Perspectives

Employment Law Updates in 2024

News WFJ Law Firm

Employers know that staying up-to-date with the latest changes in employment law is crucial to the success of your business. These updates can affect everything from how you hire and manage employees-to how you handle disputes and protect your business from legal action. That’s where the Employment Law team at Wagner, Falconer & Judd comes in! We rounded up some of the most impactful new laws across the United States that are taking effect soon.

California

California Governor Gavin Newsom signed off on a number of new laws that impact employers across various industries.

  • Set healthcare industry minimum wage requirements for nearly all healthcare workers, whether they are hourly or salaried employees, or independent contractors. The law also provides these workers with an independent private right of action to enforce these minimum wage requirements.
  • Codified legal precedent banning certain non-compete and non-solicitation agreements and requires that employers notify current and former employees in writing by February 14th, 2024 that any prior non-compete agreements contravening the law are void.
  • Update to California Fair Employment and House Act allowing eligible employees to take up to five days of reproductive loss leave following failed adoption, failed surrogacy, miscarriage, stillbirth, or unsuccessful assisted reproduction.
  • New law requires employers to pay food handler employees for the costs associated with obtaining a food handler card required by the California Health and Safety Code. The new law also makes employers responsible for the time required for the employee complete the training, the cost of testing, and any element required for the completion of the certification program.
  • California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) definition of “sensitive personal information” is revised to include personal information that reveals a consumer’s citizenship or immigration status.
  • SB 700 expanded California’s Fair Employment and Housing Act to protect applicants from discrimination based on prior cannabis use, with certain exceptions
  • Expanded California’s existing paid sick leave law (the Healthy Workplaces, Healthy Families Act of 2014) increasing employee’s entitlement to annual paid sick leave
  • Raised minimum wage for restaurant workers at national fast food chains to $20/hour

Colorado

  • The Boulder County Board of Commissioners adopted a minimum wage ordinance, effective January 1, 2024
  • SB 23-105 which expands notifications requirements in Colorado’s Equal Pay for Equal Work Act
  • Enacted the Job Application Fairness Act (JAFA), effective July 1, 2024, which prohibits employers from requesting or requiring that job applicants provide information relate to “age, date of birth, or dates of attendance at or graduation from an educational institution” on initial employment applications.

Connecticut

  • Minimum wage will increase to $15.69 on January 1, 2024 under its first-time economic indicator adjustment and will adjust annually
  • PA 23-35 “An Act Expanding Worker’s Compensation Coverage for Post-Traumatic Stress Injuries for All Employees”, which expands the definition of employee to allow nearly all workers (not just first responders) who suffer certain tragic qualifying events to claim workers’ compensation benefits, effective January 1, 2024

Hawaii

SB 1057, effective January 1, 2024 will:

  • require most employers with 50 or more employees to disclose a position’s hourly rate or salary range in certain job postings
  • amend existing equal pay requirements by prohibiting an employer from paying employees in any protected category of the state’s employment discrimination statute less than it pays other employees

 

Illinois

Governor J.B. Pritzker joined other states in signing legislation to expand leave protections to employees, and provided guidance on a number of matters impacting employers and employees.

  • Chicago City Council passed a new paid leave ordinance requiring all Chicago employers to provide employees with 10 paid leave days. Adding complications for employers, the varying types of leave will have different rules for initial eligibility, minimum usage, rollover and payout upon termination.
  • New law, Child Extended Bereavement Leave Act (also known as Zachary’s Parent Protection Act) requires employers with at least 50 employees to provide between 6 and 12 weeks unpaid leave (depending on the employer size) for employees who have lost a child due to suicide or homicide
  • Evanston, IL adopted a Fair Workweek Ordinance, expanding hourly workers’ rights to predictable scheduling across multiple industries
  • The Illinois Department of Labor (IDOL) published Paid Leave for All Workers Act FAQ, which provides guidance on the state’s Paid Leave for All Workers Act, effective January 1, 2024
  • Illinois will require private employers to provide a minimum of 40 hours of annual paid leave to employees to be used for any reason. Employers have options on how to distribute that leave time, but may not require any documentation on the need for leave.

 

Maryland

  • Maryland Governor Wes Moore approved the Maryland General Assembly’s modifications to the Maryland Time to Care Act of 2022 which will add a critical provision, mandating employee and employer contribution rates at 50/50 to the sweeping paid family and medical leave program.
  • Moore also signed the Fair Wage Act of 2023, which mandates a uniform $15 hourly minimum wage for all employers effective January 1, 2024.

 

Minnesota

Minnesota was another state with sweeping changes to the legal landscape of the state in 2023, legalizing recreational marijuana and expanding expanding employee protections.

  • MN Department of Labor and Industry has issued guidance on the state’s paid earned sick and safe time (ESST) law, which takes effect January 1, 2024. The agency has also published a sample employee notice employers may use to satisfy their ESST notice obligations
  • City of Bloomington amended its paid sick leave law to more closely align it with the statewide paid sick leave mandate. Among other things, the amendment (effective January 1, 2024):
    • expands the definition of “family member”
    • modifies the allowable reasons for leave
    • allows frontloading with no waiting period
    • allows reasonable documentation to justify the reasons for leave
  • MN DOL announced that minimum wage rates will be adjusted for inflation and increase 2.5% on January 1, 2024
  • Governor Walz also signed a far-reaching omnibus jobs and economic development and labor funding bill that:
    • provides for investing $500 million in a fund matching federal investments in infrastructure and large development projects
    • bans employment non-compete agreements signed after July 1, 2023
    • mandates certain worker safety protections
    • creates new paid sick leave entitlements
    • provides employees with additional pregnancy and nursing accommodations
    • prohibits employers from mandating attendance at employer-sponsored meetings about religious or political matters
    • adds protections for employees who disclose their own wages or voluntarily discuss their wages with other employees
  • Bloomington published initial rules implementing its Earned Sick and Safe Leave (ESSL) Ordinance, which took effect on July 1, 2023. It also published the mandatory Notice of Employee Rights in English ( posters in other languages will also be available.)

 

Nevada

  • Nevada passed SB 290, which requires earned wage access providers to obtain a license from the state government and regulates the providers. The law governs entities that provide consumers with an advance of income they have earned or accrued but have not been paid yet.
  • Nevada OSHA announced increased penalties that took effect on January 17, 2023 and on March 24, 2023, released an updated list of establishments it is targeting for programmed inspections.

New Jersey

The New Jersey DOL launched the Workplace Accountability in Labor List (the WALL), a publicly available list of businesses with outstanding liabilities for violations of state wage, benefit, and tax laws enforced by the agency. Businesses on the list are prohibited from public contracting.

 

New York

New York’s Paid Family Leave Program will be updated for 2024 so that employee’s maximum:

    • weekly benefit is $1,151.16
    • annual contribution is $333.25
  • Additionally, the list of family members for whom eligible workers can take Paid Family Leave to care for was expanded in 2023 to include biological, adopted, step-, and half-siblings, including those living outside of NY and outside the U.S.

 

  • A5295, with some exceptions, renders unenforceable agreements that assign an employee’s rights in an invention to their employer even where the employee develops the invention entirely on their own time without using the employer’s property.
  • S5572 increases the salary threshold for certain wage payment exceptions, such as pay frequency requirements. Effective March 2024.
  • S2518A prohibits employers from requesting or requiring an employee or applicant to disclose access information for a personal social media account or performing other related acts.
  • S4878A requires employers to provide employees written notice of their right to file for unemployment benefits when they are let go or experience a reduction in hours or other interruption of employment.

 

Ohio

Joining 23 other states, Ohio has passed a recreational marijuana law legalizing and regulating the cultivation, sale, purchase, possession, use and home growth of recreational marijuana. The new law does not require an employer to “accommodate an employee’s use, possession, or distribution of adult use cannabis”.

The City of Columbus joins Toledo and Cincinnati as the latest Ohio city to prohibit employers from asking prospective employees about past compensation. Effective March 1, 2024, employers operating in Columbus may not ask about a prospective employee’s wage or salary history. The new ordinance makes it an “unlawful discriminatory practice” for an employer to: ask about an applicant’s salary history, which includes current or prior wages, benefits or other compensation.

 

Rhode Island

Rhode Island Governor Daniel McKee signed a bill that increase the penalties for employers that knowingly and willfully violate the wage and hour laws, and specified additional penalties for employers in the construction industry.

 

Washington

  • The Department of Labor and Industries announcement of increases to state and local minimum wage and exempt salary thresholds for 2024. The increases are effective January 1, 2024.
  • SB 5586 allows employees, an employer, and third parties acting on behalf of the employee or employer to request access to records related to paid family or medical leave claims.
  • SB 5123 prohibits employers from making hiring decisions based on off-duty cannabis use or a positive pre-employment drug test result detecting psychoactive cannabis metabolites. Takes effect January 1, 2024
  • SB 5111 amends the minimum wage law and requires employers to pay out standalone unused paid sick and safe time to certain short-term or temporary construction workers.

 

Staying on top of local employment laws doesn’t have to be complicated! Work with the attorneys at Wagner, Falconer & Judd and make compliance a breeze.

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