On June 10, 2019, Alabama enacted the state’s first wage equity law. The Clarke-Figures Equal Pay Act (CFEPA) mimics, in large portion, the federal Equal Pay Act (EPA), but includes race as a protected classification in addition to sex. The CFEPA also prohibits retaliation based on an applicants’ failure or refusal to provide their wage history and sets forth employer recordkeeping requirements. Employers of any size are subject to the act. There is no small employer exception. The CFEPA takes effect September 1, 2019.
Articles About Alabama Labor And Employment Law.
Alabama Legislature Approves Equal Pay Law; Law Awaits Governor Signature
Yesterday, Alabama’s Governor, Kay Ivey, signed a new law that would prohibit employers from paying less for the same work on the basis of gender or race. After both the House and the Senate approved the bill, it was sent back with an executive amendment from Governor Ivey on May 30, 2019. Upon approval of that amendment by the Alabama House and Senate, the law just received the necessary executive signature for enactment. With the passage of this law, titled the Clarke-Figures Equal Pay Act, only Mississippi remains without any state equal pay legislation in place.
Alabama Becomes Latest State To Restrict Salary History Inquiries
On June 11, 2019, Alabama Governor Kay Ivey signed a new law that prohibits wage discrimination based upon sex and protects workers who decline to share their salary history with a prospective employer. The new law takes effect August 1, 2019. Unlike laws in some other states, the Alabama law does not bar employers from asking for salary history information, but prohibits employers from refusing to interview or hire applicants who decline to provide such information.
Eleventh Circuit to Undertake Full-Court Review of Challenge to Alabama Law Prohibiting Local Minimum Wage Laws
The Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals has agreed to undertake a full-court review to decide the validity of a 2015 Alabama law prohibiting cities or other local municipalities from adopting their own laws concerning minimum wages, leave benefits, collective bargaining and other employment-related issues. The law was enacted in response to an ordinance passed by the Birmingham City Council to increase the minimum wage for all employees within the City’s boundaries, from the current federal minimum of $7.25 to $10.10. While local jurisdictions in a number of states have enacted their own minimum wage ordinances in recent years, Alabama is one of nearly twenty states that have passed laws prohibiting such ordinances.
Alabama Becomes the Final State to Enact a Data Breach Notification Law
On March 28th, Alabama Governor Kay Ivey (R) signed into law the Alabama Data Breach Notification Act, Act No. 2018-396, making Alabama the final state to enact a data breach notification law. South Dakota Governor Dennis Daugaard signed into a law a similar statute one-week prior. The Alabama law will take effect May 1, 2018. Being the last state to enact a breach notification law, Alabama had the benefit of examining the approach in just about all of the other states and apparently drew provisions from many other state laws, including relatively detailed requirements for covered entities (as defined within the statute) and their third-party service providers to maintain reasonable requirements to protect “sensitive personally identifying information.”
Alabama Senates Passes Data Breach Notification Act
There are only two states in the U.S. that have yet to enact data breach notification laws, but that may change in 2018. Several weeks ago, the South Dakota state legislature announced that a data breach notification bill (Senate Bill No. 62) was pending. Now, Alabama is following suit.
Alabama’s New Non-Compete Statute Places New Restrictions on Employers
Executive Summary: Effective January 1, 2016, Alabama passed a new non-compete and non-solicitation statute, repealing § 8-1-1 of the Alabama Code (the “New Act”). The New Act attempts to codify principles the Alabama courts have previously addressed.
Oxford, Alabama, City Council Repeals Bathroom Ordinance Targeting Transgender Individuals
The Oxford, Alabama, City Council has repealed on May 4, 2016, an ordinance it passed a week previously that barred transgender people from using a bathroom that corresponds with their gender identity.
Oxford, Alabama, City Council Adopts Ordinance Restricting Access to Bathroom Facilities Based on Biological Sex
The City Council of Oxford, Alabama, has enacted an ordinance regulating the utilization of bathroom or changing facilities within the City of Oxford, Alabama, making it unlawful for a person to use a bathroom or changing facility within the jurisdiction of the City that does not correspond to the person’s biological sex. The ordinance defines biological sex as the sex “stated on a person’s birth certificate.”
Alabama Governor Signs Law Voiding Birmingham Minimum Wage Ordinance
Employers with operations in Birmingham, Alabama, may breathe more easily now. Governor Robert Bentley has signed into law a prohibition against individual municipalities in the state from enacting their own minimum wage laws. The Alabama Senate passed the measure and the Governor signed the bill on February 25, 2016.
Birmingham, Alabama, City Council Attempts to Implement Immediate Minimum Wage Increase for All Employers
The Birmingham City Council has voted to implement a new ordinance increasing the minimum wage to $10.10 beginning February 24, 2016, for all employers within the city limits.
Striking a Balance: Alabama’s Newly-Amended Restrictive Covenant Statute
When Alabama Governor Robert Bentley signed House Bill 352 into law on June 11, 2015, he repealed Alabama’s bare bones restrictive covenant statute and replaced it with a detailed codification of much of Alabama’s restrictive covenant case law. The new statute, which will become effective on January 1, 2016, will make it much easier for the uninitiated to understand Alabama’s restrictive covenant enforcement standards. The law largely reflects Alabama’s friendly attitude towards restrictive covenants, but it also tightens enforcement standards in several areas and makes some significant changes to Alabama law, including shortening the nonsolicitation agreement period and the restrictive covenant time period for business owners who sell business goodwill.
Alabama Amends Non-Compete Statute
The Alabama legislature recently passed changes to Section 8-1-1 of the Code of Alabama, the provision which contains the state’s non-compete statute. Governor Bentley signed the new version of the statute and it will become effective January 1, 2016. While the new version does not drastically change the landscape of non-competes, there are several changes which employers should be aware of.
Alabama Employers May No Longer Consider Certain Criminal Records for Hiring Purposes
How and when employers can request and use a person’s criminal record information during the hiring process and for other employment purposes has become a hot topic over the last few years at the federal, state and local level. In the last 18 months, various states and cities have enacted legislation regulating when an employer can seek criminal record information in the hiring process, what information can be sought and how the information can be used.1 Moreover, so-called “ban-the-box” legislation has been sent to the Governors of Illinois and New Jersey, and similar legislation is pending in the District of Columbia.
New Alabama Law Allows Expungement of Certain Criminal Records
A new law in Alabama allows individuals to petition to have certain criminal records expunged upon the payment of $300 in fees, plus court costs, and following a successful petition to the court in which the relevant charge was filed. This means that, among other things, a prospective employee would not be required to disclose on an employment application criminal record information that has been expunged. Offenses subject to expungement include misdemeanors and nonviolent felonies. The new law, Ala. Code Secs. 15-27-1 to -19, becomes effective July 6, 2014.