Employers Beware: Something Wicked This Way Comes
Double, double, toil and trouble…guidelines change, employers struggle. In 2025, the figurative Hydra monster of regulations and requirements sprouts new and vicious Venus Flytrap heads by the day in the federal government’s own Little Shop of Horrors. Through new legislation, guidance, and Executive Orders, something spooky and sinister lurks around every corner and behind every door. The surest defense against these ghoulish traps is nimble navigation through the ever-changing legal labyrinth, and the most important weapon in an organization leader’s arsenal is knowledge.
This Client Alert contains valuable reminders and tips for employers to exorcise bad practices and dodge the most common current and forthcoming legal trapdoors. We cannot possibly rip the mask off all legal developments that may impact your business, and this alert does not constitute legal advice, but we will take a stab at summarizing a few of the more hair-raising developments. There’s no better time than Halloween to get your haunted house in order.
They’re Heeeere…Pay Transparency Poltergeists
The effective date of Part II of the Massachusetts Pay Transparency Act arrived just days before Halloween (October 29, 2025, to be precise). By this witching hour, employers with 25+ employees in the Commonwealth must disclose pay ranges for open positions in job postings, promotions, transfers, or upon request. A “good faith” salary estimate does not need to include premiums, bonuses, or employee benefits, although advertising such things may help attract candidates. If you have questions about job posting wording or content, we suggest that you have counsel review your proposed drafts. Your HRW sorcerers stand ready to ensure that you include the correct incantations and charms in your job postings.
They’re Coming To Get You! Petrifying Poster Penalties
Beware of the terrifying pitfalls of failing to post required labor notices; prepare by updating your poster list to reflect the latest versions of federal and state employment law posters. The Department of Labor (DOL), the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), and the Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OSHA), and many state agencies all (for good or evil) enforce specific posting rules. Failure to comply may result in torturous fines, many of which increase annually. For example, the current fine for failing to post the EEOC Know Your Rights poster is $680 per violation. Failure to post an OSHA-required poster may garner a civil monetary penalty of $16,550 per violation.
States may also have their own poster requirements. Employers in New York with more than 50 full-time employees are required to post the Veterans’ Benefits & Services poster “in a conspicuous place accessible to employees in the workplace.” New York alone has at least 19 separate poster requirements! Horrors!
In order to avoid the blood-curdling screams attendant to torture in the form of penalties and fines, it’s time to brush the cobwebs off of your posting requirement lists or Spellbook (er, Handbook) notices to ensure that they are current.
Horrifying H-1B Visa Fee Havoc
A White House Proclamation placing a demonic $100,000 fee on employers looking to sponsor H-1B visa employees mercilessly sank its fangs into employers’ necks on September 19, 2025. The implications of this Proclamation are still haunting all who employ such individuals. On October 20, 2025, the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) issued a statement which clarified some of the new eerie visa-related fee expectations. Petitions filed at the stroke of midnight (before 12:01 a.m. EDT) on September 21, 2025, as well as petitions for any individual with a previously issued or currently valid H-1B visa are exempt (for now) from the new fee. However, new H-1B petitions filed on or after the September 21 deadline must include evidence of the $100,000 payment or a grant of exception. Employers who rely on H-1B visas for any members of their employee roster would be well-advised to consult with immigration counsel for specific questions and situations.
Villainous Vaccine Policies
Flu and cold season has crept up on us—and with it, foreboding reminders from healthcare providers and pharmacies about yearly vaccines. Employers should steer clear of blanket vaccine policies, as vaccine guidelines are ever-changing, and vaccine status is a new protected class in a few states. If an employee seeks an exemption from a workplace vaccine requirement, employers must engage in an interactive dialogue relating to the employee’s sincerely held religious beliefs or documented disability. Employers cannot avoid this lurking-under-the-bed obligation by hiding under the “undue hardship” covers—standards for proving undue hardship are more exacting than ever under current case law. A clear policy, standard interactive dialogue procedure, and individualized evaluation of exemption requests will safeguard against discrimination claims and other hexes and curses.
Midnight Multistate Mayhem
Nightmarish Notice Requirements
If you have employees in more than one state, the potion in your HR cauldron must contain the proper state-specific tinctures, many of which are different from one another. Are you following the recipe in each state’s Spellbook correctly? In other words, are you issuing the correct notices and using the correct paperwork for your employees in states other than Massachusetts? For example, California recently passed a law requiring California employers to create a stand-alone notice of worker rights by January 1, 2026, and distribute it to their California employees by February 1, 2026, and annually thereafter, as well as to new employees upon hire. By March 30, 2026, California employers must also allow employees to designate a contact to be notified if the employee is arrested or detained at work or during work hours in cases where the company has actual knowledge of the arrest or detention. Failure to comply may result in hair-raising penalties of between $500 to $10,000 per employee.
Many states also have specific notice requirements for new hires and for terminations. For example, in Colorado, employers must give each new hire a written notice of their right to paid leave under Colorado’s Healthy Families & Workplaces Act. Many states, including Massachusetts, require an employer to provide specific forms on unemployment to employees upon termination.
We advise that all multistate employers check notice requirements for all states in which they have employees to determine whether they are compliant. Your team of HRW multistate wizards is here to help!
Unnervingly Unenforceable Restrictive Covenants
State governments are entering the fray on regulation of restrictive covenants (otherwise known as noncompete agreements, non-solicitation provisions, nondisclosure and confidentiality clauses, and patents and intellectual property pacts). Savvy employers still want to ensure that an employee who ghosts them doesn’t make off with valuable confidential information. A perilous pitfall for multistate employers is failing to account for state law requirements to ensure agreements are enforceable. Some states completely ban noncompetition agreements, while other states drastically curtail them. Many states have specific limitations for non-solicitation agreements, such as time and geographic limits, or the requirement that the non-solicit provision is limited to only people or customers an employee has directly worked with while at the company. Before having new employees sign standard NDAs, confidentiality agreements, or other restrictive covenants, employers must ensure that such agreements are tailored to the law of the state (or city or county) in which the employee works.
PFML Tricks and Treats
The Massachusetts Department of Family and Medical Leave has treated employers with a timely notice of the 2026 maximum weekly benefits for Paid Family and Medical Leave. The maximum amount for PFML will increase from $1,170.65 in 2025 to $1,230.39 on January 1, 2026. (The minimum income requirement for PFML benefits remains the same as it is this year: to be eligible for PFML, employees must have earned at least $6,300 in the four calendar quarters before their leave begins and at least 30 times the weekly benefit amount).
The six-month rebuttable presumption of retaliation for any adverse action is the treat that keeps on tricking employers. The 2025 Supreme Judicial Court case City of Newton v. Commonwealth Employment Relations Board expanded the types of actions that can support a retaliation claim under Massachusetts law, even where there appears to be a benefit to the employee. In that case, a police sergeant claimed that he was transferred to a less desirable work schedule after participating in union-based activities. Even though his new position offered an 8% increase in pay, the court still determined that the employer had retaliated against him. While this SJC case was not brought under the PFML, our crystal-ball gazers report that it is only a matter of time before this logic makes its way into PFML claims. Employers must be wicked vigilant about avoiding the specter of tricky retaliation claim traps, especially after leaves of absence, and should seek counsel if contemplating actions related to employees just returning from a leave of absence.
One final trick? There has continued to be a great deal of uncertainty about how courts will evaluate PFML claims, since there is little precedent under this still fairly new law. The corresponding “treat” came from the federal district court in Massachusetts, which recently clarified (in Tardiff v. Laborers Int’l Union of N. Am. Loc. Union 609) that it would use First Circuit Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) precedent to analyze PFML claims. We hope this will bring greater clarity to evaluation of PFML claims going forward (at least in federal court).
To discuss how these recent developments affect your organization, and for assistance in reviewing and revising your workplace policies, practices, and documents for compliance, please contact your HRW attorney:
• Sarah Ruter (sruter@hrwlawyers.com / 781-235-4879);
• Samantha Halem (shalem@hrwlawyers.com / 781-235-4878);
• Catherine Reuben (creuben@hrwlawyers.com / 617-348-4316);
• Alicia Ward (award@hrwlawyers.com / 617-348-4357); or
• Any member of the HRW Team.
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© Hirsch Roberts Weinstein, LLP. October 30, 2025. Please note that this publication is for educational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. Consult with counsel about the impact of these topics on your business.
Source(s):
Gasson, E. (2025, October 30). 2025 Employment Law Compliance: Adapting to New Regulations. Hirsch Roberts Weinstein LLP. https://www.hrwlawyers.com/news-and-events/client-alerts/employers-beware-something-wicked-this-way-comes/?utm_source=elinfonet