Labor & Employment Law Update

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By: Amundsen Davis

Latest from Labor & Employment Law Update - Page 3

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Register Now for Breakfast Brieifing: Workplace Whodunit – Internal Investigations That Hold Up in Court

Workplace complaints can arise at any time—and how employers respond can significantly impact legal risk, employee trust, and organizational culture. Even well-intentioned actions can create exposure if investigations are not handled properly from the start.

Join labor & employment senior counsel, Joey Wright, and partner, Peter Hansen, for an interactive Breakfast Briefing that walks through a real-world investigation scenario from start to finish. Using

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Continue Reading Internal Investigations That Hold Up in Court

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Wisconsin’s Unreasonable Refusal to Rehire Statute: A Costly Trap for Employers

All Wisconsin employers know the basics of the state’s workers’ compensation statute. If an employee is hurt on the job, they may be entitled to benefits under workers’ compensation insurance.
However, many don’t realize that if they fail to bring the employee back to work when suitable employment is available, the employer may be exposed to liability in the form of paying the employee up to one year

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Continue Reading Wisconsin’s Unreasonable Refusal to Rehire Statute: A Costly Trap for
Employers

Several changes impacting employers in jurisdictions across the nation are summarized below in our latest blog post.

Connecticut
  • On February 25, 2026, Connecticut’s Attorney General’s office issued a memorandum clarifying that the state’s anti-discrimination law applies to discrimination resulting from employers’ use of artificial intelligence.

Iowa

  • Effective May 10, 2026 – Senate File 579 (S.F. 579) prohibits Iowa cities and local governments from enacting ordinances or other laws that are broader or have different categories of unfair or discriminatory

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Continue Reading National State Employment Law Update

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Are Your Federal Construction Projects Now Subject to the Illinois Prevailing Wage? What Contractors Must Know

Federal and state prevailing wage mandates are colliding on construction projects in Illinois, exposing owners, developers, and contractors to conflicting compliance obligations and increased project costs. With the enactment of Illinois HB 1189, projects that long fell exclusively under the federal prevailing wage law (Davis-Bacon) may now also be subject to the state’s prevailing wage law mandates.
While the Illinois Department of Labor

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Continue Reading Are Your Federal Construction Projects Now Subject to the Illinois
Prevailing Wage? What Contractors Must Know

Why the Compliance Answer You’re Getting May Not Be the Answer You Need

If your company offers health benefits, someone has probably asked about GLP‑1 coverage in the last six months. The drugs work, employees want access, and the sticker price through traditional pharmacy channels can run north of $1,000 per month per employee.

Direct‑to‑consumer platforms like TrumpRx.gov, Hims, Lilly Direct, and NovoCare now offer the same medications between $149 and $449 per month, cash pay. The obvious question:

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Continue Reading GLP‑1s, Direct‑to‑Consumer Pricing, and the HRA Opportunity Most EmployersAre Missing

FMLA family medical leave act symbol. Concept words FMLA family medical leave act on wooden blocks on beautiful wooden background. Medical FMLA family medical leave act concept.
FMLA family medical leave act symbol. Concept words FMLA family medical leave act on wooden blocks on beautiful wooden background. Medical FMLA family medical leave act concept.

On April 22, 2026, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) issued a proposed rule that would set a single standard for joint employer status under the FLSA, FMLA, and the Migrant and Seasonal Agricultural Worker Protection Act (“MSPA”).

The proposed rule would offer clarity for employers around when multiple employers are jointly responsible for protecting employee wages and other rights.

Many will recall that during the first Trump administration, the DOL issued a similar final rule on this very…
Continue Reading DOL Issues Proposed Rule on Joint Employer Status Under FLSA and FMLA

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OSHA Revises Heat Enforcement Program, Signaling Continued Enforcement Instead of a Federal Heat Rule

The U.S. Department of Labor has revised OSHA’s National Emphasis Program (NEP) on outdoor and indoor heat-related hazards, signaling that OSHA will continue enforcing heat safety through inspections rather than the rollout of a new federal heat standard.
The updated NEP, which takes effect immediately and continues through April 10, 2031, refines how OSHA targets employers for heat-related inspections when the heat index is expected

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Continue Reading OSHA Revises Heat Enforcement Program, Signaling Continued Enforcement
Instead of a Federal Heat Rule

Contract of employment
A fountain pen placed on a contract of employment.

In the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2024 Muldrow v. City of St. Louis decision, the Court expanded the legal standard for what qualifies as an “adverse employment action” by pivoting from asking whether a change to an employee’s terms or conditions of employment was “material” to whether  the change left the employee worse off in those terms or conditions. Unsurprisingly, employers saw a surge of challenges to everyday management decisions in the immediate aftermath.

The First Circuit’s recent decision in

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Continue Reading Federal Court Draws the Line on PIPS After Muldrow: A Win for Employers in Walsh v. HNTB

The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) recently posted a new factsheet making significant changes to Form I-9 inspections and which “mistakes” are correctable under the Immigration and Nationality Act § 274A (“Immigration Act”).

ICE reclassified many Form I-9 errors from “technical” to “substantive.” The impact is that clerical mistakes that employers formerly could correct during a Form I-9 audit are no longer correctable and instead are subject to immediate fines during a Form I-9 audit.

Under the Immigration…
Continue Reading The Costs of Form I-9 Mistakes Just Went Up Drastically for Employers

If U.S. employment laws feel impossible to keep up with, you’re not imagining things.

Between federal, state, and local laws and shifting agency guidance, even well-intentioned employers can find themselves in violation of labor and employment laws without realizing it.

You probably can’t fix the system, but you can protect your business from unnecessary risk and expense. The key is investing in prevention, empowering the right people, and acting decisively before small issues escalate.
Why U.S. Employment Law Is

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Continue Reading Why U.S. Employment Law Is So Frustrating – and What Employers Can Do About It

The Ninth Circuit has warned employers that introducing a mandatory arbitration agreement during active class litigation, particularly when done through poor or misleading communication, can invalidate the agreement entirely.

In Avery v. TEKsystems, decided January 28, 2026, the court affirmed a district court order refusing to enforce an arbitration policy introduced late in the lawsuit.

The court found that the communications used to roll it out were misleading, one-sided, and fundamentally subverted the class action process.
TEKsystems’s Arbitration Agreement…
Continue Reading Employers Beware: Courts Are Scrutinizing Mid-Lawsuit Arbitration Agreements

Under Wisconsin law, employees must first be the victim of identity theft or other concrete, imminent harm to have standing to sue employer for data breach. Mere risk of future data misuse is not enough to establish standing.

Business owners and executives are well aware of the risk of data breaches given the proliferation over the past decade or so. Many times we think of data breaches in terms of customer information only. What is often less pondered is

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Continue Reading Wisconsin Signals Limitations on Employer Liability for Employee Data Breaches

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Navigating the Risks of Artificial Intelligence in the Workplace: Key Takeaways for Employers

With AI transforming everyday HR operations comes major opportunities and significant risks for employers.  As these tools become more embedded in workplace decision‑making, they also raise serious concerns about fairness, accountability, and legal exposure. Understanding how AI works and where it can go wrong is now essential for any employer using or considering these technologies.
Our recent webcast explored these developments and offered practical guidance for

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Continue Reading Navigating the Risks of Artificial Intelligence in the Workplace: Key
Takeaways for Employers

Among a company’s most valuable assets is its intellectual property (IP). Though often intangible, IP—innovations, concepts, designs, processes, and more—offers companies a competitive edge in the marketplace. Protecting these assets is essential for safeguarding revenue, accelerating growth, and preventing competitors from gaining an unfair advantage—and your employees can be an inside threat.

During our recent webcast, we examined how employment practices intersect with IP protection and what employers need to keep in mind. Key insights from this presentation include:…
Continue Reading Managing IP Risks Through the Employment Lifecycle

Many employers hesitate to discipline or terminate for misconduct if the employee has recently engaged in protected activity, such as requesting FMLA, seeking an accommodation, or filing a complaint. Suspicious timing can easily lead to a retaliation claim, so the concern is understandable. But hesitation has costs too for an organization—no accountability for the misconduct, past practice is now undermined, and the employee is emboldened to commit more policy violations.
Continue Reading Seventh Circuit: Termination Following Same-Day FMLA Request Was Not
Retaliation

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United States of America Map Isolated

In our latest national state law update, we review state laws that have gone into effect or were enacted in 2026. Below is a non-exhaustive summary of major state laws that have gone into effect so far in 2026. Employers should be mindful of and continue to follow their state and local laws.

California

  • California criminalizes threats of violence in the workplace – Senate Bill 19 (S.B. 19) makes it a crime for a person to willfully threaten acts

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Continue Reading State Laws Impacting Employers in 2026