Employment

The most recent amendment to New York’s Workers’ Compensation Law, which went into effect on January 1, 2025, permits any employee to seek workers’ compensation benefits when they experience a “mental injury premised upon extraordinary work-related stress incurred at work.”  

New York employers are – once again – required to provide employees with notice regarding New York’s reproductive health decision making protections.  The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit vacated a lower court’s permanent injunction of a New York law that requires employers to include a notice in their employee handbooks regarding the State’s prohibition of discrimination based on reproductive health choices. 

In July 2024, Massachusetts passed into law An Act Relative to Salary Range Transparency (the “Act”). We previously wrote about this Act in its legislation phase here and provided answers to frequently asked questions here.

ESG Co-chair Jen Rubin hosts an in-depth discussion about mandatory diversity metrics and their relevance following the Fifth Circuit’s recent decision to vacate Nasdaq’s board diversity rules.

ESG Co-chair Jen Rubin hosts a thoughtful discussion on diversity diversions and the future of DEI programs under the new administration.

In the latest episode of the Mintz on Air: Predictions and Practical Policies Podcast, ESG Co-chair Jen Rubin hosts a timely discussion on Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, Executive Order 11246, and how employers can prepare for the next administration.

A year after announcing its first-in-the-nation effort to increase access to pregnancy-related healthcare, New York’s “paid prenatal leave” law is officially set to take effect on January 1, 2025.  Employers will be required to begin offering New York employees 20 hours of paid leave during a 52-week period to attend to prenatal medical needs, which is in addition to existing sick/safe leave already required in New York.  The New York State Department of Labor recently released an FAQ document to assist employers in implementing this new leave.  We detail some of the most pertinent guidance below.

Ontario introduced Bill 229, Working for Workers Six Act, 2024 on November 27, 2024, the latest in a series of legislation amending employment laws in Ontario. If Bill 229 is passed as is, here are some of the key changes that will affect Ontario businesses.

ESG Co-chair Jen Rubin moderates a forward-looking discussion on what businesses can expect for ESG, clean tech, and energy regulation under the second Trump administration.

Amid a flurry of President-elect Donald Trump’s nominations for cabinet-level positions and his frequent statements about his policy plans, employers are anticipating sweeping changes to employment and immigration laws, regulations, and practices.

On the heels of the election of President-Elect Trump, employers should be on the lookout for potential changes to employment and immigration laws, regulations and practices.

The U.S. Supreme Court recently granted cert in a hotly contested case addressing the standards of proof applicable to reverse discrimination claims under Title VII.  The case comes on the heels of the court’s decision last term in Muldrow v. City of St. Louis, Mo., where it lowered the standard to prove that an employee suffered an adverse employment action (now, employees need only show that they suffered “some harm respecting an identifiable term or condition of employment”).  In the next term, in Ames v. Ohio Department of Youth Services, SCOTUS will turn its attention to so-called “reverse” discrimination and whether members of a majority group will be required to meet a heightened pleading standard to prove their claims.

Ontario recently passed Bill 190, Working for Workers Five Act, 2024, on October 28, 2024, building on earlier legislation of the same series and making further changes to employment rules in Ontario. Below are some of the key developments that employers with personnel in Ontario should be aware of.

New York’s Clean Slate Act is now effective.  The Act will lead to the automatic sealing of certain criminal records and will require greater disclosure by employers of the criminal history they can consider in connection with hiring or other employment decisions. 

A federal judge in Texas has vacated the U.S. Department of Labor’s final rule increasing the salary thresholds for the “white collar” overtime exemptions under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) and did so on a nationwide basis.  In a sweeping 62-page decision, U.S. District Judge Sean D. Jordan of the Eastern District of Texas declared that the DOL exceeded its rulemaking authority by attempting to raise the minimum salary for the executive, administrative, or professional (EAP) and highly compensated employee (HCE) exemptions under the FLSA.  

Effective November 21, 2024, Massachusetts employees may take earned sick time to “address the employee’s own physical and mental health needs, and those of their spouse, if the employee or the employee’s spouse experiences pregnancy loss or a failed assisted reproduction, adoption, or surrogacy.”  

Earlier this year, we highlighted that the Massachusetts Wage Act (the “Wage Act”), while providing powerful protections to Massachusetts workers, does not apply to a profit-sharing arrangement tied to an employer’s overall profits.  Now, another Massachusetts court—this time the District Court’s Appellate Division—has imposed an additional limitation in holding that the Wage Act does not apply to contingent retention bonuses.

It’s that time of year again—California employers need to prepare for a raft of new laws that become effective in the new year.  Below is a brief overview of some of those laws and how employers should prepare for them.  All of the laws discussed below become effective on January 1, 2025. 

The United States and Canada are each other’s largest trade partners with nearly C$3.6 billion/US$2.7 billion worth of goods and services crossing the border each day in 2023.  The United States is the single greatest investor in Canada and Canada was the largest source of foreign direct investment in the United States at the end of 2022.[1]  As commerce in general and employee mobility in particular increases, employers with operations in the United States and Canada may consider a “one-size-fits all” approach to employment, benefits and compensation arrangements. However, despite many similarities, employers should take heed of possible discrepancies across the two countries’ employment landscapes. In this Part II of our series on cross-border hiring, we discuss health benefits and retirement benefits.

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has initiated enforcement of the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act (PWFA) following the release of its final rule and interpretative guidance in April 2024