Articles by Girish Anand

May 24, 2018

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EU Data Protection Regulation Takes Effect

BREAKING NEWS: The GDPR has forced some U.S. companies to shut down their websites, or to convert them to plain text versions. Tronc, which owns the Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Times and other publications, has blocked EU access to its sites, fearing fines for non-compliance with the new regulation. Other sites have redone their privacy policies and/or placed easy opt-out features on their hom...

May 24, 2018

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5th Circuit Court Denies Appeal of Its Decision on the DOL Fiduciary Rule

The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which in March ruled the Department of Labor (DOL) had overstepped its authority in issuing its Fiduciary Rule, has now rebuffed a second appeal of that decision filed by the attorneys general of California, New York and Oregon. The three-judge panel hearing the appeal also refused to refer the matter to a hearing by the full court, a process known as en b...

May 23, 2018

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DOL Announces Theme for National Disability Employment Awareness Month

In keeping with the agency’s commitment to ensuring an American workforce for Americans of all abilities, the Department of Labor (DOL) today announced this year’s official National Disability Employment Awareness Month (NDEAM) theme: “America’s Workforce: Empowering All.” Labor Secretary Acosta[/caption] “President Trump’s adm...

May 23, 2018

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A Look at Trump's Deregulatory Success Rate

Early in his administration, President Trump issued an executive order mandating that, for every new regulation, two existing regulations had to be eliminated. How is that mandate succeeding? The Competitive Enterprise Institute recently ran some calculations and determined that the actual ratio of deregulation to regulation stands at 5-to-1, not 2-1; in other words, the effort is exceeding ...

May 22, 2018

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Federal Court Rules Banning Salary History Inquiries Unconstitutional

A Philadelphia statute that bans employers from inquiring about applicants' salary histories is unconstitutional, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania has ruled. At the same time, it let stand that portion of the law that forbids employers from basing new hires' salaries on their wage history. Independe...

May 21, 2018

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SCOTUS Sides with Employers in the Use of Forced Arbitration Agreements

Voting along ideological lines, the Supreme Court today ruled 5-4 that employers can enforce signed binding arbitration agreements with their work forces, thus legally barring class action lawsuits. The ruling allows employers to require employees to sign not only binding arbitration agreements that include class action waivers, but also non-disclosure agreements. "The policy may be debat...

May 20, 2018

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HHS Disapproves Ohio's Request to Eliminate ACA Individual Mandate in State

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has rejected a waiver request from the Ohio Department of Insurance (ODI) to eliminate the Affordable Care Act (ACA) individual shared responsibility mandate in the state. As originally written, that provision of the ACA requires all Americans to have health insurance or pay a fine, but as part of the GOP's Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, the ...

May 16, 2018

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IRS Resumes Sending Out ACA Penalty Notices for 2015

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has begun issuing new Affordable Care Act (ACA) penalty notices for calendar year 2015. The notices are officially called Employer Shared Responsibility Payment (ESRP) notices, or what the IRS refers to as Letter 226-J. Under the ACA, Applicable Large Employers (ALEs), generally those companies with 50 or more full-time employees (or their equivalence wi...

May 16, 2018

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CMS Opposes Medicaid Spending Caps

At a health care symposium this week, Seema Verma, administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), reaffirmed her agency's commitment to keeping Medicaid available to its recipients without any lifetime limits or caps. Her statement follows her earlier rejection of a request by Kansas to cap Medicaid services in the state. “We’ve indicated we would not approve lifetime...

May 15, 2018

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IRS Allows Provisional Relief for Small Business Health Insurance Tax Credit

The Internal Revenue Service has issued guidance that provides relief for certain small employers who wish to claim the Small Business Health Care Tax Credit for 2017 and later years but whose businesses reside in counties with no Obamacare small business health insurance available. The Small Business Health Care Tax Credit can benefit certain small employers who provide health coverage to ...

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About author

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