Compliance Stuff

On June 4, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) issued a new National Enforcement Plan (NEP), effective immediately, replacing the Biden-era Strategic Enforcement Plan (SEP). The NEP realigns federal enforcement around the current administration’s priorities and signals a significant shift in how workplace discrimination claims will be investigated and litigated. For employers, the change reshapes where federal risk will change and diverge from state law obligations. EEOC Deprioritizes Disparate Impact Where the SEP prioritized adverse/disproportionate impact, the NEP (using Executive Order 14281) builds its priorities around disparate treatment and commits to eliminating disparate-impact theories in investigations “to the maximum degree possible .” This effort includes not commencing, developing, or continuing litigation that advances the SEP’s prioritized disparate-impact claims. What this means for employers: Federal EEOC exposure on facially neutral policies wit...

Although they may not realize it, even non-union employers face risk under the National Labor Relations Act. Everyday workplace decisions can trigger scrutiny and while the enforcement climate is shifting, the underlying risk remains. For employers, this is no longer a niche legal issue. It’s a legitimate business risk. Business owners used to lose sleep over ordinary problems: rising costs, staffing shortages, difficult customers, and whether anyone in the office can operate the printer without filing a support ticket. But for a growing number of employers, the concerns keeping them awake at 2:00 a.m. include whether their employee handbook violates federal labor law, whether a supervisor’s offhand comment during a tense performance review could trigger an unfair labor practice charge, or whether an employee group text complaining about the schedule somehow became protected concerted activity under the NLRA. The most surprising part? Many of these employers don’t have a union in sigh...

If U.S. employment laws feel impossible to keep up with, you’re not imagining things. Between federal, state, and local laws and shifting agency guidance, even well-intentioned employers can find themselves in violation of labor and employment laws without realizing it. You probably can’t fix the system, but you  can  protect your business from unnecessary risk and expense. T he key is investing in prevention, empowering the right people, and acting decisively before small issues escalate. Why U.S. Employment Law Is So Complicated for Employers Now, if you’ll indulge me, let’s acknowledge the frustration. A very intelligent person once said: “The only thing worse than severe over-regulation is over-regulation that not only constantly proliferates but also changes every four years.” (Hint: It was me, just now.) The U.S. has become an over-regulated mess of employment laws at the federal, state and local levels thanks to politicians, lobbyists, and lawyers.  Lurking around ...

As employers keep their eye on compliance, below are some notable employment law changes that will be effective in the coming months. Arkansas   Effective August 4, 2025 -  Senate Bill 598  (S.B. 598) requires an employer or agency charged with determining the employment status of an individual to use the method proscribed under the Internal Revenue Service Code, as it existed on Jan. 1, 2025 , in making its determination . Employers and agencies charged with determining the employment status of an individual can no longer use or rely on state law to make this determination.    California Effective January 1, 2026,  Senate Bill 648  (S.B. 648) permits California's labor commissioner to investigate employers and issue citations for tip theft. The legislation subjects employers to investigation if they take or withhold any portion of an employee's tips, including failure to pay tips in timely manner (by the next regular payday). Employers found gui...

  2025 is set to be another year of expanded paid leave requirements for employers. While the results are still preliminary, employers should start preparing in the states that have voted in new leave laws. Missouri Voters passed  Proposition A , which raises the minimum wage from $8.60/hour to $13.75/hour and mandates paid sick leave starting May 1, 2025. The paid sick leave provisions require employers to provide one hour of sick leave for every 30 hours worked up to five days (employers with fewer than 15 employees) and seven days (employers with 15 or more employees). Proposition A lets employees carry over up to 80 hours of accrued but unused sick time from year to year. It also includes caps on sick leave an employee can take in a given year (40 hours for small employers, 80 for large employers), a prohibition against imposing a waiting time before an employee can use accrued hours, and exempting employers with a paid leave plan that meets or exceeds the minimum require...