Dive Brief:
- While Congress focuses on tax reform and the federal budget, states and municipalities are busy passing their own legislation.
- The Trump administration is "actively moving forward with its plans to create a more business-friendly environment," Paychex president and CEO Martin Mucci said in a press release. Regulation reductions remain part of that agenda, but state and local governments are ushering in their own employer-facing regulations instead.
- Five legislative categories top that list: equal pay laws and salary history restrictions; paid leave laws; health care reform; state retirement plans; and payroll cards.
Dive Insight:
States and municipalities aren't waiting on, or expecting, a GOP-led Congress to move employment issues any time soon. Healthcare reform, especially, is on a temporary hold — a major political setback for Republican lawmakers — as Congress eyes tax reform and the national budget in the months ahead.
States and cities such as Arizona, Massachusetts, Oregon, New York City and San Francisco have passed paid leave laws, largely aimed at paid sick leave or paid parental leave. Various cities and states have also attempted to pass equal pay laws (many of which include bans on salary history questions). Some states, including Alabama and Missouri, have passed preemption laws to stop their cities from adopting different requirements, but the local movement won't be stopped easily.
Many employers are struggling with this patchwork of laws, according to Littler Mendelson's sixth Annual Employer Survey, released in May. In fact, 79% employers reporting compliance problems that stemmed from the intersection of federal, state and local requirements, especially those dealing with leave beyond what the federal Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) requires.
