Takeaways
So You Know What to Ask to Avoid Employer Pitfalls
Takeaways Fall 2026
October 1, 2026 is a big day for Connecticut employers, with 7 employment law changes taking effect – under wage and hiring laws, break periods, workers compensation, disability accommodations, employee privacy, and the use of AI. In New York, the biggest legal changes are legal access to personnel files, clarification of New York City’s protected leave, new shift protection for construction workers, and the New York City Mayor’s emphasis on empowering workers (employers should be on alert for what that produces).  New Jersey is making it harder to claim a worker is not an employee, and has finally launched its portal for reporting employee separations.  The federal executive branch’s remaking of employment law protections is being fine-tuned with regulatory changes, leaving veterans as the only group still covered by historic affirmative action protections.
Takeaway Spring 2026
New Jersey is taking center stage with the greatest range of employment law changes last quarter, particularly an expansion of who is covered by the state Family Leave Act, labor law protections granted to cannabis workers, at least a pause on new regulatory schemes for pay transparency and worker classification, and a state Supreme Court decision on wages for undocumented workers. Laws have revised again in New York and Connecticut has new protections for warehouse workers. Federal law changes come with yet another executive order on DEI, plus actions by the EEOC, DOL and NLRB.
Takeways Winter 2026
After a sleepy fall, New York State has expanded employment laws yet again with a ban on most worker repayment agreements, express recognition of the disparate impact theory for providing discrimination claims, and a ban on checking job applicants’ and employees’ credit histories. The state is also stepping up workplace violence prevention. New York City has expanded its sick leave law beyond that of most jurisdictions, and will be requiring its largest employers to begin reporting annual pay data by gender, race and ethnicity. Throughout the tri-state area, minimum wage levels have all increased with the new year. New Jersey has added its own recognition of the disparate impact theory for proving discrimination and prohibited employer “captive audience” meetings. Connecticut expanded FMLA to private schools, and the federal government is defending Americans against national origin discrimination and preparing to challenge state laws regulating AI.
Summer 2025
Federal regulatory landscape shifts continue, with scale-down of rules and enforcement in wage and hour, workplace health and safety, labor practices, and affirmative action compliance, amid a continued push to attack employers who maintain DEI initiatives. Recent Supreme Court decisions have addressed related activities, including the penchant for nationwide injunctions and the standard for those in the majority to sue for discrimination. At the state and local level, New York has new child labor laws and issued materials on the new Retail Worker Safety Act, New Jersey issued materials on its new pay transparency law, and New York City amended its sick leave rules to align with prenatal leave requirements. New laws in New York and Connecticut seek to undue court decisions in those states that had created large damages exposure for employers, while an appellate court decision in Connecticut addressed remote work as a reasonable accommodation. All this and more in a chock-full, extended length issue for Summer 2025.
Spring 2025
100+ days into an evolving employment law landscape under the Trump administration, with significant policy shifts coming from the EEOC, radical change and reductions directed for OFCCP, and new worker classification guidelines from the DOL.  This issue also covers new worker protection laws in New York, a concerted federal focus against noncompetes, and court decisions on reasonable accommodation, commissions and wage laws, and entitlement to attorneys’ fee awards.