Employment Law Update 2023: New Compliance Obligations for the New Year

2022 is coming to a close, and the new year will be here before we know it.  While many states, cities and counties seem to be willing to pass employment laws and regulations at any time, the first day of a new year is still the number one day for new employment laws to take effect. 2023 will be no exception. 

Littler Workplace Policy Institute (WPI) has been tracking a host of new employment laws as they have been debated over the past few months. Below is WPI’s annual summary of some of the notable compliance obligations employers will soon be facing. As in the past, this article is not intended to be an exhaustive discussion of every single new employment and labor law. The article focuses on laws of “general application,” although a few industry-specific laws are mentioned. We also cover most large jurisdictions, but not all, and we do not discuss the host of new minimum wage laws, which are just around the corner.

So get ready—new labor and employment law compliance challenges are here to ring in the new year! 

Alabama

New Jersey

Alaska

New York

Arizona

Oregon

California

Pennsylvania

Colorado

Rhode Island

District of Columbia

Utah

Florida

Virginia

Illinois

Washington

Maine

 

Alabama

Law, Ordinance or Regulation

Main Topic

Summary

Effective Date

Alabama HB 272

Weapons in the workplace

Sets forth the conditions under which employees may keep a firearm and ammunition in their personal vehicles in the employer’s parking lot.

January 1, 2023

Alaska

Law, Ordinance or Regulation

Main Topic

Summary

Effective Date

Alaska HB 125

Hiring: Veterans Preference

Extends private-sector employer hiring preferences to military spouses and dependent children, including surviving spouses of deceased service members.

November 7, 2022

Arizona

Law, Ordinance or Regulation

Main Topic

Summary

Effective Date

Arizona SB 1294

Background Checks: Criminal

Allows a person to file a petition to seal all case records related to a criminal offense if the person was: (a) convicted of a criminal offense and has completed all of the terms and conditions of the sentence that was imposed by the court, including the payment of all monetary obligations and restitution to all victims; (b) charged with a criminal offense and the charge was subsequently dismissed or resulted in a not guilty verdict at a trial; or (c) arrested for a criminal offense and no charges were filed.

December 31, 2022

California

Law, Ordinance or Regulation

Main Topic

Summary

Effective Date

California AB 257

Fast Food Industry: Regulation

Creates the Fast Food Accountability and Standards Recovery Act. This law establishes a state Fast Food Council within the Department of Industrial Relations, which will be empowered to impose sector-wide minimum standards on wages, working hours, and other conditions related to the health, safety, and welfare of fast food restaurant workers.

January 1, 2023

California AB 1041

Protected Time Off: Scope of Coverage

Expands the definition of a “family member” under the California Family Rights Act (CFRA) and California’s Healthy Workplaces Healthy Families Act (HWHFA) to include a “designated person.” Employees will be able to identify a designated person for whom they want to use leave when they request unpaid (CFRA) or paid (HWHFA) leave.

January 1, 2023

California AB 1601

Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act (WARN): Call Center Employees

Requires call center employers to provide notice of mass layoff, relocation, or termination.

January 1, 2023

California AB 1632

Title III Accommodations

Requires businesses open to the public that have restrooms for employees to allow individuals who have Crohn’s disease, ulcerative colitis, irritable bowel syndrome, or any other similar medical condition, to use the employee restrooms.

January 1, 2023

California AB 1720

Background Checks: Home Health Services

Removes requirement for specified individuals connected with home healthcare facilities to sign a declaration regarding prior criminal convictions.

January 1, 2023

California AB 1751

COVID-19: Workers' Compensation

Extends to January 1, 2024, the current rebuttable presumption that an employee’s illness resulting from COVID-19 was sustained in the course of employment for purposes of workers’ compensation benefits.

January 1, 2023

California AB 1788

Employer Liability: Human Trafficking

Provides that hotel employers are liable for human tracking penalties if a supervisory employee knew of or acted with reckless disregard of sex trafficking activity.

January 1, 2023

California AB 1949

Protected Time Off: Bereavement Leave

Amends the California Family Rights Act to require employers with five or more employees to provide up to five days of unpaid bereavement leave for an employee within three months of the death of a family member.

January 1, 2023

California AB 2068

COVID-19: Workplace Posters

Requires certain health and safety posters relating to COVID-19 to be posted in additional languages.

January 1, 2023

California AB 2134

Benefits: Reproductive Health

Applies to religious employers’ healthcare service plans and insurers that do not provide coverage for abortion and contraception. These plans and insurers will be required to provide insured employees with written information about free abortion and contraception benefits or services available through the California Reproductive Health Equity Program.

January 1, 2023

California AB 2183

Labor-Management Relations: Farm Workers

The Agricultural Labor Relations Voting Choice Act gives agricultural workers the option to vote by mail in union representation elections that were previously required to be held in person.

January 1, 2023

California AB 2223

Employer Liability: Reproductive Health

Prohibits a person from being subject to civil or criminal liability based on their actions or omissions with respect to their pregnancy or actual, potential, or alleged pregnancy outcome or based on their actions to aid or assist a woman or pregnant person who is exercising their reproductive rights.

January 1, 2023

California AB 2282

Discrimination & Harassment: Hate Crimes

Expands the definition of hate crimes in places of employment to include display of hate imagery.

January 1, 2023

California AB 2693

COVID-19: Exposure Notifications

Amends California Labor Code section 6409.6 (Duties of employer when notified of potential exposure to COVID-19) and extends its provisions until January 1, 2024. The main modification will give employers the option to post a notice of potential COVID-19 exposure at the worksite (and on existing employee portals) instead of providing written notice.

January 1, 2023

California AB 2960

Civil Procedure

Amends the Fair Employment and Housing Act to toll right-to-sue notice deadlines during mandatory or voluntary dispute resolution proceedings.

January 1, 2023

California SB 523

Protected Categories: Reproductive Health

Amends the Fair Employment and Housing Act to prohibit employment discrimination on the basis of an individual’s reproductive health decision-making; expands required health plan coverage for contraceptives.

January 1, 2023

California SB 731

Background Checks: Criminal

Amends the state penal code to provide for criminal record relief. Seals records of defendants convicted of most felonies on or after January 1, 2005, if they completed their sentence, probation, supervision, parole and any other terms of their conviction, and are not convicted of a new felony for four years.

January 1, 2023

California SB 931

Labor-Management Relations

Permits an employee organization to file a claim against an employer before the Public Employee Relations Board (PERB) alleging violations of Government Code section 3550, which prohibits a public employer from deterring or discouraging public employees or applicants from becoming or remaining members of an employee organization.

January 1, 2023

California SB 951

Protected Time Off: FMLA Paid

Increases the amount of unemployment and wage replacement benefits for low-wage employees under the family temporary disability insurance program, for disabilities or covered incidents occurring on or after January 1, 2025.

January 1, 2023

California AB 984

Privacy: Surveillance

Disclosure regarding use of GPS tracking location technology in fleet vehicles.  Allows an employee to disable off hours.

January 1, 2023

California Privacy Rights Act of 2020

Data Privacy

Substantially expands the privacy and information security obligations of most employers doing business in California, requiring significant changes to existing policies, procedures, and practices for handling HR Individuals’ personal information. Creates the Privacy Protection Agency to enforce the state consumer data privacy laws.

January 1, 2023

California SB 1044

Protected Time Off: Non-Retaliation

Prohibits an employer from taking adverse action against an employee for refusing to report to or leaving work during an emergency condition; prohibits an employer from preventing an employee from accessing a mobile device during that time.

January 1, 2023

California SB 1093

Home Care Agencies: Background Checks

Permits applicants for home healthcare licenses to request transfers of criminal record clearance online; removes requirement to submit government issued identification when requesting transfer.

January 1, 2023

California SB 1126

Benefits: 401K/Retirement/Pension

Expands the definition of “eligible employer” under the CalSavers program to include those with one or more employees; requires employers with one or more employees that do not offer a retirement savings program to implement a payroll deposit retirement savings arrangement by December 31, 2025.

January 1, 2023

California SB 1162

Wage Transparency

Requires employers of 100 or more contracted employees to submit separate annual pay data reports regarding the contracted employees; requires employers of 15 or more employees to provide the pay scale for a position in any job posting.

January 1, 2023

California SB 1477

Wage & Hour: Garnishments

Reduces the maximum amount of wages that may be subject to garnishment.

January 1, 2023

Colorado

Law, Ordinance or Regulation

Main Topic

Summary

Effective Date

Colorado Paid Family and Medical Leave (Proposition 118)

Protected Time Off: FMLA Paid

Provides for up to 12 weeks of paid family and medical leave, with an additional 4 weeks for pregnancy or childbirth complications. While employees cannot take FAMLI benefits until 2024, premiums are due under the program starting January 1, 2023.

January 1, 2023

Colorado SB 22-161

Wage Theft

Amendments to Colorado's wage theft laws increase penalties for employers that do not timely pay wages, allow employees to demand wages on behalf of a class of similarly situated employees, permit the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment’s Division of Labor Standards and Statistics to investigate such demands on a class-wide basis, and limit employers’ ability to recover attorney’s fees for successfully defending a claim. The amendments also impose additional requirements on employers to be able to deduct from an employee’s final pay for the value of unreturned company equipment. While some provisions took effect August 10, 2022, the most significant changes are effective January 1, 2023.

January 1, 2023

District of Columbia

Law, Ordinance or Regulation

Main Topic

Summary

Effective Date

District of Columbia Tipped Wage Workers Fairness Amendment Act

Sexual Harassment Training

Covered employers of tipped employees must submit a copy of their sexual harassment policy and a certified report of sexual harassment claims for calendar years 2020 and 2021 by December 31, 2022. The deadline for reporting 2022 harassment claims is set for March 1, 2023. The date by which sexual harassment training had to be completed was initially set for December 31, 2022, but the DC Office of Human Rights has indicated it will push this deadline to March 2023.

*Please note that a 2022 ballot initiative governing tipped workers could render these requirements moot.

*December 31, 2022 and March 1, 2023

District of Columbia B24-0916

Disability Insurance

This temporary measure amends the Universal Paid Leave Amendment Act to prohibit insurers from reducing short-term disability benefits based on actual or estimated paid leave benefits.

This measure becomes effective following approval by the mayor, a 30-day period of congressional review, and publication in the DC Register

District of Columbia B 109

Drug Testing

Prohibits testing for marijuana as a condition of employment except under certain circumstances.

*Please note that this measure will not become operative and enforceable unless and until it is funded through inclusion in an approved budget, which cannot be determined at this time.

This measure is effective following approval by the mayor, a 60-day period of congressional review, and publication in the DC Register. *Projected law date: November 17, 2022

Florida

Law, Ordinance or Regulation

Main Topic

Summary

Effective Date

Florida: Miami Beach CROWN Act

Hairstyle Discrimination

Prohibits employment discrimination on the basis of natural or protective hairstyles commonly associated with race and national origin.

November 5, 2022

Illinois

Law, Ordinance or Regulation

Main Topic

Summary

Effective Date

Illinois SB 645

Labor Relations: Minimum Sick Leave Provisions

Amends the Employee Sick Leave Act to provide that the rights afforded under the act serve as the minimum standard in a negotiated collective bargaining agreement.

January 1, 2023

Illinois SB 1480 and SB 1847

Pay Data Reporting

Requires employers that currently file EEO-1 reports to submit similar reports to the state of Illinois, and includes new pay data reporting and certification requirements, among other obligations. *These laws took effect in 2021, but employers will need to be prepared for the EEO-1 reporting obligations in Illinois as of January 1, 2023.

*January 1, 2023 (operative date for certain requirements)

Illinois SB 3120

Protected Time Off: Other

Requires an employer to provide unpaid leave for absences resulting from a pregnancy loss, unsuccessful IVF treatment, a failed adoption or surrogacy, or a diagnosis that impacts pregnancy.

January 1, 2023

Illinois SB 3146

Employer Liability: Meal & Rest Periods

Provides that any employer that violates any of the provisions of the One Day Rest In Seven Act is guilty of a civil offense and subject to a civil penalty of up to $500 per offense.

January 1, 2023

Illinois SB 3616

Hairstyle Discrimination

Illinois amended the state Human Rights Act. The Act prohibits employers from engaging in discrimination based on numerous protected characteristics, including race. This amendment expands the definition of “race” to include traits associated with race, including but not limited to hair texture and protective hairstyles such as braids, locks, and twists.

January 1, 2023

Maine

Law, Ordinance or Regulation

Main Topic

Summary

Effective Date

Maine HP 160-LD 225

Wage & Hour: Vacation Payout

Amends the state’s final wages statute to require that “[a]ll unused paid vacation accrued pursuant to the employer's vacation policy on and after January 1, 2023 must be paid to the employee on cessation of employment.” The amendment provides that private employers with 11 or more employees must pay all unused vacation to a separated employee at the cessation of employment regardless of the employer’s policy; payment must made in full no later than the employee’s next established payday. *The changes took effect on July 19, 2022, but operative date is January 1, 2023.

*January 1, 2023 (operative date)

New Jersey

Law, Ordinance or Regulation

Main Topic

Summary

Effective Date

New Jersey SB 315 (AB 3684)

Business Restructuring: Health Care Industry

Requires contracts for sale of certain health care entities to preserve employee wages and benefits and to honor collective bargaining agreements.

November 17, 2022

New York

Law, Ordinance or Regulation

Main Topic

Summary

Effective Date

New York SB 2928

Protected Time Off: Scope of Coverage

Adds siblings to the definition of family member for the purposes of paid family leave.

January 1, 2023

New York: NYC Int. No. 1894-2020

Artificial Intelligence (AI) & Robotics

Requires an employer that uses an automated employment decision tool to screen a candidate for an employment decision to notify each such candidate regarding use of the AI tool.

January 1, 2023

New York: NYC Int. No. 0134-2022

Wage Transparency

Amends the city wage transparency provisions to clarify the positions for which a pay range must be provided; establishes a private right of action for employees; extends the effective date to November 1, 2022.

November 1, 2022

New York: Westchester County Ordinance No. 2022-119

Wage Transparency

Makes it an unlawful employment practice for an employer to advertise a job, promotion, or transfer opportunity without stating the minimum and maximum salary for the position in the advertisement.

November 6, 2022

Oregon

Law, Ordinance or Regulation

Main Topic

Summary

Effective Date

Oregon HB 4086

Workers Compensation: Anti-Retaliation

Expands scope of retaliation provisions under the workers’ compensation statute; amends definitions of “beneficiary,” “child,” and “dependent.”

January 1, 2023

Oregon HB 4138

Notifications: Temporary Disability Benefits

Requires employers to provide notice before suspending temporary disability benefits. The written notice must provide the reason the benefits are being ended.

January 1, 2023

Oregon SB 588

Labor Relations: Sick Leave

Removes provision that exempts certain employees who are covered under collective bargaining agreement from sick leave requirements.

January 1, 2023

Oregon SB 1515

Protected Time Off: FMLA Paid

Modifies definition of "benefit year" for purposes of paid family and medical leave insurance program.

January 1, 2023

Oregon SB 1586

Nondisclosure Agreements

Clarifies provisions that prohibit employers from entering into nondisclosure agreements that include, but are not limited to, discrimination, sexual assault, or workplace harassment.

January 1, 2023

Pennsylvania

Law, Ordinance or Regulation

Main Topic

Summary

Effective Date

Pennsylvania: Philadelphia Ordinance No. 220337

Benefits: Transportation

Requires an employer of 50 or more employees to provide a mass transit and bicycle commuter benefit program.

December 31, 2022

Rhode Island

Law, Ordinance or Regulation

Main Topic

Summary

Effective Date

Rhode Island HB 5261 / SB 270

Wage Transparency & Salary History

Prohibits wage discrimination; prohibits an employer from requesting or relying on an applicant’s wage history; requires an employer to provide a wage range for a job position.

January 1, 2023

Rhode Island SB 2548

Benefits: Reproductive Health

Establishes a special enrollment provision for pregnant employees to obtain health insurance coverage at any time after the commencement of the pregnancy.

January 1, 2023

Utah

Law, Ordinance or Regulation

Main Topic

Summary

Effective Date

Utah SB 39

Tax Withholding

Modifies employer withholding obligations from certain nonresident employees.

January 1, 2023

Virginia

Law, Ordinance or Regulation

Main Topic

Summary

Effective Date

Virginia HB 258

Hospitality: Human Trafficking Training

Requires hotel employees to complete a training course to identify instances of human trafficking.

January 1, 2023

Virginia HB 2307 / SB 1392

Data Security Breach Notification

Establishes the Consumer Data Protection Act to provide consumers certain controls over their personal data. The law specifically exempts data that is processed or maintained in the course of an individual applying to, being employed by, or acting as an agent or contractor of a controller, process, or other entity, if the data is used and collected in the context of that role.

January 1, 2023

Washington

Law, Ordinance or Regulation

Main Topic

Summary

Effective Date

Washington SB 5761

Wage Transparency

Requires employers to disclose hourly or salary compensation and a general description of benefits in postings for job openings.

January 1, 2023

Washington Final Rule re Employer Quarterly Tax Reports

Unemployment

Requires employers to include the Standard Occupational Classification code or job title of each worker in their quarterly tax reports.

November 17, 2022

Washington 2023 Non-Compete Enforceability Thresholds (Annual Announcement)

Noncompete Agreement

Increases the amount an employee must earn to meet the non-compete enforceability threshold to account for inflation using the consumer price index.

January 1, 2023

Information contained in this publication is intended for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice or opinion, nor is it a substitute for the professional judgment of an attorney.