Employment Law Notebook

New York will soon have a Paid Family Leave Act in place.  This is consistent with what some other states now have.  What's notable is that this will apply to all businesses, regardless of size.  It's not going out on a limb to forsee that many small mom & pop variety business will not even know about this law, let alone comply with it.

The NJ Legislature is considering a ban on confidentiality clauses in settlement agreements in sexual harassment cases. While this would encourage a more open public record (and identify potential serial harassers), it could cause many employers to refuse to settle.

Job Candidates applying for jobs in New York City should have more flexibility in salary negotiations thanks to a new law going into effect October 31, 2017.  The new law, which amends the New York City Human Rights Law, makes it unlawful for an employer to ask  job applicants, their former employers or their agents for information regarding the job applicant’s prior salary history.

This is useful (although maybe not #5). It's usually best when people come to us before they are terminated to see if there is a prospect for negotiating a severance or a separation from employment that is something other than an involuntary termination.

These websites may be useful tools in searching for attorneys, but the Court may have a point.

It looks like New Jersey may be putting some additional teeth into its Paid Family Leave Statute.  Click through to see the NJ.com story:

New Jersey is considering a new law prohibiting employers from asking applicants about their salary history. See the lin to the story below:

Even the best-managed businesses can face problems if they are not treating comparable employees equally in the terms and conditions of employment. The Department of Labor has tremendous resources, so it's unlikely that this problem is going to go away for Google very easily or quickly.

New Jersey enacted the "Ban the Box" law in 2015 (It prevents employers from asking job applicants about criminal histories before the interview stage of the hiring process).  It looks like the State is now poised to legislate on the other end of this issue by greatly expanding the scope of what criminal histories can be expunged.  You can click through to the article here: 

As the New Year of 2017 begins, multiple jurisdictions will be raising the minimum wage.  As is pretty typical, I expect this to fuel more wage & hour litigation, as some employers fail to pay attention to minimum wage increases (and some less-than-well-motivated employers intentionally do their best to dodge it and hope they can get away with it).  It behooves both employers and employees