Akamai HR Solutions | August 2026 HR & Legal Update

August brings another round of employment law developments, regulatory activity, and upcoming compliance changes for employers to keep on their radar. This month’s HR & Legal Update highlights key federal, state, and local updates to help employers stay informed, keep workplace practices current, and prepare for what’s ahead.

For more resources, including prior HR & legal updates, visit our News & Insights page. If you are reviewing your employee handbook or policies, we can help ensure they’re up to date and compliant. Visit our Handbook page for more information. 

Federal

• On June 24, 2026, the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) approved, without change, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s (EEOC) Information Collection Request (ICR) for the Uniform Guidelines on Employee Selection Procedures (UGESP), extending the collection through June 30, 2029. UGESP requires employers covered by Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to collect and maintain records on the race, sex, and ethnicity of applicants and employees. The extension confirms that U.S. employers must continue to invite applicants and employees to voluntarily self-identify race/ethnicity and sex, not as a basis for employment decisions, but for recordkeeping and compliance purposes. There is no reporting requirement, as UGESP does not mandate public reporting of this data. The collection and records help demonstrate compliance with Title VII in response to federal agency investigations of discrimination claims. This extension is distinct from a separate EEOC proposal to rescind EEO-1 and related reporting requirements.
• On June 30, 2026, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) announced the rescission of long-standing interpretive guidance “Affirmative Action Appropriate Under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 as Amended” and the related Compliance Manual Section 607 on Affirmative Action. The EEOC stated that the rescinded materials were inconsistent with Title VII and subsequent Supreme Court precedent, and the action is intended to remove Agency guidance that addressed race-, sex-, and national origin-conscious employment decisions by employers covered by Title VII. This is primarily a guidance change and, as such, does not create new employer obligations, penalties, or a private right of action. It also does not impact precedence established by prior court decisions. The rescission took immediate effect upon the EEOC’s vote.
• On July 3, 2026, federal government agencies, including the Department of Labor and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, published their semiannual regulatory agendas forecasting the upcoming regulatory activity for the Agency’s various divisions. Notable items include the Wage and Hour Division’s plans to publish a final version of the proposed independent contractor rule in October, continue work to finalize the proposed joint employer rule, and publish a proposed rule to amend regulatory provisions related to tipped employees under the FLSA. Additionally, the EEOC plans on publishing proposed rules to eliminate EEO-1 reporting requirements for covered employers, as well as the pregnancy, childbirth and other related medical conditions subject to the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act.
• On July 7, 2026, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services updated Sections 5.0 through 5.3 of the M-274 Handbook for Employers to reflect recent changes affecting employment authorization documents. The updates primarily affect EADs issued to individuals with Temporary Protected Status. They reduce or eliminate certain automatic extension periods and make changes affecting several other EAD categories. Employers may need to reverify employees more frequently and should carefully review EAD expiration and automatic extension dates when completing Form I-9. The updated guidance took effect immediately on July 7, 2026.
• The IRS has revised the optional standard mileage rates for computing the deductible costs of operating an automobile for business, medical, or moving expense purposes and for determining the reimbursed amount of these expenses that is deemed substantiated. This change is due to the recent increases in the price of fuel. The revised rates can be found in Part IV on page 49 of IRS Bulletin No. 2026-29. The revised standard mileage rates are: 
  • Business – 76 cents per mile; 
  • Medical and moving – 23.5 cents per mile. 
  • The mileage rate that applies to the deduction for charitable contributions is fixed under § 170(i) of the Internal Revenue Code and remains unchanged at 14 cents per mile.
• The US DOL’s Wage and Hour Division (WHD) issued two opinion letters addressing FLSA travel-time principles. In the first, WHD indicated that ordinary home-to-work or work-to-home commuting generally remains non-compensable even when it occurs during the workday, where the travel is voluntary, primarily benefits the employee, and the employee is relieved from work during the travel. In the second, WHD indicated that merely receiving pages may be non-compensable when incidental to commuting in an employer-provided vehicle, but client calls, appointment scheduling, and coordinating other engineers may be compensable work, and substantial required work immediately before or during a commute may cause related travel time to be compensable depending on the facts. These letters are official WHD interpretations, but they do not have the same effect as statutes or regulations and should not be treated as new law.
• On July 21, 2026, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission voted 2-1 to adopt a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) to rescind EEO reporting requirements and related recordkeeping. The NPRM has been published with a 30-day comment period, and a public hearing is scheduled for August. Although the EEOC has not yet opened the EEO-1 filing portal as of July 2026, until a final rule takes effect reporting regulations remain in effect and EEO-1 reporting obligations remain in place.

Alaska

• On June 18, 2026, SB 79 became law without the Governor’s signature, amending the state’s wage payment law to expressly permit employers to pay wages through payroll card accounts if expressly authorized by the employee or when an employee has not authorized the direct deposit of their wages. For employers that choose this payment method, the law imposes notice and disclosure obligations, including informing employees of wage payment options, payroll card terms and fees, and at least one cost-free method to access wages and check balances; it also prohibits employers from offering a payroll card unless funds are insured on a pass-through basis by the FDIC, NCUA, or another deposit insurer. The statute does not limit the rights of employees to collectively bargain over wage payment arrangements that are more generous than what the law requires. The law takes effect July 1, 2026.

California

• On June 25th, Governor Newsom signed SB 623, addressing civil liability for automobile accidents involving transportation network companies (TNCs) and app-based drivers, enhancing background check requirements for TNC drivers, and authorizing gender-preference passenger-driver matching by TNCs and charter-party carriers of passengers. Specific to the second requirement, the new law adds additional disqualifying criminal offenses under the Passenger Charter-party Carriers’ Act and requires background checks prior to driver account activation and once annually thereafter. A transportation network company that violates background check requirements is subject to a penalty of $1,000 to $5,000 per offense. The law goes into effect on January 1, 2027.

Colorado

• On June 3, 2026, Governor Polis signed SB 160 which, among other workplace protections, amends Colorado’s wage deduction statute to clarify that employers may make deductions for anything that primarily benefits an employee only if supported by a lawful written agreement. The legislation expressly excludes employer-provided personal protective equipment (PPE) from the things that primarily benefit an employee. The law also reiterates that, with limited statutory exceptions, wage deductions may not reduce an employee’s pay below the applicable minimum wage.

Connecticut 

• On May 20, 2026, Governor Lamont approved HB 5143. Beginning January 1, 2027, covered agencies must provide at least eight paid hours of initial training to new employees within 90 days of hire and annual continuing education thereafter using Department of Consumer Protection-approved programs, retain required training completion forms, submit an annual compliance attestation to the state, and ensure each employee completes all approved training topics at least once every two calendar years. The law applies to employees providing homemaker or companion services, excluding certain licensed or regulated caregiver roles, and requires registries to confirm referred or placed individuals meet the training requirements before placement. Each homemaker-companion agency must maintain a list of training programs used, including content summaries of such programs, and a paper or electronic copy of all forms relating to current employees. These requirements take effect on January 1, 2027.

Delaware

• The Department of Labor adopted final regulations implementing recent amendments to the Wage Payment and Collection Act. The regulations clarify requirements related to meal break exemptions, payroll debit cards, gratuity protections, wage theft enforcement, wage deduction authorizations, employer recordkeeping, notice obligations, and administrative investigation and hearing procedures. Among other items, the regulations review how employees exempt from Delaware’s meal break requirement must still be permitted to eat at their workstations and use restroom facilities as reasonably necessary, with such time treated as compensable work time. The revised regulations also cover how employers may satisfy wage payment requirements through payroll debit cards that provide employees full access to wages without cost, prohibit employers from retaining any portion of credit card processing fees from employee tips, and provide additional guidance regarding wage theft violations, employer recordkeeping obligations, and Department of Labor enforcement procedures. The regulations became effective June 11, 2026.

Georgia

• The Georgia Department of Community Health adopted new health and background screening requirements for employees of nursing homes and intermediate care homes. For nursing homes, the updated rules replace the prior physical examination requirement with a health screening program designed to identify conditions that could place patients at risk. The screening requirements include baseline tuberculosis screening consistent with Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidance. The rules also require fingerprint-based background checks for owners, administrators, and employees who have direct access to residents. These checks replace the previous process involving Georgia Crime Information Center records and nurse aide registry searches. Intermediate care homes must follow similar fingerprint-based background check and baseline tuberculosis screening requirements. Employers must keep documentation of these screenings in each employee’s personnel file. The nursing home requirements take effect July 20, 2026. The intermediate care home requirements took effect July 1, 2026.

Illinois

• On July 6, 2026, the Illinois Department of Labor adopted amended rules implementing the Equal Pay Act. The amended rules:
  • Add definitions for terms such as “benefits,” “job posting,” “pay scale and benefits,” and “promotional opportunity.”
  • Update employer recordkeeping requirements.
  • Revise the complaint and investigation process.
  • Establish procedures for enforcing the Act.
  • Create tiered civil penalties based on employer size and the number of prior violations.
  • Establish cure periods for certain pay transparency violations.
  • Remove references to the federal EEO-1 report from the Equal Pay Registration Certificate requirements.
  • The penalties may apply to wage underpayment, pay transparency, and other violations of the Act. The Department also repealed several prior procedural sections.
  • The amended rules are effective retroactively to June 18, 2026.
• On July 24, 2026, Governor Pritzker signed a new law amending the Volunteer Emergency Worker Job Protection Act to extend employment protections for volunteer emergency workers that are participating in required training. Previously, the law prohibited employers from terminating these employees for taking this leave. Now employers can’t penalize these employees in any way for taking this leave. Employers may charge the time that the employee spends in required training against their regular pay, request the employee to provide a written statement about the required training time from the volunteer emergency services supervisor, and can require employees to make a reasonable effort to notify their employer of their need to be absent or late due to required training. Employers are also prohibited from requiring the employee to take vacation time or other compensatory time in order to respond to an emergency or participate in training. These amendments go into effect on January 1, 2027.

Indiana

• The Indiana Department of Labor adopted final regulations to reflect recent changes to the state’s youth employment laws. The regulations narrow employer recordkeeping requirements by removing 16- and 17-year-olds from the employees for whom employers must keep records of days and hours worked. The rules also eliminate the requirement for employers to update Indiana’s Youth Employment System within three business days of any changes to the information employers are required to provide to it. These changes took effect on March 30th.

Massachusetts

In June 2026, Governor Healey signed HB 5470 amending its paid family and medical leave law to revise how employer and employee contributions are allocated and to require the Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development, in consultation with the Department of Family and Medical Leave, to issue guidance within 30 days of the act’s effective date. Previously, employers could deduct up to 40 percent of the required medical leave contribution from employees’ wages and had to contribute the remaining 60 percent themselves, while for family leave, employers could deduct up to 100 percent of the required contribution from employees’ wages and were not required to contribute. Under the amendment, employers may now deduct up to 100 percent of the required medical leave contribution from employee wages and are no longer required to contribute to medical leave, while family leave contributions shift so employers may deduct only up to 40 percent from employees and must pay the remaining 60 percent. The amendment also changes the tax treatment of benefits so family leave benefits are taxable to employees, while medical leave benefits are not. These changes are effective on January 1, 2027.

Minnesota 

• On June 29, 2026, the Minnesota Department of Labor and Industry adopted permanent rules implementing the state’s Earned Sick and Safe Time law. The rules provide guidance on:
  • Determining which employees are covered.
  • Establishing an accrual year.
  • Calculating and advancing leave.
  • Switching from accrual to frontloading.
  • Using leave during shifts with no predetermined end time.
  • Employee notice and documentation requirements.
  • Addressing suspected misuse.
  • Coordinating ESST with paid time off, vacation, salary continuation, and other paid leave benefits.
  • Administering policies that provide more generous benefits than the law requires.
  • The rules also clarify that employers may not use policies or practices that interfere with an employee’s right to use earned sick and safe time.
  • The rules took effect July 6, 2026.
• Minneapolis: On July 8, 2026, the Minneapolis Department of Civil Rights published updated FAQs about the city’s Sick and Safe Time Ordinance. The FAQs incorporate changes made to the ordinance in September 2025 and provide guidance consistent with Minnesota’s Earned Sick and Safe Time law and implementing rules. The updated FAQs address:
  • Accrual and leave caps.
  • Frontloading.
  • Year-end carryover and payout options.
  • Permitted uses of sick and safe time.
  • Paid time off and vacation policies.
  • Employee notices and workplace posters.
  • Recordkeeping.
  • The employee’s rate of pay while using leave.
  • Enforcement of the ordinance.

Missouri 

• On July 9, 2026, Governor Kehoe signed a new law expanding protections for certain employees who are members of the Missouri National Guard or another state’s National Guard. Beginning August 28, 2026, employees called to active state duty for more than 30 consecutive days are entitled to the rights and protections provided by the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act and may bring suit if they believe those rights have been violated.
• On July 9, 2026, Governor Kehoe signed an omnibus public safety bill addressing, among many other things, automatic expungement of certain drug possession convictions. Employers who employ a person whose criminal history record has been expunged are immune from liability for claims related to the misconduct of the person if it relates to the portion of the criminal history record that has been expunged. An applicant with an expunged conviction is legally allowed to state that he or she does not have a criminal conviction if asked by a prospective employer. This law was effective upon signing.

Nebraska

• Omaha: On July 21, 2026, Mayor Ewing signed a local minimum wage ordinance requiring covered employers to pay employees working within city limits at least $15.00 per hour starting October 1, 2026. Beginning January 1, 2027, the rate will be adjusted annually based on the CPI-U Midwest. Covered employers are those employing individuals within the geographic boundaries of the city except for seasonal employees who work not more than 20 weeks in a calendar year. The ordinance also includes posting and recordkeeping requirements, prohibits retaliation, authorizes investigations and enforcement by the Human Rights and Relations Department, and provides for penalties and recovery of unpaid wages.

New Hampshire

• On July 2, 2026, Governor Kelly Ayotte signed HB 1245 establishing a voluntary framework permitting independent contractors to participate in portable benefits plans through portable benefit accounts such as those used for health insurance and retirement purposes among others. Hiring parties may voluntarily contribute to these accounts and may withhold funds from contractor compensation if the arrangement is set forth in a written agreement, the contractor affirmatively opts in, and the contractor may opt out at any time. The law also provides that offering or contributing to a portable benefits plan may not be used as evidence of an employment relationship or worker misclassification. The law takes effect on August 31, 2026.

New Jersey

• The New Jersey Department of Labor published guidance clarifying that employees receiving temporary disability insurance or family leave insurance benefits are eligible for job protection even when the leave is not otherwise covered by the NJFLA or FMLA.

New York

• On June 26, 2026, Governor Kathy Hochul signed SB 10569, extending the expiration date of New York’s law permitting certain voluntary wage deductions. The law does not create new employer obligations, payroll requirements, or penalties. It allows employers to continue making deductions authorized under existing law through 2028. The legislation took effect immediately on June 26, 2026.
• New York City: On June 23, 2026, the New York City Department of Consumer and Worker Protection adopted final rules implementing the October 25, 2025, amendments to the city’s Earned Safe and Sick Time Act, also called the Protected Time Off Law. The amended rules:
  • Replace references to “safe and sick time” with “protected time off.”
  • Explain how employers must administer the additional 32 hours of immediately available unpaid protected time off each calendar year.
  • Require employers to provide employees and former employees with information about accrued, used, and available protected time off and prenatal leave.
  • Clarify when employers may request reasonable documentation.
  • Explain how paid and unpaid protected time off interact when an employee has access to both.
  • Clarify penalties for failing to provide paid prenatal leave.
  • The amended rules take effect July 23, 2026.

South Carolina

• On June 30, 2026, Governor McMaster signed SB 1043 which creates a new leave entitlement for employees who are members of the official civilian auxiliary of the US Air Force, the Civil Air Patrol. The law requires employers to provide up to 30 days of leave per calendar year for emergency service operations and up to 10 days per year for training and proficiency activities with limited exceptions for essential employees and workers already required to respond as first responders or emergency services personnel. The leave, which can be either paid or unpaid, must be provided in a lump sum at the beginning of the calendar year with unused leave forfeited. The act also provides job protection, maintenance of employee benefits and reinstatement rights, prohibits retaliation or other adverse action for lawful use of the leave, and permits a private civil action by an employee for violations. The law takes effect on October 1, 2026.

South Dakota

• South Dakota enacted HB 1180, which allows certain non-compete agreements involving owners of jointly owned business entities. An entity’s governing document or an agreement involving the purchase, sale, or transfer of an ownership interest may prohibit a former owner from directly or indirectly engaging in the same or a similar business after transferring that interest. The restriction must:
  • Apply only within the geographic area where the entity conducts business.
  • Last no longer than three years after the ownership interest is transferred.
  • The legislation took effect July 1, 2026.

Tennessee

• On April 6, 2026, Tennessee enacted Senate Bill 2024, changing when certain privately employed workers paid on a piecework or commission basis must receive monthly wages and final pay. Effective July 1, 2026, employees paid on a piecework or commission basis must be paid by the last day of the succeeding month following the date of discharge or voluntary leaving.

Vermont

• On June 16, 2026, Governor Scott signed the FY 2027 Appropriations Act (HB951) which, in part, authorizes the Vermont Labor Relations Board to provide free mediation services during private-sector collective bargaining disputes. The legislation amends existing law to allow the Board to provide a mediator for private-sector bargaining units and employers that have reached an impasse during collective bargaining. The mediator may provide free mediation services to private-sector employers and bargaining units for grievances and unfair labor practice charges. The law takes effect July 1, 2026.

Virginia

• In May 2026, Virginia expanded its paid sick leave law from covering only home care workers to most private sector employers, with phased effective dates based on employer size: July 1, 2027, for employers with 50 or more employees; January 1, 2028, for employers with 25 or more employees; and January 1, 2029, for all covered employers. Through the FY27 budget bill, Virginia has made amendments to the paid sick leave law, narrowing and revising the definition of “family member” to include an employee’s child, grandchild, grandparent, parent, sibling, spouse, or domestic partner, including step-, foster, and adopted relationships, as well as certain individuals who live with or depend on the employee for care, while excluding household members where there is no expectation of care. The amendment also allows employers to require paid sick leave to be used in set increments, provided the minimum increment is no greater than four hours. These amendments take effect July 1, 2027.

Washington

• Washington’s amended Fair Chance Act took effect July 1, 2026, for employers with 15 or more employees. The amendments take effect January 1, 2027, for employers with fewer than 15 employees. Under the amended law, an employer must provide an applicant with information about the Fair Chance Act when:
  • The employer informs the applicant, after making a conditional job offer, that the position requires a background check.
  • The applicant voluntarily discloses criminal history information.
• The Washington Attorney General has published an updated Washington Fair Chance Act Guide for Employers and Job Applicants that employers may provide in these situations. The Attorney General has not yet published sample versions of the initial notice employers must provide before taking action or the notice required when making an adverse employment decision. Until sample notices are published, employers must prepare their own notices that satisfy the law’s requirements.

 

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.