Deadline Ahead: Pay Data Reporting Obligations For Massachusetts Employers

New York employers face significant new compliance obligations as two recently signed bills create expansive personnel record access rights and construction industry pay requirements. With several additional employment law bills awaiting the governor's signature—many taking effect immediately upon enactment—organizations must prepare for sweeping changes to workplace documentation, severance practices, and AI impact reporting.

Pennsylvania's Department of Labor & Industry has launched a proactive enforcement initiative targeting home care agencies for wage and hour violations. With approximately 40% of state wage complaints coming from home care workers, agencies face increased scrutiny over unpaid overtime, travel time compensation, and recordkeeping practices that may not capture all compensable work activities.

Last week, the Department of Labor's Wage and Hour Division (WHD) issued Opinion Letter FLSA2026-11, addressing a question many employers with large or sprawling worksites have faced: does mandatory walk time to a designated break area turn an unpaid meal period into compensable work time? The short answer is no — so long as the remaining break time is still long enough for employees to eat a regular meal.

New Jersey Department of Labor regulations clarifying the ABC test for independent contractor classification take effect October 1, fundamentally shifting the burden of proof to employers. With the NJDOL expected to aggressively audit compliance and impose substantial penalties for misclassification, employers have just two weeks to assess their workforce relationships and develop strategies to meet the stricter standards.

The parties had spent plenty of time talking about the law, the facts, and the value of the claims. In the end, what mattered most to the employee was hearing someone acknowledge that the situation had been handled poorly.

New York State has enacted sweeping changes to employee personnel record requirements, mandating that employers provide free access to personnel files, notify employees of negative information within 10 days, and retain records for three years post-employment. These new obligations fundamentally reshape how New York employers must manage and maintain employee documentation.

The U.S. Department of Labor's Wage and Hour Division issued an opinion letter addressing whether meal periods remain noncompensable under the Fair Labor Standards Act when employees must spend part of that time walking to designated break areas. The opinion examines a detention facility's policy requiring 3-7 minutes of travel each way during 60-minute meal periods, and whether this travel time converts the entire break into compensable work time.

On September 9, 2026, Governor Kathy Hochul signed Senate Bill S3460 (A.2107), creating for the first time a statewide right for New York employees and former employees to access...

Directs the Department of War and Department of Veterans Affairs to establish continuous sharing of military personnel and medical records, deploy AI-enabled tools to streamline veterans...

On August 26, 2026, NLRB General Counsel Crystal S. Carey issued Memorandum GC 26-04, “Further Guidance Regarding General Counsel Priorities.” The memo is her second in as many months and reads like a punch list for reversing the Board’s Biden-era precedent. For employers, the headline is simple: nothing has changed yet, but a lot may be about to.

New York employers face significant new compliance obligations as two recently signed bills create expansive personnel record access rights and construction industry pay requirements. With several additional employment law bills awaiting the governor's signature—many taking effect immediately upon enactment—organizations must prepare for sweeping changes to workplace documentation, severance practices, and AI impact reporting.

A federal court’s injunction over the DHS fixed-period admission rule nationwide means the existing duration-of-status (D/S) framework for F-1 international students and J-1 exchange visitors will remain in place while litigation continues.

New Jersey employers must ensure their non-compete and non-solicitation agreements meet strict enforceability standards under the Solari/Whitmyer framework. Courts will only uphold restrictive covenants that protect legitimate business interests, impose no undue hardship on employees, and serve the public interest—making careful drafting and strategic deployment essential to avoid litigation vulnerabilities.

On September 2, 2026, Delaware’s Governor signed House Bill (HB) 380 and HB 381. HB 380 amends the Delaware Personal Data Privacy Act (DPDPA), which was enacted in 2023 and became effective January 1, 2025. HB 381 separately amends Delaware’s computer security breach notification law.

On June 4, 2026, Connecticut Governor Ned Lamont signed Public Act No. 26-73 (SB 472), “An Act Concerning the Electronic Surveillance of Employees,” which repeals and replaces Conn. Gen. Stat. § 31-48d. The law takes effect October 1, 2026, and significantly updates Connecticut’s longstanding requirements governing electronic monitoring of employees by employers.

Twenty-two multiemployer pension plans (MEPPs), representing more than 25,000 participants, have filed suit against the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, alleging that the agency improperly denied them access to billions of dollars in emergency retirement funding.

A family’s ordinary afternoon was shattered when an unknown number added multiple relatives, including a teenager, to a group chat and shared what appeared to be AI-generated explicit images of a family member...

A broad coalition of artificial intelligence developers, cybersecurity companies, financial institutions, technology providers, and other organizations has issued an open letter calling for a coordinated effort to strengthen cyber defenses.

In Verheggen v. Adams County Department of Human Services, the Colorado Court of Appeals held that a wage demand letter that discusses an employee’s wages may qualify as protected activity under both the Colorado Anti-Discrimination Act and Equal Pay for Equal Work Act.

As AI regulations proliferate across states like Colorado and Connecticut, employers face mounting challenges in maintaining consistent hiring practices while meeting diverse notice, transparency, and governance requirements. Jackson Lewis attorneys Eric Felsberg and Joe Lazzarotti examine how these evolving state laws are shifting from bias analysis to transparency mandates, creating complex compliance obligations for multi-state organizations.