In early February 2020, the Third Circuit Court of Appeals decided that a Philadelphia ordinance passed years ago could go into effect and that Philadelphia employers will no longer be able to ask job applicants about their salary history in job interviews and related contexts.
Continue reading “Third Circuit Upholds Philadelphia Ban on Salary History Inquiries”
Daily headlines about the growing coronavirus threat have many employers concerned that they are not doing all they should to protect employees without undue disruption to operations. Here are some answers that may inform your own response plan.
*Originally published by CalCPA in the January/February 2020 issue of California CPA.
More than 300 bills introduced in the 2019 California Legislative session mention “employer,” compared to 589 bills in 2018. While most bills bogged down or died in the Legislature, many of the bills—which likely would have been vetoed by former Gov. Jerry Brown—were signed into law by first-term Gov. Gavin Newsom, ushering in a new wave of more regulation of employers in the Golden State.
The following are essential elements of many key state Assembly Bills (AB) and Senate Bills (SB) that became law Jan. 1 (unless otherwise noted) and affect private employers.
If there was any question about whether there is a growing national trend to limit the enforceability of noncompetition agreements, 2019 settled the matter. Seven states enacted new statutes designed to limit the circumstances in which noncompetition agreements may be used. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced that it is considering a regulation to restrict the use of noncompete clauses in employment agreements, and Republican lawmakers on Capitol Hill have held hearings and introduced legislation to create a federal ban on certain noncompete restrictions.
The following is a summary of the top 10 noncompete law developments of 2019. These developments reflect an ever-increasing hostility by lawmakers and courts toward noncompetition agreements. They also demonstrate the need for employers to stay current on the diverse state-specific limitations governing restrictive covenants, new federal activity in the area and ongoing case law developments. In light of this trend, national employers would do well to: be selective in identifying those categories of employees required to sign such agreements; narrowly tailor the scope of such agreements; and rely on choice-of-law and venue provisions, as allowed, to maximize the chances of enforceability.
Los Angeles partner Mark Terman recently authored an article for the Daily Journal titled, “Developing a Trade Secret Protection Program to Reduce Risk and Increase Court Enforcement.”
In his first year in office, California Governor Gavin Newsom signed several laws impacting California employers. A summary of some of the key new laws follows. The effective date of the particular new law is indicated in the heading of the Assembly Bill (AB) or Senate Bill (SB).1 The list below is in numerical order by AB or SB.