In this month’s update, we highlight significant employment law changes and practical compliance insights to keep your business compliant, minimize risk, and empower a productive workforce. Need a customized, legally compliant employee handbook? Visit our Handbook page to build yours in just a few clicks.
HR & Legal Updates
U.S. Department of Labor Updates Guidance on FLSA Exemptions for Homecare Workers
- A 2013 DOL rule prohibited third-party employers of home care workers (like home care agencies) from claiming FLSA minimum wage and overtime exemptions for home care employees. Recent guidance from the DOL indicates that it will not enforce the 2013 rule while it undergoes the rulemaking process to rescind it. This will make it much easier for home care agencies to claim FLSA exemptions for their home care employees.
Alaska’s Sick Leave Notice Requirement Takes Effect
- Alaska’s sick leave law went into effect on July 1, 2025. By July 31, 2025, employers were required to provide all employees with notice of their rights under the law and to distribute this notice to all new hires. Unlike other states with sick leave requirements, Alaska does not publish a model notice for employers to use. We’ve created a notice for this law, which customers with portal access can request if they have employees in Alaska.
Arkansas’ Physician Non-Compete Ban Takes Effect
- Last month, we updated you on Arkansas’s new ban on non-compete agreements with physicians. As a reminder, that ban takes effect on August 3, 2025.
California Updates Its Notice of Survivors of Violence and Family Members of Victims’ Right to Leave and Accommodation
- California has updated its required notice of leave and accommodation rights for survivors of violence and their family members. As a reminder, this notice must be provided to employees when hired, annually, upon request, and to any employee who informs the employer that they are a victim of violence or the family member of a victim of violence.
California Court Decision Clarifies Law Prohibiting Use of Mobile Devices While Driving
- A new California court decision has interpreted California’s law, which prohibits drivers from “holding and operating” a cell phone while driving. The court in this case interpreted the law to prohibit drivers from using a cell phone while driving and holding the phone, including looking at an app (like GPS directions). California employers should review their cell phone policies to ensure they prohibit employees from using cell phones while driving for work.
Colorado Updates Wage and Hour Laws
- A new state law strengthens employee wage and hour protections and increases penalties for employers who violate wage and hour laws. This law goes into effect on August 6, 2025. Among other things, this law:
- increases fines for employers that misclassify employees as independent contractors, ranging from $5,000 to $50,000 per affected employee;
- allows cities and counties to enforce state wage and hour laws; and
- prohibits retaliation against employees for engaging in protected activity, which is expanded to include an employee raising concerns in good faith about wage and hour compliance.
- A separate law requires that, as of July 1, 2025, local governments that have a higher minimum wage than the state minimum wage must use a tip offset of $3.02. Beginning January 1, 2026, local governments can increase the tip credit as long as employees receive at least the state minimum wage minus $3.02.
Colorado Expands its Anti-Discrimination Law
- Colorado already prohibited discrimination based on gender expression, but a new law clarifies that “gender expression” includes both an employee’s chosen name and how the individual chooses to be addressed.
Delaware Adds Military Status to List of Protected Classes
- A new Delaware law prohibits discrimination against employees based on their military status. “Military status” means a member of the uniformed forces or reserves, a veteran, or a dependent of a servicemember. Because military status is already a federally protected class, no update is needed to your EEO policy.
D.C. Attorney General Reminds Employers to Comply with Wage Transparency Law
- On July 23, 2025, D.C.’s Attorney General issued a formal advisory reminding employers that they must list pay ranges in job postings.
Illinois’ Expansion of Family Military Leave Takes Effect
- The Illinois Governor signed the state’s amendments to its military leave law will take on August 1st, creating Public Act 104-0078. See last month’s update for more information on this law. We have updated our Illinois military leave policies in the Employee Handbook and State Addenda.
Chicago, IL Updates Workplace Posters
- Chicago incorporated its paid leave poster into its minimum wage, wage theft, and human trafficking poster. The city no longer has a separate paid leave poster.
- The city also updated its Fair Workweek Notice.
Maine Increases Total Accrual Cap for Paid Leave Requirement
- Maine is one of the handful of jurisdictions that require employers to provide employees with paid leave for any reason. Currently, the law lets employers set a total accrual cap of 40 hours. So, while employees are allowed to carry over unused leave to the next year, employers can cap that at a total of 40 hours, and the amount an employee carries over affects accrual in the next year. For example, if an employee carries over 30 unused hours to the next year, they would only be able to accrue up to 10 hours in the next year.
- A new law changes that. Effective September 24, 2025, employees will be able to carry over up to 40 hours of unused leave, but the amount carried over will not affect their ability to accrue an additional 40 hours in the following year. This means that the total cap that an employee can have in their bank of leave will be 80 hours (40 hours of carryover and 40 hours of accrual in the following year). We’ll update our Maine Paid Leave for any Reason policy at the beginning of September to reflect this change.
Minnesota Updates its Paid Sick Leave Law
- Minnesota’s omnibus jobs and workforce bill makes a few changes to the state’s paid sick leave and paid family and medical leave laws. As of July 1, 2025, the state’s sick leave law was updated as follows:
- Previously, employers could only require employees to provide notice of the need for unforeseeable leave “as soon as practicable.” The law now allows employers “reasonably require” employees to give notice of the need for unforeseeable leave. This language likely allows employers to now set a stricter notice period, so long as it’s reasonable.
- Employers can now require verification that leave was used for an allowable reason if an employee misses at least 2 workdays in a row. Previously, it was 3 days.
- Employers can now allow employees to voluntarily trade shifts instead of using sick leave.
- We’ve updated the Minnesota sick leave policy as needed to comply with these changes.
- Additionally, starting January 1, 2026, employers can provide leave to employees in advance of accrual based on the number of hours the employee is expected to work.
Minnesota Announces Premium Rates for Paid Family and Medical Leave Program
- Minnesota’s paid family and medical leave program will take effect January 1, 2026. When the program starts, the premium rate will be .88% (the percentage of an employee’s wages that the state will collect from employers). The premium will be split between employers and employees. By July 31 of each year, the state may adjust the premium rate, but the total annual premium can never exceed 1.1% of employees’ wages.
Minnesota Updates Its Meal and Rest Break Law
- Beginning January 1, 2026, employers will have new meal and rest break requirements in Minnesota. Currently, employers must let employees who work eight or more hours in a row a “sufficient time” to eat a meal. Under the new law, employers must give employees who work 6 hours or more in a row a meal break of at least 30 minutes.
- The current rest break law requires employers to give employees “adequate time” within every 4 hours of work to use the “nearest convenient restroom.” Starting January 1, employers must provide a rest break of at least 15 minutes, “or enough time to utilize the nearest convenient restroom” every 4 hours of work.
Montana Protects Volunteer Emergency Service Providers from Termination
- Montana is the only state without at-will employment, meaning employers can only terminate employees for cause after a probationary period. A new state law provides even more protection against termination for voluntary emergency service providers. Starting October 1, 2025, employers can’t terminate Montana employees after their probationary period if they serve as a voluntary emergency service provider or are late or absent from work due to performing emergency service duties. We will add this policy to our handbook tool around September 1, 2025, so employers can incorporate it into their handbook.
Nebraska Releases FAQs for New Sick Leave Law
- Nebraska’s new sick leave law goes into effect on October 1, 2025. The state has released FAQs to help employers navigate the new law.
New Hampshire Adds Employment Protections for Spouses of Military Service Members
- New Hampshire already requires employers to provide unpaid leave and employment protections for employees in the military who are called to active duty. Beginning January 1, 2026, New Hampshire will extend those protections to spouses of military members. Employers will be required to provide unpaid, job-protected leave to spouses of military members who are involuntarily mobilized for military service. Employers will not be required to provide accommodations due to their status as a military spouse or their need to take leave under this law.
Ohio Passes Mini WARN Act
- A new state law requires employers to provide 60 days’ advance notice to employees, unions, and certain government officials whenever a mass layoff or plant closing happens. This law takes effect September 29, 2025. Ohio’s law largely tracks the federal WARN Act, but includes some additional notice requirements.
Oregon Employees Can Use Sick Leave to Donate Blood
- Starting January 1, 2026, Oregon employees can use their paid sick leave to donate blood. We’ll update our Oregon sick leave policy closer to the effective date.
Pittsburgh, PA Increases Accrual Rate and Cap for Sick Leave
- Pittsburgh’s sick leave law currently requires employers to provide employees with 1 hour of sick leave for every 35 hours worked in the city. Starting January 1, 2026, the accrual rate will change to 1 hour of sick leave for every 30 hours worked.
- Currently, employers with fewer than 15 employees are required to allow employees to accrue up to 24 hours of sick leave per year. On January 1, 2026, this will increase to 48 hours. For employers with 15 or more employees, the cap will increase from 40 hours to 72 hours. For employers that have a frontload, they’ll have to provide either 48 or 72 hours of sick leave at the beginning of the benefit year, depending on employer size. We’ll update our Pittsburgh sick leave policy closer to the effective date.
Rhode Island Bans Captive Audience Meetings
- A new Rhode Island law bans required employer-sponsored meetings about politics or religion.
- Under the law, “political matters” are defined as “topics that are unrelated to the employer’s business or business activities, such as subjects relating to elections for political office, political parties, proposals to change legislation or regulations which are not directly related to the employer’s business, and a decision whether to join or support any political party, or political, civic, community, fraternal, or labor organization.”
- “Religious matters” means “matters relating to religious affiliation and practice and the decision whether to join or support any religious organization or association.”
- Employers can’t fire, discipline, or penalize an employee because they refuse to attend a mandatory employer-sponsored meeting regarding politics or religion. This law went into effect on July 2, 2025.
Texas Non-Compete Restrictions for Physicians Take Effect September 1
- Last month, we updated you on Texas’s new non-compete restrictions for physicians. This is a reminder that those restrictions will take effect on September 1, 2025.
Texas Bans NDAs Related to Sexual Assault
- Any agreement that prohibits an employee from disclosing information related to sexual abuse is now unlawful in Texas. The law clarifies that parties can still agree to keep parts of a settlement agreement confidential, like the amount of the settlement payment. Although the law’s effective date is September 1, 2025, it applies retroactively to NDAs that were signed before the effective date. We’ve updated our employment agreements tools with this change.
Texas Expands Requirements for Human Trafficking Workplace Training
- Currently, Texas requires employers operating a transportation network in Texas to provide annual human trafficking awareness and prevention training to each driver. Effective September 1, 2025, the state will expand that training requirement to first responders and medical assistants.
- The new laws also require human trafficking poster requirements for hospitals, hospitals’ emergency departments, public health clinics, birthing centers, freestanding emergency medical care facilities, outpatient clinics, ambulatory surgical centers, and community health centers.
- The Texas Health and Human Services Commission is tasked with approving and posting to HHSC’s website the list of approved human trafficking prevention training resources soon after September 1. Similarly, the Texas attorney general will design mandatory postings as soon as possible after September 1.
Washington Expands its Paid Family and Medical Leave Program
- Effective January 1, 2026, a new law amends Washington’s paid family and medical leave program in several ways, including the following:
- Expanded Job Protection. Currently, the law only provides job protection if the employer has more than 50 employees and the employee has worked for the employer for at least a year and for at least 1,250 hours in the year before taking leave. The new law gets rid of the hours of work requirement, reduces the service time from 1 year to 180 calendar days, and will apply to smaller employers in phases. For 2026, employers with 25 or more employees will have to provide job protection to eligible employees. In 2027, the requirement will apply to employers with at least 15 employees, and starting in 2028, it will apply to employers with at least eight employees. Under the law, employees are required to affirmatively exercise their right to reinstatement in their job.
- Interaction with FMLA Leave. The law gives employers a way to count unpaid leave under the federal Family and Medical Leave Act toward the total amount of leave entitled to job protection under the state’s paid family and medical leave program if the employee was eligible for paid benefits but didn’t apply for them. To do this, employers must provide employees with a written notice that includes several required pieces of information.
- Notice of Job Protection. Employers will have to provide employees taking leave with a notice about their right to reinstatement.
- Claim Period. Under the current law, the smallest amount of time for which an employee can file a claim is 8 hours of leave. The new law reduces that to 4 hours.
- Benefits Continuation. Currently, employers have to continue an employee’s health benefits while on leave if there is at least one day of overlap with leave under the federal Family and Medical Leave Rights Act. The new law will always require benefits continuation unless the employee (1) wasn’t employed by the employer when they filed for paid leave benefits, (2) isn’t entitled to job protection, or (3) didn’t timely exercise their right to job protection.
- Notice and Poster. The law currently requires employers to provide employees with a notice of rights under the paid family and medical leave program and to put up a poster with the same information. The new law requires the state’s Employment Security Department to make specific updates to the form notice and poster.
Washington Provides Leave and Safety Accommodations to Victims of Hate Crimes
- Beginning January 1, 2026, Washington’s domestic violence leave law will cover victims of hate crimes. Employees who are victims of hate crimes may take a reasonable amount of unpaid leave from work, intermittent leave, or leave on a reduced leave schedule for reasons specified under the law. Because Washington allows employees to use their paid sick leave for reasons that qualify for leave under the state’s domestic violence leave law, victims of hate crimes will be able to use paid sick leave for reasons related to the crime.
Disclaimer: The information in this HR & Legal Update is provided for general educational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. Akamai HR Solutions, LLC is not a law firm, and no attorney–client relationship is created by your use of this content. Laws may change or apply differently to your business. For legal guidance tailored to your specific circumstances, please consult a qualified attorney.