Top Five Labor Law Developments For December 2024

The U.S. Department of the Treasury and IRS recently issued temporary regulations that provide an immediately effective framework for establishing and administering “Trump Accounts,” including broad automatic enrollment and large-scale contributions funded by governmental and charitable donors. The regulations became effective September 30, 2026, apply to taxable years beginning on or after January 1, 2026, and expire September 30, 2029.

Donald Dowling says abusive labor practices are a huge problem around the world, and often the smaller local manufacturers, miners and growers within countries that are committing labor...

Sexual harassment can present in various forms, but according to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the two most common forms of workplace sexual harassment...

In the intricate landscape of employment law, wrongful termination poses a significant challenge for employees who find themselves at the unfortunate intersection of job loss and potential injustice.

On Aug. 30, AB-1883 received final legislative approval and now heads to California Governor Gavin Newsom for signature or veto. If enacted, AB-1883 would prohibit employers from using workplace surveillance tools that rely on artificial intelligence (AI) to recognize, infer, or predict an employee’s emotional state, or to collect “neural data.”

On June 22, 2026, in Mobley v. Workday, Inc., U.S. District Judge Rita Lin largely denied Workday’s motion to dismiss the plaintiffs’ Third Amended Complaint, including rejecting the company’s argument that California’s anti-discrimination laws do not apply to its screening of applicants outside California who are applying for jobs in other states or countries.

Federal overtime exemption rules have shifted back to 2019 standards following court challenges to the Department of Labor's 2024 salary threshold increases. Understanding how these revised requirements affect executive, administrative, professional, and highly compensated employee classifications is critical for maintaining wage-hour compliance.

Maryland employers must comply with new posting requirements under the Worker Freedom Act, which prohibits penalizing employees who decline attendance at employer-sponsored meetings on religious or political matters. The Maryland Department of Labor has released official notices in English and Spanish that must be displayed prominently in workplaces and provided to new hires starting November 1, 2026.

As artificial intelligence races forward, California employment law sprints alongside. Two new employment-related AI bills have been signed into law imposing new requirements...

The first half of 2026 has seen major litigation developments in cases concerning the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA), including decisions by the U.S. Supreme Court and the U.S. Courts of Appeals for the Fourth, Fifth, Ninth, Eleventh, and D.C. Circuits.

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.

On Sept. 11, 2026, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) published a proposed rule that would eliminate the discretionary 60-day grace period currently available to many employment-based nonimmigrants following the termination of their employment.

The State Department is pausing immigrant visa interview appointments while consular officers receive updated public-charge training. The agency has not publicly announced the duration or precise scope of this pause.

USCIS is implementing a revised Form I-485 on September 18, 2026, with no grace period for transition, requiring immediate use of the new edition for all green card adjustment of status applications. The updated form incorporates significant changes related to the Public Charge Ground of Inadmissibility Final Rule, affecting documentation requirements and filing procedures. Employers and immigration sponsors must carefully navigate the hard cutoff date to avoid application rejections.

A qualifying Form I-864, Affidavit of Support, alone does not establish that an adjustment applicant is not inadmissible on public charge grounds.

Maryland employers must comply with new posting requirements under the Worker Freedom Act, which prohibits penalizing employees who decline attendance at employer-sponsored meetings on religious or political matters. The Maryland Department of Labor has released official notices in English and Spanish that must be displayed prominently in workplaces and provided to new hires starting November 1, 2026.

On January 1, 2026, Texas’s newest law addressing the growing issues of data privacy and the use of Artificial Intelligence went into effect. The Texas Responsible Artificial Intelligence Governance Act (TRAIGA) was passed by the 89th Texas Legislature and signed into law by Gov. Greg Abbott in 2025.

The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) updated its policy guidance on Jan. 15, 2025, to clarify how it will evaluate candidates' eligibility for second preference employment based...

A recent Inc. article highlights an unsettling controversy involving Delve, a Y Combinator-backed compliance startup, and allegations that strike at the heart of how organizations rely on SOC...

Every so often a law that was passed years ago quietly becomes a present-day compliance reality. Section 24220 of the 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act is one of those laws.