The 12 Days of California Labor and Employment Series – Day 3 "Healthcare Workers and a New Minimum Wage Structure"

In the spirit of the season, we are using our annual "12 Days of California Labor and Employment" blog series to address new California laws and their impact on California employers. On the third day of the holidays, my labor and employment attorney gave to me three french hens and SB 525.

While the minimum wage may differ depending on the city in which you live, the current minimum wage is generally $15/hour. When the pandemic was ongoing, the importance of healthcare workers soared, and the realization of how much healthcare workers were needed and the shortage of healthcare workers hit an all-time high.  

To no surprise, specific cities attempted to increase healthcare workers' wages to assist during the pandemic. While some of those laws passed, others did not. This paved the way for SB 525, which creates a different minimum wage schedule, specifically a higher minimum wage schedule, for various categories of covered healthcare employees. More ›

The 12 Days of California Labor and Employment Series – Day 2 "Reproductive Leave for California"

In the spirit of the season, we are using our annual "12 Days of California Labor and Employment" blog series to address new California laws and their impact on California employers. On the second day of the holidays, my labor and employment attorney gave to me two turtle doves and SB 848.

As of January 1, 2024, California will become only the second state, after Illinois, to provide reproductive loss leave under SB 848. This new leave requires employers with five or more employees to provide five days of unpaid leave when an employee sustains a reproductive loss. More ›

The 12 Days of California Labor and Employment Series – Day 1 "Expansion of Paid Sick Leave"

The end of something is always the beginning of something else. That always rings true for years end and new employment laws. It is time, once again, for all employers to sit down, buckle up, and get ready for the 2024 employment law updates and changes.

For the first year in many, COVID has dropped off the radar regarding new or changing employment laws. Workplace violence, arbitration, and cannabis are on the 2024 radar.

Before we pop the champagne and say goodbye to 2023, it is time to reprise our annual review of key California labor and employment law developments. In the spirit of the season, we are using our "12 Days of California Labor and Employment" blog series to address new California laws and their impact on employers. So, on the first day of the holidays, my labor and employment attorney gave to me a partridge in a pear tree and SB 616. More ›

New York City Amends Safe and Sick Time Regulations

On September 15, 2023, the New York City Department of Consumer and Worker Protection issued amended rules relating to the New York City Earned Safe and Sick Time Act (“ESSTA”). The amendments codified the New York City Council statutory amendments to the ESSTA in 2020, which was designed to align the ESSTA with the New York State Paid Sick Leave Law. The amended rules went into effect on October 15, 2023. More ›

Hinshaw Insights for Employers Alert: Chicago Adopts Significant New Paid Leave Requirements

Chicago employers are facing significant new mandatory paid leave requirements following action by the Chicago City Council late last week. The new ordinance requires both paid leave and paid sick leave accruals, effectively doubling the minimum number of paid leave days from five to ten days annually. 

On our main website, read our Q&A to get all your employer compliance questions answered about the new ordinance.

New York Limits Employee Invention Assignment Provisions

Governor Kathy Hochul signed a bill into law last month that amended the New York State Labor Law by adding a new section (203-f). The law prohibits any clause in an employment agreement that requires employees to assign their inventions to their employer if the employee created them on their own time and without using the employer’s resources or trade secrets. More ›

New York Prohibits Employers From Requiring Access To Employee's Social Media Account Information

New York Governor Kathy Hochul signed a bill into law last month that amended New York State Labor Law, prohibiting employers from requesting or requiring employees and job applicants to disclose their social media account information. The law also prohibits employers from retaliating against employees or job applicants who refuse to disclose their social media account information.  More ›

Employers Should No Longer Rely on Their Policies Alone to Support a Computer Fraud and Abuse Act Claim Against Current or Former Employees

On June 3, 2021, the U.S. Supreme Court issued its opinion in Van Buren v. U.S. addressing a long-standing circuit split on employee computer access limits under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA). For many years the federal courts struggled with and disagreed over how to interpret the CFAA provisions that impose criminal and civil liability on a person who "intentionally accesses a computer without authorization or exceeds authorized access." 18 U.S.C. §1030(a)(2). The phrase "exceeds authorized access" is defined by the CFAA as follows: "To access a computer with authorization and to use such access to obtain or alter information in the computer that the accesser is not entitled so to obtain or alter." 18 U.S.C. §1030(e)(6). Unlike the typical employment scenario, the Van Buren case involved a police officer who used his access to a law enforcement database to search a license plate in exchange for $5,000.00 that was offered to him as part of a planned FBI investigation. The police officer was charged with a felony violation of the CFAA based on the allegation that his license plate search violated the "exceeds authorized access" provision of the CFAA. 18 U.S.C. §1030(a)(2). Specifically, the government's case against the police officer was that he used his authorized access to the license plate database for "an improper purpose" that included "any personal use." Van Buren, p. 4, citing App. 17. After the police officer was convicted by a jury, he was sentenced to 18 months in prison. On appeal the Eleventh Circuit affirmed by holding that the police officer had violated the CFAA by his action in accessing the law enforcement database for an "inappropriate reason." Van Buren v. U.S., 940 F.3d 1192, 1208 (9th Cir. 2019). More ›

Uniform Application of Employment Policies Leads to Positive Outcome in Employee’s Suit

The Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals recently explained that an employee’s inconvenience from a neutral workplace policy or the employer’s discretionary denial of benefits cannot support a claim under the Americans with Disabilities Act (“ADA”), Title VII of the Civil Rights Act (“Title VII”), or the Family Medical Leave Act (“FMLA”). More ›

Lawful, Unlawful, or It Depends? NLRB Issues New Guidance on Employer Policies Affecting Section 7 Rights

Earlier this month, the National Labor Relations Board's (NLRB) General Counsel issued Memorandum GC-18-04 providing guidance on handbook rules in light of the Board’s Boeing Company decision. In Boeing, the Board reevaluated when a seemingly neutral work rule, handbook rule, or employment policy violates the rights of workers granted by Section 7 of the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA). In doing so, it adopted a new test balancing the negative impact a given rule may have on an employee’s ability to exercise his or her Section 7 rights versus the employer’s right to maintain a disciplined and productive workplace. It also laid out three categories of rules: those that are always lawful, those that are usually always unlawful, and those it depends-type rules falling into the middle category. The GC’s guidance sorts common workplace policies into these three buckets. More ›