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Each month, Mployer collects and presents some of the most relevant and most pressing recent changes in law, compliance, and policy in areas related to employee benefits, health care, and human resources.
Large employers with an average of 50 or more full-time employees or the equivalent are required to offer employees minimal, affordable health coverage in order to be in compliance with the Affordable Care Act. If an employer does not offer employees health coverage that qualifies a affordable can instead pay a penalty in the event that an employee secures health coverage with a premium tax credit via the exchanges.
In 2025, the threshold for what qualifies as affordable coverage increases from 8.39% to 9.02%, which means that an employee’s required contribution to the least expensive plan offered by the employer can be no more than 9.02% of the employee's salary in order for the plan to be considered affordable and for employers to avoid potentially paying the penalty.
You can read more about the affordability threshold here.
Many states have voting leave requirements. To learn more about the local rules governing how employers should address voting leave for employees, check out our list of state voting leave regulations here.
Employers in California, New York, and Washington DC are also required to post conspicuous notices in the workplace informing employees of their voting rights, which can differ by state and municipality.
You can find the California notice here.
You can find the New York notice here.
You can find the Washington DC notice here.
Florida: Beginning yesterday, September 30th, 2024, the minimum wage in Florida increased to $13 per hour for most employees, and $9.98 per hour for tipped employees.
Minnesota: Beginning January 1, 2025 minimum wage for all Minnesota employees will climb to $11.13 per hour. At the end of August, the cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul each announced increases to their local minimum wages effective January 1, 2025. The minimum wage increase in both cities will rise $15.97 per hour, but the minimum wage increase in St. Paul will only apply to employers with more than 100 employees.
Colorado: The Supreme Court of Colorado departed from federal rules on the matter and determined that in Colorado, holiday incentive pay should be taken into consideration when determining an employee’s regular rate of pay for the purpose of calculating overtime.
Massachusetts: The highest court in Massachusetts just decided that employers are not required to let length of service credit, sick leave, and vacation leave continue accruing while employees are on Paid Family Medical Leave.
Minnesota: Employers must submit employee wage reports by October 31, 2024 in accordance with the Minnesota Paid Leave Law.
New York: Retail operations with 10 or more people must have violence prevention policies and employee training programs in place by March 4, 2025.
A federal judge in Texas issued a ruling on August 20, 2024 that currently applies nationwide and overturns the FTC’s rule banning non-compete agreements.
The judge indicated that the ban is too broad and that the FTC is limited to challenging unfair competition on a case-by-case basis but lacks the authority to issue a blanket ban and the evidentiary basis to justify such a ban were it permitted..
The FTC has until the latter part of October to appeal the decision, but the non-compete ban will likely remain unenforceable in the meantime.
That said, other cases addressing the non-compete ban are working their way through other federal districts, and should one of those cases rule differently, these issues may get fast tracked for resolution by the US Supreme Court.
The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals overruled the Department of Labor’s 80/20/30 rule for tip credits.
As a result, employers no longer need to distinguish between tip-producing and tip-supporting work when calculating tip credits.
It is important to note that this ruling only applies to the federal DOL rule, and does not affect any state or local labor rules regarding minimum wage and/or tip credits.
You can read more about the 80/20/30 rule being vacated here.
US Citizenship and Immigration Services have extended the expiration date of the latest updated version of the I9 form issued on August 1, 2023. I-9 forms are used for employment eligibility verification.
The expiration date for these forms has now been extended to May 31, 2027, but forms listed with the previous expiration date of July 31 2026 must be used or updated by the date of expiration listed on the form.
You can read more about the I-9 form expiration date extension here.
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