USCIS to Resume Premium Processing for Certain Petitions After Two-Month Suspension

Like many states, Rhode Island has enacted a statute that governs the use of drug tests in the employment context. Under Rhode Island’s drug-testing statute, R.I. Gen. Laws § 28-6.5-1(a)(1), an employer may require an employee to submit to a drug test only if it has “reasonable grounds to believe based on specific aspects of the employee’s job performance and specific contemporaneous documented observations, concerning the employee’s appearance, behavior or speech that the employee may be under the influence of a controlled substance, which may be impairing his or her ability to perform his or her job.” Until recently, no appellate decision had addressed whether an employer had “reasonable grounds” to ask an employee to take a drug test.

An important provision in the recreational marijuana ballot initiative approved by Maine voters back in November has so far generated limited buzz among Maine employers, but they will need to pay closer attention now that key portions of the law are set to take effect in just a few weeks on January 30, 2017. Specifically, the initiative makes it legal for Mainers age 21 or over to possess up to 2.5 ounces of marijuana for personal use and to keep and cultivate up to six adult marijuana plants. While employers may take solace in the fact that the initiative expressly exempts them from having to tolerate marijuana use, possession, transport or employees being under the influence of marijuana in the workplace, employers need to be aware that the law also prohibits them from refusing to employ or otherwise penalizing persons 21 years of age or older solely because the person uses marijuana recreationally outside the employer’s property.

Effective January 1, 2011, Arizona’s minimum wage will increase to $7.35 per hour. This is the first increase since 2009, when the minimum wage became $7.25 per hour. The new state minimum wage will exceed the federal minimum wage, which is currently $7.25 per hour.