Articles by PC Editorial Staff

On August 22nd, 2023, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) adopted its 2022-2026 Strategic Plan. Briefly, the EEOC’s Strategic Plan is a framework for how the agency plans to achieve its core mission to prevent and remedy employment discrimination. The 2022-2026 Strategic Plan lays out specific and measurable strategic goals and objectives that will facilitate its mission thr...

This month, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) announced it will allow a two-year transitional period for employers to implement a Roth catch-up requirement under the SECURE 2.0 Act of 2022 (SECURE 2.0 Act). Specifically, the requirement states that participants with Federal Insurance Contributions Act (FICA) wages over $145,000 during the prior calendar year must make catch-up contributions on...

Recently, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) announced that an Ohio-based manufacturer failed to protect workers from multiple machine hazards. These included not providing proper machine guarding and adequate lockout/tagout procedures, among other violations. In fact, the manufacturer’s history of workplace safety violations dates back to 2017. During that period, the emp...

The following legislation was recently passed in the state of Illinois. As an employer, the information included in this post may apply to your business. It is every employer’s responsibility to verify that they are in compliance with applicable laws and regulations. House Bill 1122 (2023-2024) Freelance Worker Protection Act House Bill 1122 created the Freelance Worker Protection Act and pr...

The following legislation was recently passed in the state of California. As an employer, the information included in this post may apply to your business. It is every employer’s responsibility to verify that they are in compliance with applicable laws and regulations. California Government Code Section 12900-12951 & 12927-12928 & 12955-12956.1 & 12960-12976 Fair Employment and Ho...

This month, the U.S. Congress posted the full text of a recent bill to regulate artificial intelligence (AI) and automated decision systems in employment. The bill, currently dubbed the “No Robot Bosses Act,” proposes federal restrictions regarding an employer’s use of automated decision-making tools, including those that don’t necessarily use machine learning or AI. As AI and automated decisio...

In early August 2023, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) announced its proposed rule to revise and clarify the personal protective equipment (PPE) fitting requirements under its PPE standard for the construction industry. Briefly, the proposed rule states that such PPE must fit covered construction employees properly to protect them from various safety hazards. As it stand...

On August 15th, 2023, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) announced a lawsuit against an international remote-first technology company for disability discrimination against a deaf applicant. Briefly, the suit claims that the company violated federal law when it denied the applicant their request for reasonable accommodation during an interview. Furthermore, the company refused to...

In what may be the first discrimination suit involving artificial intelligence (AI), the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) recently filed a notice of settlement and request for a consent decree in an AI discrimination case. The agency’s lawsuit alleged that a New York-based English language tutoring service programmed its AI hiring tools to automatically filter out qualified applic...

This month, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) issued its final rule to update regulations implementing the Davis-Bacon Act and the Davis-Bacon and Related Acts (Davis Bacon Act). According to the DOL, these updates better reflect the needs of construction workers on federal contracts. The final rule follows a 2022 proposed rule that received comments from stakeholders in the construction indus...