Major Changes for 2024
Equal Pay: States continue to add or expanded existing equal pay laws, with elements like salary history and pay transparency leading the recent trends. Almost half the states have laws with provisions include prohibiting asking applicants for salary history, relying on salary history to set compensation, and discipling employee who discuss pay with coworkers. More recently, states have been adopting salary transparency laws. These laws vary by state and can include requiring employers to disclose the pay range of a position to applicants, sometimes in the job postings, as well as to internal employees. To be sure you are compliant, consult chapter 16 on Equal Pay chapter 38 on Preemployment Inquiries.
Marijuana: Most states have some form of legalization for medical and/or recreational purposes. The only holdouts are Idaho, Wyoming, Kansas, and South Carolina. Find the latest updates on which states allow the use of Marijuana in Chapter 24. Additionally, many states have laws prohibiting discrimination against workers for using medical marijuana, and 9 states have laws protecting recreational marijuana users. Several states protect employees and applicants with a positive drug test, while other states expressly allow employers to require THC-free workplaces. Even if marijuana is illegal in your state, your employees could use it legally while visiting another state. That leaves you with many complicated issues to sort out when it comes to drug testing applicants and employees. Before you make any decisions or update your policies, check out chapter 12, which covers regulations on Drug and Alcohol Testing, as well as chapter 32, which addresses whether you can take an employee’s legal Off-Duty Conduct into consideration when making employment decisions.
Leave: States continued to complicate employer leave obligations by expanding existing leave laws and creating new ones. New obligations include broadened definitions of “family members” that employees may take time off to care for under family and medical leave laws as well as mandatory bereavement leave and time off for dealing with situations related to domestic violence. See what your obligations are by reviewing chapter 17, which covers Family and Medical Leave, chapter 42, which covers Sick Leave and Other Paid Time Off, and chapter 43, which covers Small Necessities Leave, including domestic violence leave.
Protections Expanding: A continuing trend that affects almost all employers is the expansion of protected characteristics. Almost half the states have laws that have passed laws prohibiting discrimination based on certain hair types commonly associated with race, including braids, twists, locs, afros, and textured hair. Other new protected characteristics have included immigration status, association with members of a protected group, and pregnancy and related medical conditions. Find out what is included in your state’s discrimination protections in chapter 10 on Discrimination and chapter 45 on Title VII Equivalents.
Celeste Duke, SPHR, is the Editor of a number of BLR publications. She has written about human resources for a variety of publications, including Basic Training for Supervisors and Frontline Supervision.
