Developments in Employee Benefits & Executive Compensation
Developments in Employee Benefits & Executive Compensation
As we enter the final months of 2023, California employers should turn their attention to the employment-related bills that Governor Newsom recently signed into law, many of which take effect on January 1, 2024. Summaries of key developments are below.…
Continue Reading 2023 Legislative Session Wrap-Up: New California Workplace Laws for 2024 and Beyond
On the heels of approving SB 699, which heightened the protections and reach of California’s prohibition of employee non-competes under California Bus. & Prof. Code Section 16600 (“Section 16600”) (see our blog post here), Governor Gavin Newsom has now signed AB 1076. AB 1076 further increases the litigation risk for employers that use employee non-competes and, most notably, requires employers to provide notice of any non-competes to current and former employees by early next year. Together, these two new laws, which take effect on January 1, 2024, reinforce California’s strong public policy against employee non-competes and specify new consequences for employers who seek to enforce or enter into such agreements.
As a reminder, SB 699 adds new Bus. & Prof. Code Section 16600.5 to: (1) prohibit an employer or former employer from attempting to enforce a contract (e.g., a non-compete) that is void under Section 16600; (2) grant current, former, and even prospective employees a private right of action for damages and injunctive relief, and to recover attorney’s fees and costs; and (3) expand the territorial reach of California’s prohibition of employee non-competes to apply “regardless of where and when the contract was signed.”…
Continue Reading California Doubles Down with Yet Another Law on Employee Non-Competes
California non-compete law has just been shaken-up—and the ripples are likely to travel across the country. For decades and save for narrow exceptions, California Business and Professions Code § 16600 has made post-employment non-competes unenforceable due to their potential to unduly restrain an individual’s business or profession. Effective January 1, 2024, however, Senate Bill 699 (“SB 699”) drastically expands both the protections and the reach of California’s prohibition on employee non-competes.
Specifically, SB 699:
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Continue Reading Will California’s SB 699 Shake Up Non-Compete Law Everywhere?
As we discussed in a previous post, effective January 1, 2023, California employers must include pay scales in job postings, and a similar bill in New York was awaiting signature by Governor Kathy Hochul. The California Labor Commissioner has now issued guidance to assist employers in complying with the new law, and the New York State bill was signed into law on December 21, 2022 and is set to take effect on September 17, 2023.…
Continue Reading Update on California and New York Pay Transparency Laws
Come the new year, California employers will need to comply with a host of new workplace-related laws. Here is an overview of key new laws, along with recommendations for compliance. The laws take effect on January 1, 2023, unless otherwise specified.…
To promote pay transparency and equity, an increasing number of states and localities are requiring employers to disclose salary data in job advertisements or postings. The trend started in Colorado in 2021, and now a number of other jurisdictions have followed suit, including New York City and the states of California and Washington. The New York City law took effect on November 1, 2022, and the California and Washington laws go into effect on January 1, 2023. Similar laws have recently been enacted in other areas as well, including Jersey City, New Jersey (effective June 15, 2022), the City of Ithaca, New York (effective September 1, 2022), and Westchester County, New York (effective November 6, 2022).
This post will provide an overview of the New York City, California, and Washington laws, and discuss steps that employers can take to comply with the new requirements.…
The U.S. Department of Labor (“DOL”) has published a final rule, which takes effect on March 16, 2020, outlining the new four-factor approach DOL will use to determine whether, under the Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”), a business is a “joint employer” of another company’s employees and thus jointly and severally liable for wage and hour obligations. The new rule comes as good news for employers because it establishes a concrete and narrow standard for determining joint employer status and is expected to provide clearer guidance to federal courts making joint employer determinations.
The final rule represents the first time in 60 years that DOL has issued a joint employer rule, although over the decades it has issued guidance both expanding and contracting the scope of the definition and potential liability. Furthermore, the rule is consistent with a series of actions that DOL, under the Trump administration, has taken to rescind the previously broader definition of “joint employer” under the Obama administration (including its June 7, 2017 withdrawal of employee-friendly Administrator’s Interpretation guidance documents from 2015 and 2016).…
