It’s 2023: Do You Know Where Your Workers Are? Key Considerations for Managing a Remote Workforce

While many employers tout the flexibility of work-from-home as a benefit for employees, managing a remote workforce can raise a number of multistate compliance challenges. In particular, remote and hybrid work has significant implications for employers’ state and local tax withholding and unemployment insurance contribution obligations.

Guns in the Workplace After the Supreme Court’s Bruen Decision: What Has Changed, and What Can Employers Expect?

On June 23, 2022, the Supreme Court of the United States issued a 6–3 decision in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen that expanded the right of Americans to bear arms as guaranteed by the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. More accurately, the Court significantly curtailed a state’s ability to restrict citizens’ right to carry firearms publicly for their self-defense.

Employee Handbooks: Can One Size Fit All for Multistate and International Employers?

Multistate employers often face the difficult task of finding the most effective way to prepare their handbooks while ensuring compliance not only with federal law, but also with the applicable state, local, and even international laws of the jurisdictions in which they operate. As many multistate employers continue to grow and expand their footprints both nationally and internationally, and as remote work becomes more common across industries, this is one of the challenges they are facing, especially where state laws are quickly evolving.

Top Multistate Compliance Challenges as Remote Work Rises at the End of the Pandemic

Multistate employers face the daunting task of keeping up with a growing patchwork of employment laws on the federal, state, and local levels. According to Ogletree Deakins’ second annual benchmarking survey report, Strategies and Benchmarks for the Workplace: Ogletree’s Survey of Key Decision-Makers, multistate compliance ranks as one of the most challenging issues for employers. Survey respondents report that leaves of absence—including paid sick leave mandates, Family and Medical Leave Act requirements, and other state leave laws—present the most difficult multi-jurisdictional compliance issues, with wage and hour law compliance and handbook/policy concerns following close behind.

Employee Arrests Outside of Work Hours: 4 Key Questions and Answers for Employers

When employees are arrested during their off-duty time and away from work, employers may need to make difficult choices balancing their various obligations. Among these are respecting the rights of arrested employees, ensuring the safety of workforces and workplaces, maintaining the continuity of business operations, and preserving brand integrity and corporate reputation—as well as considering how state and federal laws might relate to the conduct at issue and to any decision to retain, suspend, or discharge arrested employees. As with most things, process and risk assessment matter, and the way that decision-makers meet the moment may make the difference between an optimal outcome and an outcome that subjects employers to liability. Here are four questions and answers for employers weighing their options in these situations.

Multi-Jurisdictional Compliance: 3 FAQs on State Wage and Hour

Compliance with state wage and hour laws is on the forefront of the mind of just about every employer, particularly as employees are looking for more flexibility in their work schedules since the pandemic. Ogletree Deakins’ recent survey report, Strategies and Benchmarks for the Workplace: Ogletree’s Survey of Key Decision-Makers, revealed that state wage and hour laws are the second most challenging area of multi-jurisdictional compliance.

The Latest in Multi-Jurisdictional Paid Sick Leave Compliance

Variations in paid sick leave requirements can cause major compliance issues for employers, particularly as the requirements can vary not only state-to-state but from locality to locality within a state. In fact, respondents to Ogletree Deakins’ recent survey report, Strategies and Benchmarks for the Workplace: Ogletree’s Survey of Key Decision-Makers, ranked leaves of absence, including paid sick leave and state leave laws, as the number one most challenging multijurisdictional compliance issue.

Minimum Wage Increases in 2022: A Chart of Upcoming Changes and Interactive Map

In 2022, while the federal minimum wage will remain at $7.25 per hour for non-tipped employees and $2.13 per hour for tipped employees, several states’ minimum wage rates will increase. The chart below lists the state (and certain major locality) minimum wage rate increases for 2022—and future years if available—along with the related changes in the maximum tip credit and minimum cash wage for tipped employees.

Multistate Compliance for Employers With Out-of-State Remote Employees

The COVID-19 pandemic has shifted a number of previously in-person positions to remote work and telecommuting. In the meantime, many employees have moved out of state from their usual office locations for personal or financial reasons. As a result, many employers are left wondering what their legal obligations are for remote employees working out of state. The biggest concerns are local employment laws, workers’ compensation insurance, and unemployment insurance obligations. Employers may also be subject to out-of-state payroll tax obligations.