Legislative Updates

The Occupational Safety and Heath Administration (OSHA) requires certain employers to maintain records of workplace injuries and illnesses, and these records may need to be posted in the workplace between February 1 and April 30, and/or filed electronically with OSHA by March 2nd. Here is a summary of these requirements: Employers with ten (10) or more employees must keep records of all serious work-related...

The U.S. Department of Labor ("DOL") has issued a final rule, which takes effect on January 15th, clarifying what types of payment and employee benefits or "perks" must be included or may be omitted when calculating an employee's regular pay rate for the purpose of paying overtime. The current rule, which has been in effect for at least 50 years, states that the regular rate of pay excludes items such as...

Here is what you need to know: All new employees hired as of January 1, 2020 must be given the new version of the W-4 form. You can access the new form here. Current employees do not have to complete the new W-4 form, but they have the option to do so in order to adjust their federal withholding according to the new form's worksheet. Employers who do not require all employees to complete the new W-4 form...

On September 24, 2019, the U.S. Department of Labor issued its final rule raising the minimum salary for exempt employees under federal law from $23,660/year (or $455/week) to $35,568/year (or $684/week), effective January 1, 2020. This means that, under federal law, any employee making less than that amount as of January 1st must be paid overtime for all hours worked over 40 in a week. The new federal...

By Christine Ippolito, SPHR, SHRM-SCP Government generally responds to public outrage and outcries or embarrassing headline news with more legislation and regulation. It is no surprise then that part of government’s response in the wake of the #MeToo movement and the national headlines revealing sexual harassment abuse and assault by media moguls was to pass more regulations for all employers. The #MeToo...

Immediate Attention Required! On April 1, 2019, the New York Election Law was amended to provide employees with up to three hours of paid leave to vote in any election. Gone is the requirement that an employee establish that he/she does not have at least four consecutive hours to vote before or after work in order to be eligible for paid voting leave. Instead, all employees may request up to three hours of...

Are you prepared to comply? If you are a private employer with 100 or more employees, or a federal government contractor with at least 50 employees and a contract with the federal government of $50,000 or more, you may be familiar with the current EEO-1 reporting requirements. However, those requirements have just been expanded to include more than demographic information about your workforce. Now, you must...

New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy recently signed a law that will greatly expand the benefits available to employees under the New Jersey Family Leave Act (NJFLA), the New Jersey Security and Financial Empowerment Act (SAFE Act), and the New Jersey Temporary Disability Benefits Act, which provides New Jersey employees with temporary family leave insurance (FLI). Changes that effect all three laws immediately...

Last month we notified you that New York City was adopting more stringent requirements for how an employer must respond to an employee's request for an accommodation to pump breast milk while at work. These requirements, which took effect on March 18, include providing a private place, other than a bathroom, that is shielded from view and free from intrusion from co-workers and the public, to express breast...

Employee Training Session: September 17, 2019 at 8:30 AM Compass Workforce Solutions will be holding a NYS Mandated Sexual Harassment & Discrimination Prevention Training for employees. This training will explore all forms of unlawful harassment and discrimination in the workplace, specific to managers and supervisors. If you are interested in registering for one of these events, please click...