Pay Transparency and a Ban on Consideration of Employee Compensation History for Federal Contractors on the 15th Anniversary of the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act
Akerman HR Defense Blog
by M. Adil Yaqoob
6d ago
This January marked the 15th anniversary of the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009, providing a good moment for the federal government to propose new rules aimed at increasing gender pay equity in federal contracting and federal government employment. The new rules announced by the White House are expected to require covered government contractors to disclose expected salary or salary ranges in job postings and to prohibit those same contractors from using job applicants’ pay history to set employee compensation, akin to pay transparency legislation recently enacted in states such as Colorad ..read more
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Update: The DOL’s New Overtime Rule is Officially in the Pipeline
Akerman HR Defense Blog
by Colby Berman
2w ago
Following up on our previous blog post about the DOL’s Proposed Rule raising minimum salary thresholds for exempt workers, we are now getting closer to game time. The DOL recently submitted a proposed Final Rule through the administrative pipeline, bringing the rule one step closer to publication. In fact, employers can now expect a final version of the rule – and potentially a need to strategize about substantial adjustments to personnel and operations – as early as next month. However, the details of the proposed Final Rule, specifically the exact salary threshold dollar amounts for exempt e ..read more
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USCIS Launches New Organizational Accounts Platform to Facilitate the H-1B Lottery Registration Process
Akerman HR Defense Blog
by Anthony El-Hashem
1M ago
The United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) launched its new organizational accounts platform which allows multiple individuals within an organization, as well as their legal representatives, to collaborate on and prepare H-1B registrations on behalf of qualified candidates for the upcoming H-1B lottery. It’s imperative that employers familiarize themselves with this platform to avoid any setbacks during the short H-1B registration window which opens at noon EST on March 6, 2024, and closes at noon EST on March 22, 2024.  The H-1B Visa The H-1B visa gives employers the ..read more
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USCIS Fee Increases Are Imminent: The Concurrent Adjustment Clock is Ticking for Indian and Chinese Investors
Akerman HR Defense Blog
by Zain Abidi
1M ago
Thanks to a final rule recently announced by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), filing fees are about to increase on April 1, 2024, and filers who fail to make haste will end up paying more, or risk experiencing additional processing delays in certain visa categories. Specifically, on January 31, 2024, USCIS published a final rule adjusting its filing fees, and the rule is to take effect April 1, 2024. This comes on the heels of the agency’s December 28, 2023 final rule, which raised the premium processing fee for most employment-based immigration categories to $2,805 ..read more
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Rx for Safety: Workplace Violence Policies in Healthcare Settings
Akerman HR Defense Blog
by Emily Ayvazian and Danielle C. Gordet
1M ago
Hospitals, urgent care clinics, doctors’ offices — these are the places we go when we are sick and want to get better. Doctors, nurses, and other healthcare workers are the people who treat us, help us recover, and even save our lives in medical emergencies. Yet according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, healthcare workers are five times more likely to experience workplace violence than workers in all other industries, and this statistic has only increased since the COVID-19 pandemic. Because of this rising concern, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has identified ..read more
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Non-Compete Clarity: California Employers Must Provide Notice of Non-Competes to Employees By February 14, 2024
Akerman HR Defense Blog
by Mojan Anari
1M ago
New California laws intended to strengthen the state’s long-standing ban on non-competition agreements are set to create immediate headaches for employers in the state that have, or plan to, impose non-compete or non-solicit clauses on their employees in the Golden State. The new amendments — S.B. 699 and A.B. 1076 — not only codify existing case law banning nearly all non-compete agreements, but go a step further by empowering employees to sue their employer for imposing or trying to enforce a non-compete against them, even if the non-compete was entered in another state where it would have o ..read more
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Out With The Old, In With The… Old? DOL Releases “New” Independent Contractor Rule, Bringing Us (Mostly) Back to Status Quo
Akerman HR Defense Blog
by Colby Berman
1M ago
Fulfilling a campaign promise for President Joe Biden, the United States Department of Labor (DOL) sent employers New Year’s greetings by opening 2024 with a new final rule on independent contractor classifications, revising the economic realities test that determines those classifications. Is Biden’s campaign promise to create a more stringent, California-like “ABC” worker classification test coming true? Just how much will this new rule change your business? Quick Background The DOL occasionally issues guidance regarding classifications of employees and independent contractors to help reduce ..read more
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New Year, Same Analysis – The Eleventh Circuit Reiterates Proper Standard for Evaluating Employment Discrimination Claims
Akerman HR Defense Blog
by Paige Newman
2M ago
The McDonnell Douglas burden-shifting framework used to evaluate employment discrimination claims may not be permanently cast aside, but a recent decision reminds us that it is not the only means through which employees can prove that unlawful discrimination occurred. Specifically, in Tynes v. Florida Department of Juvenile Justice, the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals recently reiterated that the McDonnell Douglas burden-shifting framework, which we have all come to know and recite, is not a set of elements that an employee must prove to establish an employer’s liability and prevail on summa ..read more
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California Employers Must Comply With Workplace Violence Prevention Requirements by July 1, 2024
Akerman HR Defense Blog
by Kevin Finley
2M ago
A new California law taking place on workplace violence requires employers to develop and implement written plans and interactive training to prevent and respond to on-the-job threats of violence by July 1, 2024. Among other things, Senate Bill 553 requires adopting an “effective” written workplace violence prevention plan, either as a stand-alone document or as part of a general injury and illness prevention program. In many respects, SB 553 is a broader enactment of a regulatory standard that has applied to healthcare employers in California since 2017. SB 553 also directs the California Div ..read more
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California, The Gift That Keeps On Giving: An Overview of Recently Enacted Laws That Impact California Employers
Akerman HR Defense Blog
by Rukayat Salaam, Mishell Parreno Taylor and Emily Patajo
3M ago
With 2023 coming to an end, now is the optimal time for employers to update their employee handbooks, policies, and procedures applicable to California workforces for the upcoming year. Here’s a roundup of several recently enacted California laws, with the majority set to take effect January 1, 2024. WAGE & HOUR Minimum Wage in California State Minimum Wage. The state minimum wage will increase to $16 per hour for all employers on January 1, 2024. Additionally, the minimum salary for exempt employees increases to $66,560 per year. Note, the minimum wage requirement in some cities and ..read more
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