Laborsphere

New Pay Reporting Requirements for New York City Employers

New York City enacted two new pay data reporting laws for the purposes of collecting demographic and occupational information to use for pay equity studies of the private workforce to identify potential pay disparities. That annual reporting obligation could commence as early as 2027, and could conceivably require reporting of 2026 pay data. New York City’s pay data collection and audits follows similar efforts already in place in California, Illinois, Massachusetts and adopted by the EU Pay Transparency Directive.

At a Glance

Private employers with at least 200 employees in New York City will be required to report pay data each year to the city’s designated agency. The city’s mayor must identify the designated agency by December 4, 2026 (no agency has been identified yet).
A standardized form developed by the designated agency will request pay data broken down by job category, gender, race and ethnicity for 12 compensation bands (modeled after the EEO-1 Component 2 reports). The designated agency must develop and publish the standardized form by December 4, 2027 (no form has been developed yet).
The designated agency will annually review the submitted pay data and publish a public pay study report identifying disparities in compensation based on gender, race, and ethnicity and recommending actions for private employers to address those disparities.

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Australia’s Fair Work Commission Guidance for Use of Generative AI

On March 24, 2026, Australia’s Fair Work Commission (FWC or Commission) moved to formalize its stance on the use of artificial intelligence by publishing an exposure draft of its proposed Guidance Note: Use of Generative Artificial Intelligence in Commission Cases.

The draft guidance note acknowledges that GenAI tools may be used to assist litigants to produce applications, responses, submissions, witness statements, and other documents for submission to the Commission. However, it also warns that information generated by these tools may be incomplete, inaccurate, or fabricated. President Justice A Hatcher’s statement accompanying the guidance note explains that the draft aims to address the increase in the Commission’s workload due to the use of GenAI tools by potential litigants.

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Key Developments in Mexico: Updates to the Workweek and Overtime

On March 3, 2026, Mexico published a decree reforming its constitution to gradually reduce the workweek from 48 hours to 40 hours. The reform seeks to reduce employee fatigue and occupational accidents by increasing rest time.

As of January 1, 2027, the work schedule will be gradually reduced by two hours, eventually reaching a maximum of 40 hours per week in 2030. The reduction in workweek hours will be implemented as follows:

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California Enacts Stronger Pay Transparency Obligations for 2026 and Beyond

Ten years after initial passage of California’s Fair Pay Act, California continues to fine tune existing pay equity and pay transparency laws. As of January 1, 2026, job postings must include the “good faith estimate” of the salary or wage range an employer expects to pay for the advertised position at the time of the candidate’s hiring. 2026 also brings longer statutes of limitation periods for employee wage discrimination claims, requires employers to separate pay data report information from employee personnel records, and mandates substantial court-imposed civil penalties for an employer’s failure to file an annual pay data report.

Narrower Pay Scale Disclosures

Current California law requires employers to provide pay scale information to applicants and current employees, upon request, and requires certain employers to include a pay scale in job postings. As previously reported, those requirements became effective on January 1, 2023.

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EEOC Quorum Restored: Five Critical Enforcement Shifts for Employers

Commissioner Brittany Panuccio’s confirmation on October 7, 2025 restored the EEOC’s quorum, removing the constraints that limited Chair Andrea Lucas during the eight-month period when the Commission operated with just two members. The Commission can now formally adopt new guidance, rescind prior guidance and policies, authorize litigation, approve amicus briefs, and modify its Strategic Enforcement Plan —actions that were not possible without three commissioners.

Based on Chair Lucas’ stated priorities and enforcement actions already underway, employers face 5 critical enforcement shifts.

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Temporary Protected Status (TPS): Where Things Stand at the Close of 2025

At a Glance

The Trump administration continues to move forward with terminating Temporary Protected Status (TPS) designations, in line with its stated immigration agenda. Out of 17 countries under active TPS designations at the beginning of this year, 11 have now seen protected status terminated.

The termination of a country’s TPS designation ends its nationals’ protection from removal and the ability to extend work authorization.

While the fate of the other countries that are still under active TPS designation remains uncertain, employers should be prepared for similar terminations in 2026, based on the administration’s agenda to examine and amend humanitarian immigration programs thus far.

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