to $844 per week ($43,888 annually). This threshold will further increase on January 1, 2025 to $1,128 per week ($58,656 annually).
For highly compensated employees, the total annual compensation requirement was raised from $107,432 to $132,964. This number is set to increase on January 1, 2025 to $151,164.
Employers should review their employee classifications to confirm compliance with these new thresholds. For more information, here is a link to our Client Alert on this subject.
State
California:
Employers in the Golden State may need to prepare to dish out a little more as minimum wage rates are set to increase on July 1st in many California cities and counties, including Los Angeles and San Francisco. Make sure to check your area for compliance.
In addition, July 1st marks the implementation of new workplace violence regulations for almost all non-healthcare employers. These regulations mandate comprehensive measures for employers to prevent and respond to workplace violence, such as the development and implementation of a Workplace Violence Prevention Plan, employee training, and maintaining a five-year incident log. There are some exceptions to this new requirement, so please reach out to determine if your organization is affected.
Colorado:
July 1st marks the implementation of the Job Application Fairness Act in Colorado (JAFA). JAFA prohibits employers from seeking any information that might reveal a job applicant’s age during the initial hiring process. This includes inquiries about dates of attendance or graduation from educational institutions. Employers should review interview questions, employment applications, existing requisitions and job postings, and general hiring procedures for compliance with these new requirements. Other states such as Massachusetts do not specifically prohibit asking about graduation date, but doing so could be evidence that age was a factor in the hiring decision.
Connecticut:
Connecticut’s law that required employers to provide voting leave (up to two hours of unpaid time off on election days) ended July 1st, meaning that Connecticut employers are no longer expected to offer this leave. Voting leave requirements vary in other states. For example, in Massachusetts, employees in certain industries must be given time to vote within the first two hours the polls are open. They must request the time in advance, and it does not have to be paid.
District of Columbia:
An amendment to the Wage Transparency Act of 2014 took effect June 30th, requiring private employers to include minimum and maximum projected salary or hourly pay information in job postings. Employers also cannot prevent employees from discussing their wages with others or discipline employees who inquire about or discuss wages. The amendment further prohibits employers from screening prospective employees based on their wage history or seeking their wage history.
Employers with employees in multiple jurisdictions will remember that this is a growing national trend. We are available to help employers craft job postings that comply with all the various new state/local salary transparency laws.
Florida:
Things are heating up in Florida as well with the implementation of new state laws blocking certain local jurisdiction workplace rules, including those related to heat safety protocols and predictive scheduling. Employers should now instead look to the federal law requirements rather than state or local guidelines in these areas.
Starting July 1st, changes to Florida’s Child Labor Law take effect easing some of the restriction on working minors. The law allows minors aged sixteen and seventeen to work more hours and gives parents and school superintendents the ability to waive the limitation on minors working to only thirty hours a week while school is in session.
Idaho:
Effective July 1st, Idaho employers are immune from civil damages for allowing or not prohibiting the lawful carrying of a firearm on an employee’s person on the employer’s business premises.
Indiana:
Effective July 1st, Indiana employers with 50 or more full-time employees must display a workplace poster outlining veterans’ benefits and services. The poster can be found here.
Maryland:
Maryland amended its Clean Indoor Air Act to prohibit vaping in indoor places of employment, requiring employers to post “No Smoking or Vaping” signs at each entrance to the workplace open to the public. The law, which took effect July 1st, defines vaping as the use of an electronic smoking device or any device where the user inhales tobacco, cannabis, or hemp. Employers with physical locations in Maryland should review applicable handbooks and policies to align with this development.
Nevada:
Minimum wage rates in Nevada increased to $12 an hour on July 1st. Additionally, employers no longer have the option of paying $1 less per hour for providing qualifying health benefits.
South Dakota:
Employers are neither required to accommodate medical marijuana use in the workplace, nor are they prohibited from taking adverse employment action based solely on a positive test result for cannabis metabolites, for “safety-sensitive” positions, like pilots and constructions workers.
Local
Chicago:
On July 1st, Chicago implemented new sick leave and paid leave regulations under the Paid Leave and Paid Sick and Safe Leave Ordinance. A copy of the new regulations can be found here. These regulations require employers to provide up to 40 hours of paid leave for any reason and an additional 40 hours of paid sick leave per 12-month period. Employees accrue both types of leave at a rate of at least one hour for every 35 hours worked. Employees in the City of Chicago are specifically exempted from Illinois and Cook County “paid leave for any reason” requirements since they are covered by the new Chicago ordinance.[1]
Chicago has also raised its minimum wage effective July 1st to $16.20 per hour.
Chicago employers should also update their required notices effective July 1st.
All employees must be given the following additional notices as indicated:
New York City:
Employers in the Big Apple had until July 1st to provide a copy of the multilingual “Know Your Rights at Work” poster to all employees. Additionally, the poster must also:
The poster educates employees on their rights and protections under federal, state, and local laws, as well as their right to form a union. A copy of the poster can be found here: Know Your Rights. Covered employers who have not met the July 1st deadline should promptly comply with the notice requirement and add the poster to existing physical and electronic workplace bulletin platforms.
Questions?
If you have any questions about the above new developments or any other compliance issue, do not hesitate to reach out to the lawyers below or any other member of our team.
[1] Employees outside the City of Chicago but still in Cook County, Illinois are entitled to leave under the Cook County Paid Leave Ordinance, which converted from an earned sick leave law to a “paid leave for any reason” law on January 1, 2024. Employees outside Cook County are entitled to paid leave for any reason under the Illinois Paid Leave for All Workers Act.
To sign up for our Client Alerts, click here.
