By: John Vering

FTC Ban on Non-Compete Agreements

On April 23, 2024, the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) voted 3-2 to issue a Final Rule (“Rule”) that would generally ban employers from entering into non-competes with workers and require employers to notify workers that their existing non-compete agreements are unenforceable. We published a client alert explaining the Final Rule, which is scheduled to take effect September 4, 2024 (unless enjoined/stopped by a court).

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By: Katie A. Conklin and John A. Vering[1]

On April 29, 2024, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) published a long-anticipated update to its enforcement guidance on harassment in the workplace. The EEOC’s previous guidance had not been updated since 1999. The updated guidance reflects the legal and social changes of the past two decades and includes over 70 hypothetical examples of unlawful workplace harassment based on race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions; sexual orientation; and gender identity), national origin, disability, age, and genetic information.

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By: John Vering and Cody Weyhofen

Overtime Regulations

On April 30, 2024, we published a client alert advising you that on April 23, 2024, the U.S. Department of Labor (“DOL”) released its Final Rule, significantly raising the minimum salary thresholds for certain overtime exemptions (the so-called white collar exemptions [“WCE”] for executive, administrative, and professional employees) under the Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”). The minimum salary levels for an executive, administrative, or professional employee to be exempt from overtime is scheduled to increase effective July 1, 2024, from $684 per week (equivalent to $33,568 per year) to $844 per week (equivalent to $43,888 per year). For employees eligible for the highly compensated employee exemption, the increase effective July 1, 2024, is from $107,432 per year to $132,964 per year. The regulations also provide for a second increase effective January 1, 2025, which would increase the WCE threshold to $1,128 per week ($58,656 per year) and the threshold for highly compensated employees to $151,164 per year.

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By: Cody Weyhofen and John Vering

On April 23, 2024, the U.S. Department of Labor (“DOL”) released its Final Rule, significantly raising the minimum salary thresholds for certain overtime exemptions under the Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”). Importantly, the thresholds outlined in the Final Rule are higher than those initially proposed by the DOL in August 2023. As a result, millions of employees are set to become entitled to overtime compensation when the Final Rule takes effect.

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By: John Vering

On April 23, 2024, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) voted 3-2 to issue a Final Rule (“Rule”) – Non-Compete Clause Final Rule – that would generally ban employers from entering into non-competes with workers and require employers to notify workers that their existing non-compete agreements are unenforceable.  The majority of FTC commissioners concluded that non-compete agreements constitute an unfair method of competition, and, therefore violate Section 5 of the Federal Trade Commission Act. The Rule will take effect (unless enjoined by a court) 120 days after it is published in the Federal Register (likely during the week of April 29, 2024).

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By: Cody Weyhofen and John Vering

On Monday, April 15, 2024, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (“EEOC”) released its final rule (the “Final Rule”) interpreting the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act (“PWFA”). The Final Rule, published on April 19, 2024, is expected to take effect sixty (60) days later on June 18, 2024. Many of the provisions within the Final Rule mirror the proposed rule announced by the EEOC in August 2023; however, the Final Rule does contain important differences and additional interpretive guidance for employers.

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By: John Vering

The United States Supreme Court has issued a unanimous ruling in Muldrow v. City of St. Louis, 143 S.Ct.2686 (April 17, 2024) 22-193 Muldrow v. St. Louis (04-17-2024), which will make it easier for employees to bring discrimination lawsuits against their employers under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act. Title VII bars discrimination against employees and applicants on the basis of race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy, childbirth, and related conditions, sexual orientation, and gender identity), and national origin.

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By: Shannon Johnson

Last week, the U.S. Department of Labor (the “DOL”) announced a new rule, which will go into effect on March 11, 2024, establishing a six-factor analysis that businesses should use in order to properly classify independent contractors vs. employees.  To businesses with past experience utilizing contractors, this “new” rule will not appear new at all – rather, it rejects a more recent rule published in 2021 that made it easier for businesses to classify their workers as independent contractors, and largely reinstates the long-standing “economic realities test” that was developed through Court precedent over the course of decades.

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