Articles by Girish Anand

December 13, 2013

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Fate of Nation's Highest Minimum Wage to Be Determined in Court

12/14 Update: The case has been heard and the judge has promised a decision this month. Judge Andrea Darvas of King County Superior Court will hear a challenge today on the $15-an-hour minimum wage just approved by voters in the small town of SeaTac, Wash. Supporters of the measure, which won with a margin of fewer than 100 votes, have already vowed to appeal to the state's h...

December 12, 2013

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Senate Panel Says Federal Contractors Are Among the Biggest Violators

A just-released study by the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee says that as many as 30 percent of companies hit with the biggest fines for labor law violations are federal contractors. According to the findings by the panel chaired by Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa): • Eighteen federal contractors were recipients of one of the largest 100 penalties issued by the Occ...

December 11, 2013

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Nearly 2 Million Have Completed the Obamacare Eligibility Process, HHS Says

Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius announced today that nearly 365,000 individuals selected plans from the state and federal Health Insurance Marketplaces through the end of November. November alone added more than a quarter million enrollees in state and federal Marketplaces. Enrollment in the federal Marketplace in November was more than four times greater than Octo...

December 10, 2013

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USCIS Issues New Manuals for E-Verify

The United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has issued new manuals for its E-Verify system of online employment eligibility verification. The agency has tailored the guides to differing groups of users: employers, employer agents and web services. Employer agents are third parties who do E-Verify employment eligibility checking for employers, and web services are online...

December 9, 2013

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USCIS Issues New MOU for E-Verify Employers

The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has issued a new memorandum of understanding (MOU), effective yesterday, for employers who wish to participate in the E-Verify program. The MOU sets forth responsibilities for both the user and the government regarding the online employment eligibility database. Existing E-Verify users do not need to execute new MOUs but will nonethele...

December 8, 2013

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HHS Launches Obamacare Website in Spanish

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) this weekend rolled out its Spanish-language Affordable Care Act (ACA) sign-up website. Originally scheduled to launch on Oct. 1, the site was delayed while the English-language site, HealthCare.gov, underwent fixes. "This weekend, we will soft launch the consumer-friendly Spanish online enrollment tool CuidadoDeSalud.gov. We think it...

December 7, 2013

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HealthCare.gov Error Rate Reportedly Cut in Half

Errors on data being sent from the HealthCare.gov website to insurance companies for fulfillment of purchases is down to about 10 percent, a spokesperson for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) said Friday. The website was so stodgy and error-prone when it was introduced on Oct. 1 that CMS has since overseen some 500 "fixes" on HealthCare.gov, and this past Sund...

December 5, 2013

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Audit Shows IRS Obamacare System Open to Fraud

The Treasury Department's Inspector General (IG) for Tax Administration warns that the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) needs to act quickly to put controls in place to prevent fraud by taxpayers seeking refundable tax credits under the Affordable Care Act (ACA). "Without adequate fraud mitigation controls, the IRS may be unable to identify ACA refund fraud or schemes prior to the ...

December 4, 2013

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HealthCare.gov Enrolls 29,000 in 48 Hours After 'Fix'

According to a report on CNBC.com, the revamped HealthCare.gov site enrolled 29,000 persons in the first two days of operations after announcing a round of fixes. This is in stark contrast to the 26,000 who enrolled during the entire rollout month of October, when the site was bug-ridden and unwieldy. "Data still being scrubbed, but looks like we will be 29,000 for enrollment in fede...

December 4, 2013

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5th Circuit Court Strikes Down NLRB's Arbitration Clause Ban

The U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals, which covers Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas, has struck down the ban against employment arbitration clause collective-action restraints by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). The January 2012 opinion by the NLRB ruled that employment arbitration clauses were unenforceable if they precluded employees from filing class or collective claims in ...

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Girish Anand

Recent Articles

Practical articles on HR, Safety, compliance, and people operations—written for real businesses, not legal textbooks.

U.S. Department of Labor Officially Restores Prior Overtime Exemption Rules

On May 14th, 2026, the Wage and Hour Division (WHD) of the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) announced it has officially rescinded the 2024 overtime exemption rules. Specifically, the WHD published a technical amendment to restore previous 2019 regulations that dictated overtime exemptions for...

NLRB General Counsel Takes Action to Tackle Current Case Backlog

On May 6th, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) and NLRB General Counsel Crystal Stowe Carey announced the bulk transfer of thousands of labor practice cases. Specifically, this action fulfills an initiative signed by the NLRB General Counsel earlier this year. Overall, the initiative...

Privacy Agency Invites Comments from Businesses on the CCPA’s Usage of Personal Data

Recently, the California Privacy Protection Agency (CPPA) issued a call for comments on the current state of personal data collection under the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA). Specifically, the invitation to deliver remarks was issued on April 20th, 2026. The information provided by the...

DOL Proposes New Joint Employer Rule To Unify Standards Under Federal Labor Laws

In April 2026, the U.S. Department of Labor issued a proposed rule to establish a single, clear standard for determining when joint-employer status applies under three major federal laws: the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), and the Migrant and Seasonal...

DOL Updates Enforcement Approach for Employee Benefit Plans: What Employers Should Know

The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) recently announced a significant change in its enforcement of employee benefit plan rules. The DOL will now focus more closely on serious violations that harm workers and retirees, meaning compliant employers may face less scrutiny under the updated approach.

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Articles by Girish Anand