Compliance Stuff

E-Verify is back online. After a brief period of unavailability due to the  ongoing government shutdown , the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) E-Verify program has resumed operations. The E-Verify system, which is used by participating employers to verify employment eligibility in the United States, had been offline since October 1, 2025, because of a shutdown-imposed lapse in federal funding . Employers that currently participate in the program will now need to  create an E-Verify case by October 14, 2025 , for each employee hired while E-Verify was temporarily unavailable. Quick Hits The federal government shutdown and resulting lapse in funding had caused E-Verify to be offline since October 1, 2025. Employers were still required to complete Form I-9s for new hires, but E-Verify participants were unable to access that system to confirm employment eligibility. Now that the system is back up,  by a deadline of October 14, 2025 , E-Verify participating employ...

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has sworn in Catherine Eschbach as its first-ever principal deputy general counsel, a newly created position within the agency’s Office of General Counsel (OGC). Eschbach, who had served as director of the U.S. Department of Labor’s (DOL) Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) since March 2025, brings significant enforcement and leadership experience to the EEOC. Her appointment is expected to further shape the EEOC’s litigation strategy and strengthen coordination on contractor discrimination and pay equity matters. Quick Hits The EEOC announced that Catherine Eschbach had been sworn in as principal deputy general counsel. Eschbach had been serving as OFCCP director since March 2025. Her move brings contractor enforcement expertise to the EEOC’s litigation and legal strategy. Ashley Romanias will step in as OFCCP director with Eschbach’s departure. The principal deputy general counsel position is a new role at the...

  On November 1, 2024, the 2025 calendar year cost-of-living adjustments (COLAs) to the contribution and compensation limits for tax-qualified retirement plans were released by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) in Notice 2024-80. Quick Hits The elective deferral limit for 401(k) and 403(b) plans will increase to $23,500 for 2025, and the catch-up contribution limit will remain at $7,500 for most employees but will rise to $11,250 for employees who achieve ages 60 to 63 in 2025. The limitation on compensation that can be taken into account under tax-qualified retirement plans will increase to $350,000 for 2025. The threshold for determining highly compensated employees will increase to $160,000. The  2025 adjustments  were comparable to those made for 2024. The increases shown below are effective January 1, 2025. The IRS makes cost-of-living adjustments annually in response to inflation. Each limit is rounded to a whole number, usually the nearest $500 or $1,000, as presc...

An advocacy organization recently submitted signatures to put forth a ballot measure to raise the state minimum wage to $18 per hour. Arizona voters will decide a separate ballot measure to alter way the minimum wage is calculated for tipped workers. If passed by voters, both measures would take effect immediately. Arizona voters appear poised to decide on two wage increases via voter ballot initiatives in November. Raise the Wage Arizona, an advocacy group that supports a higher minimum wage, proposed a ballot measure that would increase the state minimum wage from $14.35 to $18 per hour by 2026, and continue to raise the minimum wage based on the consumer price index. If enough signatures are verified, this measure will appear on the ballot on November 5, 2024. Another measure has already been approved for the November ballot. If passed, it will allow employers in Arizona to pay tipped workers $10.76 per hour (or 25 percent less than the minimum wage), as long as the workers earn at...

 A new Minnesota law taking effect on July 1, 2024, will ban the use of non-solicitation agreements by staffing agencies and other service providers to prevent their customers, or the companies that contract for the staffing agency’s services, from soliciting or hiring the staffing agency’s employees who provide the contracted temporary services. Quick Hits Minnesota’s new ban on the use of non-solicitation agreements by service providers or staffing agencies takes effect on July 1, 2024. The law will prohibit service providers from restricting in any way its employees from being solicited or hired by user companies. The law will render such provisions void and enforceable. The new law, which was contained in Minnesota’s Labor and Industry Policy Omnibus bill signed by Governor Tim Walz on May 17, 2024, will prohibit any contractual provisions that restrict or restrain service providers’ user companies from directly or indirectly soliciting or hiring the service providers’ employee...