This year’s Massachusetts Employment Law Update presented by McLane Middleton’s employment attorneys will take place on Thursday, October 10, 2024 from 8:00a.m. to 12:30p.m. at the Crowne Plaza in Woburn. This half-day event will provide important legal updates relating to the human resource function of business. Join our employment attorneys in discussing the latest trends in employment law as we prepare you to manage your workforce in the coming year.Continue Reading 2024 Massachusetts Employment Law Update

Last week brought a major development in litigation surrounding the FTC’s sweeping rule that would ban and render unenforceable most non-compete clauses in employment contracts. Specifically, on August 20, 2024, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas in Ryan LLC, et al. v. FTC issued an order setting aside the FTC’s rule nationwide, meaning that the rule will no longer become effective on September 4, 2024 as scheduled.   Continue Reading Texas Federal Court Sets Aside the FTC’s Rule Banning Non-Competes, With the Court’s Order Having Nationwide Effect

New Hampshire has adopted a law that creates a private cause of action for discrimination based on hairstyles related to a person’s ethnicity.

On July 3, 2024, New Hampshire Governor Chris Sununu signed HB 1169-FN.  The law adopts a version of the Model CROWN Act (“Creating a Respectful and Open World for Natural Hair”), which has been adopted in some version by 25 other U.S. states. A more detailed description of the Model CROWN Act can be found here.Continue Reading New Hampshire Adopts New Law Prohibiting Workplace Discrimination Based on Protective Hairstyles

Until now, private employers in New Hampshire have been able to prohibit employees from storing guns in personal vehicles parked in employer parking lots.  Employers could prohibit all firearms on their premises, permit firearms, or place conditions on the right to possess firearms on the employer’s premises.  On July 15, 2024, Governor Sununu signed into law HB 1336, which restricts this right for most employers in New Hampshire.  The newly enacted law (i) grants employees the legal right to keep loaded firearms in their personal vehicles while entering or exiting the employer’s property or while the vehicle is parked on company premises, with only a few permissible restrictions, and (ii) restricts employers from requiring employees to disclose the presence of firearms or ammunition in an employee’s vehicle or searching an employee’s vehicle for a firearm or ammunition. Continue Reading Sununu Signs New Law Relating to Firearms in Employee Vehicles

Massachusetts has joined a growing list of states and other localities to implement pay transparency legislation.

On July 31, 2024, Massachusetts Governor Maura Healy signed into law Bill H.4890. The Bill contains new pay transparency and wage reporting requirements applicable to certain employers with employees in Massachusetts.Continue Reading Massachusetts Governor Signs Pay Transparency and Wage Data Reporting Law

In April 2024, the Department of Labor (DOL) issued its final rule raising the threshold salary requirements under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) for employees classified as exempt from overtime pay when working in excess of forty (40) hours in a seven (7) day workweek, (the “2024 rule”). The 2024 rule, scheduled to take effect July 1, 2024, increases the salary thresholds for the executive, administrative, and professional (EAP) exemptions, and highly compensated exemption (HCE). Specifically, the 2024 rule increases the EAP exemptions from $684 per week ($35,568 per year) to $844 per week ($43,888 per year) effective July 1st, and a subsequent increase on January 1, 2025, to $1,128 per week ($58,656 per year). For the HCE, the salary threshold will increase from $107,432 per year to $132,964 per year on July 1st, and a subsequent increase on January 1, 2025, to $151,164 per year.Continue Reading Court Scrutiny Faced by The Department of Labor’s New Rule Increasing Exempt Employee Salary Thresholds

On April 23, 2024,  the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (the “FTC”) published a new rule banning most non-compete clauses in employment contracts. The new rule was issued by a narrow margin of 3:2, and comes as an effort by the FTC to promote competition, protect the freedom of workers to change jobs, and increase innovation. FTC Chair Lina M. Khan has explained that the rule will “ensure that Americans have the freedom to pursue a new job, start a new business, or bring a new idea to market.”Continue Reading FTC Bans Non-Competes

Employers take note that the H-1B lottery for fiscal year (FY) 2025 will take place in just a few weeks. The H-1B is a work-based visa that allows foreign nationals to work for a U.S. employer in a position that requires a bachelor’s degree or above. There are only 65,000 available each year, so registrations are submitted into a lottery system. If you have any employees or potential employees who may benefit, you must register between March 6, 2024 and March 22, 2024.Continue Reading H-1B Registration Period Beginning March 6, 2024

At the start of 2024, the Massachusetts Department of Family and Medical Leave (“DFML”) released a new version of its Paid Family and Medical Leave (“PFML”) poster as well as a new employee notice form and updated rate sheet. Continue Reading Reminders for Massachusetts’ Employers Regarding Paid Family and Medical Leave

The Massachusetts Paid Family and Medical Leave (“PFML”) law now permits employees to “top off” benefits received through the state Department of Family and Medical Leave (“DFML”) with employer-provided accrued paid time off (e.g., vacation, PTO, or sick time).  This new change allows employees to elect whether to supplement their PFML benefits with paid time off.  Employers still cannot require employees to use their accrued paid leave either before or while on PFML; it is up to employees to elect whether or not to supplement their PFML benefits with paid time off.  This change was part of the recently passed fiscal year 2024 budget and is in effect for all new applications for PFML benefits as of November 1, 2023.Continue Reading Massachusetts Employees May Now Top Off Paid Family and Medical Leave Benefits with Vacation, PTO, and Sick Time