Salary History Ban

NYS  law that bans salary history questions takes effect January 6, 2020.
Employers can not ask employees or applicants their previous salaries. Employers can not use salary history to determine an employee's rate of pay.

NYS Expands Pay Equity Law

New York state has expanded a state law prohibiting gender pay discrimination, making it illegal to pay someone less based on factors such as race, religion or gender identity. 

The new law also changes a legal standard for pay equity to make it easier for employees to prove discrimination in court. 

Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed the changes into law in Manhattan, the law takes effect October 8, 2019.

The law requires equal pay  among employee who preform " substantially similar"
work not just "equal work". Employers will not be able to hide behind job titles but must consider classes of job and roles.
This law does not just cover sex but includes age, race, creed, color, gender identity, gender expression, martial status, domestic violence victim status or other status protected by law.

NJ MINIMUM WAGE INCREASE EFFECTIVE JULY 1, 2019

Effective July 1, 2019 minimum wage goes up for most workers to $10.00 per hour from $8.85. 1/1/2020 it will go to $11. and then increase each January 1st by another dollar.

Small employers of less than 6 employees (and agricultural employers) remains at $8.85 till 1/1/2020 when it goes up to $10.30 and then increase each January 1st.

NJ is on a march to $15. per hour by 2024.

Tipped workers increase from $2.13 to $2.63 effective July 1, 2019 and then every January 1st it will increase till 1/1/2022, where it will hit $5.13. Tips must bring it to regular minimum wage.

New In 2019: Illinois Employers Must Reimburse Business Expenses

Illinois amended the Illinois Wage Payment and Collection Act, effective Jan. 1, 2019. The new amendment requires employers to reimburse employees for certain expenses and losses.

The law states that employers are required to reimburse employees for “all necessary expenditures or losses incurred within the employee’s scope of employment and directly related to the services performed for the employer.” This includes, but is not limited to, business travel, customer entertainment, home office supplies, cell phone expenses and more.

Employees must submit reimbursement requests, along with supporting documentation, to employers within 30 days of incurring the expense unless a different time period is specified by the employer.

Lastly, the amendment excludes certain types of losses from those an employer is required to reimburse, including losses due to an employee’s own negligence and losses due to regular wear.

Illinois now joins several other states such as CA, IA AND NH with this requirement. IL law is different in that the law permits employers to maintain written expense reimbursement policies that reimburse employees for less than the full cost of the expense.

The act provides that an employer will not be liable for the portion of the expenditure that exceeds the specifications or guidelines of the employers policy, so long as the policy does not provide for no reimbursement or a de minimis reimbursement. Employers may reimburse at less than 100% of the expenditure amount as long as the employer provides some real reimbursement based on a written policy that provides some real reimbursement.