On October 30, 2023, President Biden issued a wide-ranging Executive Order to address the development of artificial intelligence (“AI”) in the U.S. Entitled the Executive Order on the Safe, Secure, and Trustworthy Development and Use of Artificial Intelligence, the Order seeks to address both the “myriad benefits” as well as what it calls the “substantial risks” that AI poses to the country. It caps off a busy year for the Executive Branch in the AI space. In February the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission published its Strategic Enforcement Plan highlighted AI as a chief concern and in April the White House released an AI Bill of Rights. Through the Order, described as a “Federal Government-wide” effort, the administration charges a number of federal agencies, including most notably, the Department of Labor, with addressing the impacts of employers’ use of AI on job security and workers’ rights.
Continue Reading Biden’s AI Order and the Implications for Employers

Although the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act (“PWFA” or the “Act”) has been in effect since June 27, 2023, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (“EEOC” or the “Commission”) last week, published proposed rules regarding the enforcement of the Act. The PWFA has been covered in a previous blog post, but in short, the law requires employers to provide a reasonable accommodation for pregnant employees, regardless of whether that pregnancy has resulted in a disability as was the case under the Americans with Disabilities Act.
Continue Reading EEOC Belatedly Proposes Rules for the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act

On January 10, 2023, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (“EEOC”) published a draft of its Strategic Enforcement Plan (“SEP”) in the Federal Register, which outlines the enforcement goals for the Commission for the next four years. While the Agency aims to target a number of new areas – such as underserved workers and pregnancy fairness in the workplace – it is notable that it listed as priority number one the elimination of barriers in recruitment and hiring caused or exacerbated by employers’ use of artificial intelligence. 
Continue Reading EEOC Pushes for Greater Enforcement on AI

The U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear a case that will impact how employers across the country respond to their employees’ requests for religious accommodation. Depending on how the Court rules, it may become much more difficult for companies to comply with or deny religious accommodations under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
Continue Reading SCOTUS to Hear Significant Religious Accommodations Case

We previously posted about Washington, D.C.’s new law governing non-competes, which became effective on October 1, 2022. D.C. employers, however, should be aware of a provision buried in the law that has nothing to do with non-competes and requires action by the end of this month.
Continue Reading What Most Employers in Washington D.C. Need to Do Before October 31

Since we last reported on the delay of the District of Columbia’s Ban on Non-Compete Agreements Act of 2020 (the “Act”), the D.C. Council passed the Non-Compete Clarification Amendment Act of 2022 (the “Amendment”), effective October 1, 2022, which significantly rolled back some of the more prohibitive features of the original 2020 version of the Act.
Continue Reading New Amendments Overhaul D.C. Ban on Non-Competes

In February, we examined newly passed New York City Local Law 32, which required employers to disclose salary ranges in job advertisements. The law was set to take effect on May 15, 2022, but, on April 28, 2022, the New York City Council passed an Amendment to Local Law 32 that pushed the effective date of the law back to November 1, 2022.Continue Reading NYC Amends Salary Transparency Law; Delays Effective Date

As we previously reported, in late 2020, the District of Columbia’s Council passed the Ban on Non-Compete Agreements Amendment Act of 2020 (the “Act”), but more than a year later, employers and employees may still legally enter into binding covenants not to compete.  So what happened, and what’s next for non-competes in the District?
Continue Reading D.C.’s Ban on Non-Competes Delayed Again

Following enactment of a similar law in Colorado in 2021, the New York City Council passed a bill on December 15, 2021 amending New York City’s Human Rights Law to require New York City employers to disclose the salary range of open positions in all advertised job postings. Mayor Eric Adams had until January 14, 2022 to veto the bill, but declined to do so, which means the law will take effect on May 15, 2022. The implications for New York City employers are far reaching.
Continue Reading NYC Requires Employers to Disclose Salary Ranges In Job Advertisements