August 2019 Employment Law and Regulations Update

Welcome back to the Reflexis Employment Law and Regulations Update! In this month’s article, we’ve included notable changes in United States regulations from August 2019 onward.

As I’ve mentioned, this list of new laws and regulations is not exhaustive, nor is it intended as legal advice. Reflexis strongly recommends you consult with your legal counsel regarding any substantive employment law and regulation changes that may affect your organization.

Effective August 1, 2019

Minnesota

Under new wage theft protection law, “wage theft” will be a felony if an employer, with an “intent to defraud,” fails to pay wages, salary, tips, earnings or commissions in accordance with federal, state or local law, gives an employee a receipt for wages that is greater than what was actually paid to the employee, requiring a rebate or refund from the employee out of wages owed to the employee, or making it appear that the employee was paid more wages than were actually paid to him/her.

Texas – Dallas

As yet unnumbered City Ordinance requires employers with more than 5 employees to provide earned paid sick leave to employees who work more 80 hours or more in the City of Dallas, TX, accrued at a rate of 1 hour for every 30 hours worked, with an annual cap of 64 hours (for employers with more than 15 employees), or 48 hours (for employers with 15 or fewer employees). Earned paid sick leave accrues from an employee’s first day of employment, but employers may prohibit use of earned paid sick leave until after 60 days of employment have been completed.

Effective August 2, 2019

Colorado

If an employer would like to have tip-sharing among its tipped employees, it must provide notice to customers that gratuities are shared by employees. The notice may be listed on a menu, table or receipt.

Effective August 10, 2019

Arkansas

An employer who fires an employee must pay all wages due by the next regular payday. If an employer fails to make payment within seven days of the next regular payday, then the employer will automatically owe the employee double the wages that are due.

Effective September 1, 2019

Texas

Employers permitted to pay wages to a payroll card account, after providing notice to the employee of: (a) the adoption of a payroll card account and (b) the fees associated with such an account, providing to the employee a form to allow the employee to opt out of the payroll card account method of payment, and obtaining from the employee information required by the payroll card account issuer.

Effective September 19, 2019

Maine

Employers are required to allow an employee time away from work to attend scheduled appointments at the Department of Veterans Affairs medical facilities.

Effective September 30, 2019

Massachusetts

Employers are required to allow an employee time away from work to attend scheduled appointments at the Department of Veterans Affairs medical facilities.

Effective October 1, 2019

Massachusetts

Employer’s must start collecting the contribution rate of 0.63% on the first $128,400 of an individual’s annual earnings. Regulations and additional clarification should be coming in March 2019.

Effective October 31, 2019

Washington

Employers are required to submit quarterly reports for purposes of Paid Family & Medical Leave for Q3 of 2019.

Effective November 1, 2019

Tennessee

Unclaimed wage reporting date changed from May 1, 2019.

Effective January 1, 2020

Massachusetts

Sunday and holiday premium pay rate decreases to 1.3 times the employee’s regular hourly rate of pay.

Minnesota – Duluth

Earned Sick and Safe Time Ordinance requires employers with 5 or more employees to provide earned paid sick leave, accrued at a rate of 1 hour for every 50 hours worked, with maximum annual accrual of 64 hours and maximum annual use of earned paid sick leave of 40 hours. Earned paid sick leave accrues from an employee’s first day of employment, but employers may prohibit use of earned paid sick leave until after 90 days of employment have been completed.

Nevada

An employer with 50 or more employee in Nevada is required to allow an employee to accrue at least 0.01923 hours of paid leave for each hour worked for any use. An employee may begin using the accrued time on the 90th calendar day of employment.

An employer may: (1) limit the use of the paid leave to 40 hours per benefit year; (2) limit the amount of paid leave that an employee may carry over to another benefit year to a maximum of 40 hours per benefit year; and (3) set a minimum increment that an employee may use the accrued leave at any one time, not to exceed 4 hours.

New York

Paid Family Leave benefits rate increases to 60% of the employee’s average weekly wage, up to the 60% of the NYS average weekly wage.

Philadelphia, PA

A retail, hospitality or food service business which employs 250 or more employees and has 30 or more locations worldwide regardless of where those employees perform work, including but not limited to chain establishments or franchises associated with a franchisor or network of franchises that employ more than 250 employees in aggregate must provide its employees with the following:

• At the time of hire, a written good faith estimate of the employee’s work schedule, including average no. of weekly work hours in a typical 90 day period, whether any on-call shifts are requires;
• On or before the commencement of employment, a written work schedule that runs through the last date of the currently posted schedule.
• Opportunity to make requests and changes to proposed work schedule at or before the commencement of employment.
• Posted notice of the employees’ work schedules, 10 days ahead of the first day of the applicable work schedule (increases to 14 days’ advance notice effective January 1, 2020).
• Posted notice of any changes to the work schedule as promptly as possible and prior to the change taking effect.
• Pay half-pay for any decrease in work hours resulting from a change made more than 24 hours after the deadline for providing notice of the work schedule; and one hour of pay for any increase or neutral change made more than 24 hours after the deadline for providing notice of the work schedule.
• 9 hours break between shifts, which the employee can voluntarily waive, in which case, the employees must be paid $40 for each shift for which the employee waives the rest period.
• Offer work shifts to existing employees, before offering to new employees or using a staffing agency.
• Post available shifts for existing employees for at least 72 hours.

Rhode Island

Paid sick leave total annual accrual increases to 40 hours per year, from 32 hours per year.

Virginia

Employers are required to provide a written statement, by a paystub or online accounting, that shows the name and address of the employer, the number of hours worked, the rate of pay, the gross amount earned by the employee and the amount and purpose of any deductions made.

Washington

Eligible employees must have access to paid family and medical leave benefits either through WA Paid Family & Medical Leave (or through an employer-funded program). Benefits include up to 12 weeks per year of leave if the employee:

• Welcomes a child into their family.
• Experiences a serious illness or injury.
• Needs to care for a seriously ill or injured relative.
• Needs time to prepare for a family member’s pre- and post- deployment activities, as well as time for childcare issues related to a family member’s military deployment.

If the employee faces multiple events in a year, then the employee may be eligible to receive up to 16 weeks of paid leave.  If the employee faces a serious health condition during pregnancy that results in incapacity, then the employee may be eligible to receive up to 18 weeks of paid leave.

Washington DC

Tipped employee payroll must be prepared by a third party payroll processer.

Effective January, 31, 2020

Washington

Employers are required to submit quarterly reports for purposes of Paid Family & Medical Leave for Q4 of 2019. (Future quarterly reporting deadlines will not be included in this summary.)

To learn more, stay tuned for me – Andrew Ngo, Senior Corporate Counsel – to give my next update in September! Visit www.reflexisinc.com for more information on how Reflexis can help you increase compliance rates and stay on top of new labor laws and regulations.