With two Board member vacancies open for incoming President Trump to fill with Republicans, the National Labor Relations Board is expected to shift to a 3 – 2 Republican majority.
Archives for January 16, 2025
The Year Ahead 2025: Wage and Hour Considerations
While many anticipate a more business-friendly administration, the appointment of a seemingly pro-labor Republican as Labor Secretary and President Trump’s populist instincts could make it hard to predict what the year ahead will bring for wage and hour law.
The Year Ahead 2025: Agency Authority and the SCOTUS Paradigm Shift
The recent Supreme Court decisions in Loper Bright, Jarkesy, Corner Post and Muldrow will continue to impact employers and the landscape in which they operate.
The Year Ahead 2025: Non-Compete Conundrums
For 2025, and perhaps beyond, the writing appears to be on the wall for true non-competes. Prudent employers looking down the road should make sure they are doing what they can to strengthen their other restrictive covenants and protection of confidential information and trade secrets.
Massachusetts Pay Transparency Law: What Employers Need to Know Before February
Last July, Massachusetts joined a growing number of states mandating that employers provide pay transparency to employees. The Massachusetts pay transparency law also includes a wage data reporting component that requires covered employers to submit EEO-1 reports to the Commonwealth on an annual basis. As the Feb. 3, 2025, deadline
Massachusetts Gets Transparent: FAQs Clarify the Commonwealth’s Pay Transparency Law
Massachusetts’ Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development (LWD) recently published FAQs that provide guidance on the state’s new pay transparency law, formally titled the Frances Perkins Workplace Equity Act.
DEI and the Surge in States’ Workplace Legislation
“It’s harder and harder to be a day-to-day HR professional or managing legal in an organization due to the myriad of differences between state and local laws. That requires an analysis of whether we want to go to lowest common denominators, which involves consideration of stakeholders and costs, or whether we have the ability to operate different policies and systems in different states, which then interacts with IT and systems. It requires an overall analysis of where the organization wants to be. And now we have another issue that we always need to think about, which is humanity.
H-1B Visas: Will Trump 2.0 Be a Turning Point for Employers Needing Skilled Foreign Workers?
TakeawaysA second Trump administration may align U.S. immigration policy with U.S. workforce needs on this particular aspect more than the first one did.Despite limitations, the H-1B visa program has been instrumental in sustaining U.S. dominance in technology and innovation.Employers will need to stay on top of potential changes to the program.Related links
New California Laws for Fair Employment, Workplace Violence Prevention + More
“Throughout the year, we certainly find some of the policies that we think ‘we should maybe change that moving forward.’ The beginning of the new year is a great opportunity to take a look at these things with new eyes and work with our management teams to really be business partners and not just advise but strategize with them as we move forward.”
Amendments Alleviate Not Eliminate Employer PAGA Burdens
“PAGA is a statute that’s not employer-friendly, but one of the benefits of this last year is that we had some amendments come through that did, for lack of a better phrase, throw employers a little bit of a bone when it came to dealing with PAGA cases. One benefit is an expanded ability to cure labor code violations. The other involves arbitration and our ability to fight these claims and not just have to wait to trial to do it.”
The Known Unknowns of Workplace Safety Under a New Administration
“The watchword is uncertainty. I don’t think there’s any question that the Trump administration is going to usher in a more pro-business, anti-regulatory administration and emphasis. But I do think that there’s a lot that remains to be seen about how that will actually go into effect. [Post Loper Bright] we don’t exactly know how courts will interpret a number of statutes.”
AI’s New Laws + Traditional Issues
“It’s like an AI chicken or the egg conundrum. Who should own the liability there? Should it be the developers of these technologies or should it be the users? If you’re trying to make that determination, where does that line fall? This uncertainty has worked its way into different legislation across the country. It really reflects how these lawmakers are grappling with some of these issues that, frankly, don’t have an easy answer.”
Tech Tools + Privacy Considerations
“It’s this constant sense of governance — risk and compliance processes that should take place whenever you’re dealing with these technologies. If there was one goal I would recommend for next year, that would be more collaboration between the stakeholders [IT, legal, HR, the business area deploying the tech] when rolling out these kinds of tools.”
Back to the Future for Core Wage + Hour Concerns
“A corollary to the populist instincts of president-to-be Trump [i.e., his possible support for some increase to the federal minimum wage] is this issue about removing taxes on tips. This is something that could certainly happen in 2025 — and it would be the most important effect on the wage and hour practice in the entire time I have been practicing in this area.”