Each January, the President gives a State of the Union Address to a joint session of Congress. Throughout the speech, as the President touts his agenda and vision, half the audience cheers wildly, while the other half makes frowny faces. All the while, members of the Supreme Court sit stone-faced, internally cheering or wincing but trying not show it. The State of Joint Employment is sort of like that annual speech. Policy goals change with…

Last week, the Office of the New York Attorney General (NYAG’s Office) reached a settlement with WeWork, a New York City-based company that provides shared “co-work” spaces nationwide and internationally – and, notably, is one of the largest office tenants in New York City – regarding its use of non-compete restrictions with its employees. Recently, the NYAG’s Office has investigated and reached settlements with several other employers on the subject of non-competes, including a sandwich…

As the year winds down and many employers scramble to ensure that they are on top of the many new laws that have been passed/enacted in the past year, we want to bring to your attention a few more related to salary history. Perhaps with all the attention on the flurry of anti-sexual harassment bills that passed in the wake of #MeToo, you may have missed that several states have now passed laws related to…

Earlier this year, Gov. Cuomo signed into law the 2018-2019 New York State Budget, which included new requirements for both private and government employers intended to combat sexual harassment in the workplace. As reported in our previous post, the new law mandates that starting October 9, 2018, all New York employers must adopt a sexual harassment prevention policy and provide sexual harassment prevention training to employees. Both the policy and training must meet or…

In the U.S., many employers’ parental-leave programs prioritize birth mothers and offer limited benefits to fathers, adoptive parents, foster parents and LGBT parents. In 2015, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) issued Enforcement Guidance for Pregnancy Discrimination and Related Issues, which includes parental leave policies. However, not all employers have followed this guidance. Consequently, just last year, the EEOC commenced a landmark lawsuit targeting a parental leave policy that purportedly gave greater benefits to…

After nearly a decade of debate, Massachusetts has passed comprehensive legislation limiting the use of noncompetition agreements. Last Friday, Gov. Charlie Baker officially signed “An Act Relative to the Enforcement of Noncompetition Agreements” (the Act) into law after the bill passed the Massachusetts Legislature last week. The Act, which goes into effect on Oct. 1, 2018, comes after years of discussion surrounding the effects of non-compete agreements on employee mobility and competition in the Massachusetts…