Compliance Stuff

Florida largely follows federal employment laws, but under certain circumstances, Florida law provides greater protections to employees over and above its federal counterparts. This guide will highlight a few of these crucial variances to assist Florida employers in ensuring state law compliance and to provide an overview of state-level enforcement of the Sunshine State’s employment laws. Minimum Wage Florida’s minimum wage requirement has been increasing incrementally since 2021. As of September 30, 2024, non-tipped employees must be paid $13.00 per hour, and  for tipped employees, a direct hourly wage of $9.98. T hese requirements are set to increase on September 30, 2025 to $14.00 and $10.98, respectively . The final annual increase will take place on September 30, 2026, increasing the minimum wage to $15.00 for non-tipped employees and $11.98 for tipped employees. In 2027 and annually thereafter, the minimum wage requirements will be adjusted as necessary to account for inflat...

 On April 4, 2024, Governor Tina Kotek signed HB 4156 to modernize and expand protections under Oregon’s anti-stalking laws.  The new law criminalizes newer forms of threatening and predatory conduct which have emerged with the technological advances of recent decades.  The new law also impacts Oregon employers by expanding employees’ access to paid and unpaid safe leave benefits. It has long been a crime in Oregon to cause someone reasonable apprehension about their personal safety by knowingly alarming or coercing that person through repeated and unwanted contact.  The term “repeated and unwanted contact” was generally defined to include only instances of direct physical presence (e.g., following a victim or lying in wait outside their homes and schools), or unwanted communications.  That definition reflected traditional concepts of stalking behavior but failed to address newer forms of bad conduct, including, for example, forms of online harassment and the th...