Two new California employment laws, taking effect over the next two years, will expand on existing workplace laws prohibiting hate speech and providing added protections for employees who request bereavement leave. Governor Gavin Newsom signed the new legislation —...

Religious discrimination and accommodations have quietly become some of the EEOC’s enforcement priorities, and a string of recent lawsuits shows the agency is not shy about pursuing those claims. For employers, this is a good time to revisit how religious...

Takeaways SCOTUS denied two petitions for certiorari asking the Court to reexamine the McDonnell Douglas burden-shifting framework. These denials follow recent calls from Justices Thomas and Gorsuch, and a growing number of judges, to revisit McDonnell Douglas. For...

When an employer implements a language-exclusivity rule, such as an English-only workplace rule for employees, it may implicate federal laws prohibiting discrimination based on national origin. This article highlights some of the legal considerations for employers in...

Key Takeaways The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) continues to bring enforcement actions involving minors, including violations related to work hours and hazardous job duties. At the same time, the DOL has signaled that it may reconsider federal restrictions on the...

Takeaways One DOL opinion letter explained that a 60-minute meal break remains noncompensable even when employees must spend up to 14 minutes walking to and from a break area.  Another letter said nonprofit employees may volunteer for their employer if the volunteer...

Takeaways The National Labor Relations Board has returned to the burden-shifting standard for determining whether employees lose National Labor Relations Act protection for misconduct during Section 7 protected activity. Under the restored test, the Board general...

On October 7, 2026, the Wage and Hour Division (WHD) of the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) published a notice withdrawing its July 2025 proposal to strip nine parts of longstanding Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) interpretive guidance out of the Code of Federal...

What employers should know about key developments this week: Paid Leave Reductions: The District of Columbia (DC) reduced paid family leave from 12 to six weeks, paid medical leave from 12 to 10 weeks, and the maximum weekly benefit to $1,100, effective October 1,...