Key Workplace Laws Taking Effect in 2025: A Comprehensive Guide
As we approach 2025, employers across the United States are preparing to navigate a wave of new workplace regulations. State legislatures and city councils have been particularly active this year, enacting laws that will significantly impact how organizations manage their workforce. From groundbreaking artificial intelligence privacy protections in California to expanded family leave benefits in Connecticut, the scope and complexity of these changes demand careful attention from HR professionals and legal teams alike.
This year’s legislative developments reflect broader societal shifts, with particular emphasis on workplace privacy, expanded employee protections, and the growing intersection of technology and employment law. Notable trends include increased regulation of AI in the workplace, enhanced pay transparency requirements, stronger whistleblower protections, and expanded definitions of protected characteristics under various state discrimination laws.
Our team has carefully analyzed these upcoming changes to help employers understand their new obligations and implement necessary policy updates. While this summary captures key developments across multiple jurisdictions, it focuses on major changes taking effect on or around January 1, 2025, and is not intended to serve as exhaustive legal guidance.
Alaska | Arizona | California |
Colorado | Connecticut | Delaware |
Illinois | Indiana | Kentucky |
Minnesota | Nebraska | New Hampshire |
New Jersey | New York | Oregon |
Pennsylvania | Rhode Island | Washington |
West Virginia |
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Bill / Ordinance Number | Main Topic of Legislation | Summary | Effective Date |
Workers’ Compensation | Amends the workers’ compensation law’s reemployment provisions to provide that the employee or employer may request an eligibility evaluation if an employee is unable to return to employment for 90 consecutive days as a result of injury. | 1/1/2025 |
Bill / Ordinance Number | Main Topic of Legislation | Summary | Effective Date |
Background Checks: Homecare Workers | Requires home health agencies to contact an applicant’s previous employers to obtain information or recommendations that may be relevant to a person’s fitness to work in a home health agency; requires employers to verify that a potential employee is not on the adult protective services registry. *The portion of the law addressing adult protective services registry verification takes effect on January 1, 2025. Other portions of the law are scheduled to take effect on March 31 and June 30, 2025. | 1/1/2025* |
Bill / Ordinance Number | Main Topic of Legislation | Summary | Effective Date |
Privacy and Data Security | Amends the definition of “personal information” under the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) to include various formats, including “artificial intelligence systems that are capable of outputting personal information.” | 1/1/2025 | |
Discrimination /CROWN Act | Defines “race” under the Unruh Civil Rights Act to include traits associated with race, including, but not limited to, hair texture and protective hairstyles. | 1/1/2025 | |
Privacy and Data Security | Amends the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) to require that a business which acquires the personal information, including HR data, of a consumer as part of a merger, acquisition, bankruptcy, or other transaction, comply with the opt-out directions that the consumer originally provided to the transferor company. | 1/1/2025 | |
Privacy and Data Security | Amends the CCPA to expand the definition of sensitive personal information and add “neural data” as a category of personal information. The CCPA applies to both employment-related and consumer personal information. | 1/1/2025 | |
Workers’ Compensation | Expands workers’ compensation poster and notice requirements to include attorney consultation provisions. | 1/1/2025 | |
Workplace Safety | Requires CalOSHA to enact regulations mandating employers carry Narcan in their first aid kits. While the law takes effect on January 1, regulations must be enacted by 2027. | 1/1/2025 | |
Paid Family ⁄ Medical Leave | Removes the provision that allows employers to require employees use two weeks of vacation prior to using paid family leave insurance benefits. | 1/1/2025 | |
Whistleblowing | The California Whistleblower Protection Act requires employers to prominently display a list of employees’ rights and responsibilities under the whistleblower laws, including the telephone number of the whistleblower hotline. The notice must be displayed in lettering larger than size 14-point type. This amendment requires the Labor Commissioner to develop a model list of employees’ rights and responsibilities, accessible on the Labor Commissioner’s internet website, which must be included in the employer’s posting. | 1/1/2025 | |
Sexual Harassment Training | Amends the Property Service Worker Protection Act by increasing the fees employers must pay for sexual violence and harassment prevention training. | 1/1/2025 | |
Employee Benefits | Adds additional requirements for an association of employers to offer a large group health care service plan contract to small group employer members. | 1/1/2025 | |
Domestic Violennce / Crime Victims Leave | Amends the FEHA to allow leave when an employee or an employee’s family member is a victim of an act of violence, and expands the reasons an employee can use paid sick leave for “safe” time purposes. Requires employers to provide reasonable accommodations for an employee, such as implementation of safety measures, when an employee or an employee’s family member is a victim of an act of violence. | 1/1/2025 | |
Whistleblower Protections | Expands whistleblower protections to reports of improper governmental activity undertaken by contractors providing services to local governments. | 1/1/2025 | |
Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Robotics | Makes a provision in an employment agreement unenforceable if the provision allows for the creation and use of a digital replica of the individual’s voice or likeness in place of work the individual would otherwise have performed in person. | 1/1/2025 | |
Workplace Safety | Allows local prosecutors to bring actions for certain labor code violations (live entertainment/concerts). | 1/1/2025 | |
Workplace Violence | Requires CalOSHA to adopt regulations requiring hospitals to implement a weapons detection screening policy. While the law takes effect on January 1, 2025, regulations must be enacted by 2027. | 1/1/2025 | |
Child Labor | Requires an employer that voluntarily participates in a social compliance audit related to child labor to post a clear and conspicuous link on its website to a report detailing the findings of its compliance with child labor laws. | 1/1/2025 | |
Discrimination: Immigration Status; Age | Voids any waiver that removes protections or rights for applicants or employees based on their immigration status. Allows the Department of Civil Rights to bring civil actions for violations of the federal Age Discrimination in Employment Act. | 1/1/2025 | |
Harassment | Makes four substantive changes to California Code of Civil Procedure section 527.8 to expand an employer’s ability to seek a restraining order on behalf of one of more employees who have been harassed. | 1/1/2025 | |
Paid Family ⁄ Medical Leave and Insurance | Allows employees to file a claim for State Disability Insurance (SDI) and Paid Family Leave (PFL) benefits up to 30 days in advance of the first compensable day for benefits. The amendment therefore allows workers to apply before anticipated leave rather than completing the process after they have begun leave. | 1/1/2025 | |
Job posting /Driver’s License | Amends the FEHA to prohibit employers from including a statement in a job advertisement, posting, application, or other material that an applicant must have a driver’s license unless the employer “reasonably” anticipates driving to be an essential job function that cannot be comparably performed by alternative means. | 1/1/2025 | |
Paid Sick Leave -Agricultural Employees | Amends the Healthy Workplace, Healthy Families Act to require paid sick days to be provided to agricultural employees to avoid smoke, heat, or flooding conditions created by a local or state emergency. | 1/1/2025 | |
Discrimination | Clarifies that protected characteristics under the FEHA includes any combination of the listed characteristics as well a perception that a person has one or more characteristics. | 1/1/2025 | |
Discrimination | Allows localities to enforce local employment discrimination laws when certain procedural requirements are met. | 1/1/2025 | |
Mandatory Employer-Sponsored Meetings | Creates the California Worker Freedom from Employer Intimidation Act to prohibit employers from requiring employees to attend meetings for the purpose of communicating the employer’s opinion about religious and political matters. | 1/1/2025 | |
Independent Contractors | Creates the Freelance Worker Protection Act to impose minimum requirements for freelance contracts, including requirement for contract payment within a specified timeframe. | 1/1/2025 | |
Discrimination | Amends the city antidiscrimination ordinance to prohibit employment discrimination based on family or relationship structure. | 1/1/2025 |
Bill / Ordinance Number | Main Topic of Legislation | Summary | Effective Date |
Child Labor | Increases penalties for violations of the Colorado Youth Employment Opportunity Act of 1971 and requires that the penalties be deposited into the wage theft enforcement fund. | 1/1/2025 |
Bill / Ordinance Number | Main Topic of Legislation | Summary | Effective Date |
Paid Sick Leave | Expands paid sick leave coverage and requires all private-sector employers with 25 or more employees give employees 40 hours of paid sick leave annually. The Act expands the definition of “family member” for whom employees can use the leave; prohibits employers from requiring documentation that the employee took paid sick leave for a qualifying reason; and requires written notice to employees of their paid sick leave rights. | 1/1/2025 | |
Income Tax | Instead of automatically deducting and withholding personal income tax for distributions from deferred compensation and retirement income plans, employers are only required to make these deductions if requested by the payee, or in the case of a lump sum distribution. | 1/1/2025 |
Bill / Ordinance Number | Main Topic of Legislation | Summary | Effective Date |
Change of Ownership | Creates the Service Worker Protection Act, which establishes employment protections for certain service employees during changes of ownership; sets requirements for notifying and retaining employees. | 12/29/2024 | |
Paid Family ⁄ Medical Leave Insurance | The Healthy Delaware Families Act, enacted in 2022, created a statewide paid family and medical leave insurance program funded through employer and employee contributions. Beginning January 1, 2025, employers participating in the state plan must remit employer and employee contributions to the state. | 1/1/2025 |
Bill / Ordinance Number | Main Topic of Legislation | Summary | Effective Date |
Discrimination and Harassment | Prohibits employment discrimination based on an individual’s family responsibilities. | 1/1/2025 | |
Pay Transparency | Requires employers with 15 or more employees to include the pay scale and benefits for a position in all job postings. | 1/1/2025 | |
Personnel Records | Specifies the categories of documents that every employee has a legal right to inspect and copy; provides that an employee can sue an employer if the state Department of Labor does not resolve their complaint under the law within 180 days. | 1/1/2025 | |
Discrimination | Amends the Illinois Human Rights Act to prohibit discrimination based on reproductive health decisions. | 1/1/2025 | |
Discrimination and Harassment | Amends the Illinois Human Rights Act to allow a court to award restitution to a person injured by a pattern or practice of discrimination; increases the civil penalty amounts for violations. | 1/1/2025 | |
Whistleblowing | Provides that an employer may not take retaliatory action against an employee who discloses or threatens to disclose information about an activity that they in good faith believe violates the law. | 1/1/2025 | |
Military/ Veterans Status Protections | Expands the definition of armed forces or uniformed services to include the U.S. Space Force for purposes of employment protections for military service members. | 1/1/2025 | |
Wage Statements | Amends the Illinois Wage Payment and Collection Act to require employers to maintain a copy of an employee’s pay stub for at least 3 years and provide employees with copies of their pay stubs upon request. | 1/1/2025 | |
Discrimination and Harassment | Changes the statute of limitations for filing a discrimination or harassment complaint under the Illinois Human Rights Act from 300 days to two years after the civil rights violation was allegedly committed. | 1/1/2025 | |
Child Labor | Increases restrictions on employment of minors under 16, including limitations on hours of work, and sets forth additional requirements for employers employing minors. Repeals prior law and replaces it with the Child Labor Law of 2024. | 1/1/2025 | |
Mandatory Employer-Sponsored Meetings | Provides that an employer or their agent may not discharge, discipline, or otherwise penalize an employee for declining to attend or participate in an employer-sponsored meeting that relates to religious or political matters, including “the decision to join or support any …labor organization.” | 1/1/2025 | |
Discrimination: Employment Eligibility Verification | Provides additional employment protections for individuals flagged by an employment eligibility verification system, including federal E-Verify, as having identification discrepancies. Prohibits an employer from imposing work authorization verification or re-verification requirements greater than those required by federal law and requires an employer to provide certain notices to employees. | 1/1/2025 |
Bill / Ordinance Number | Main Topic of Legislation | Summary | Effective Date |
Child Labor | Amends Indiana’s child labor laws to expand working hours for minors between 14 and 16 and removes working hour and time restrictions for minors between 16 and 18. | 1/1/2025 | |
Child Labor | Provides that a civil penalty may not be assessed for child labor shift schedule and shift length violations of ten minutes or less. | 1/1/2025 |
Bill / Ordinance Number | Main Topic of Legislation | Summary | Effective Date |
Cannabis Use/Drug Testing | Allows employers to establish policies and procedures to limit the use of cannabis in the workplace, including a drug testing policy, drug-free workplace policy, or zero-tolerance drug policy. | 1/1/2025 |
Bill / Ordinance Number | Main Topic of Legislation | Summary | Effective Date |
Pay Transparency | Requires employers with 30 or more total employees in Minnesota to include in all job postings a starting salary range, or if no range, a fixed pay rate. The range must include a minimum and a maximum amount based on the employer’s good-faith estimate of the opportunity for each position, and cannot be open-ended. Additionally, any posting must include a “description of all the benefits and other compensation, including but not limited to any health or retirement benefits” associated with the position. | 1/1/2025 | |
Wage and Hour | Creates a city wage theft ordinance that defines wage theft and actions and remedies for violations; requires an employer to provide employees with a wage notice at the start of employment and wage statements for each pay period. | 1/1/2025 |
Bill / Ordinance Number | Main Topic of Legislation | Summary | Effective Date |
Income Tax; Relocation Expense Credit | Revises income tax and employer withholding obligations for nonresident and remote employees. Provides employers with a credit of 50% of the relocation expenses paid for a qualifying employee, up to $5,000 per employee, per tax year. | 1/1/2025 |
Bill / Ordinance Number | Main Topic of Legislation | Summary | Effective Date |
Criminal Background Checks | Prohibits registered sex offenders from employment at businesses providing direct services to minors or direct supervision or oversight of minors. | 1/1/2025 | |
Weapons Restrictions | Prohibits employers that receive public funds from prohibiting employees from storing a firearm they legally possess in their personal vehicle while entering or exiting the employer’s property or in a locked vehicle parked on the employer’s property. Prohibits all employers from (1) requiring an employee to disclose whether they are storing a firearm or ammunition in their vehicle; or (2) searching an employee’s vehicle for a firearm or ammunition. Limits employer liability for economic loss, injury, or death involving a firearm or ammunition stored in compliance with the new law. | 1/1/2025 |
Bill / Ordinance Number | Main Topic of Legislation | Summary | Effective Date |
Privacy and Data Security | Creates the New Jersey Data Privacy Act; requires businesses to notify consumers about any information collected on them and allow consumers to view, correct, or request deletion of personal data. Notably, the new law does not apply in the employment context. | 1/15/2025 |
Bill / Ordinance Number | Main Topic of Legislation | Summary | Effective Date |
Paid Sick Leave | Requires New York employers provide up to 20 hours of paid leave for pregnant employees to attend prenatal medical appointments and procedures. | 1/1/2025 |
Bill / Ordinance Number | Main Topic of Legislation | Summary | Effective Date |
Labor Law | Creates rules and standards for warehouse employees’ quota requirements and requires employers provide each employee with written documentation summarizing the quota to which they are subject. Provides that current or former employees have a right to receive certain records upon request. | 1/1/2025 | |
Home HealthCare | Requires the Department of Human Services and the Oregon Health Authority to adopt rules for licensing agencies providing home care services regarding background checks, specialized training, and certain required documentation for direct support workers. | 1/1/2025 |
Bill / Ordinance Number | Main Topic of Legislation | Summary | Effective Date |
Noncompete Agreements: Health Care Employees | The Fair Contracting for Health Care Practitioners Act bans certain noncompete covenants, including patient nonsolicitation provisions, between an employer and health care practitioner if the covenant is for more than one year or the health care practitioner was “dismissed by the employer.” | 1/1/2025 | |
Workers’ Compensation | Amends the Workers’ Compensation Act to allow for direct deposit of workers’ compensation payments. | 12/29/2024 |
Bill / Ordinance Number | Main Topic of Legislation | Summary | Effective Date |
Rhode Island HB 7058; Rhode Island SB 2128 | Workplace Posters: Veterans | Requires employers with more than 50 employees to display a poster containing basic information on veterans’ benefits and services. | 1/1/2025 |
Paid Family ⁄ Medical Leave | Increase the number of weeks of available temporary caregiver paid leave from six weeks to seven weeks beginning January 1, 2025, and eight weeks beginning January 1, 2026. | 1/1/2025 |
Bill / Ordinance Number | Main Topic of Legislation | Summary | Effective Date |
Paid Sick Leave | Provides that paid sick leave may be used when an employee’s child’s school or place of care has been closed for health-related reasons or public emergency. Expands the definition of family member. | 1/1/2025 | |
App-Based Workers | Requires employers of 250 or more app-based workers worldwide to follow specified procedures and provide workers 14 days’ notice prior to deactivating an app-based worker from the company’s worker platform. | 1/1/2025 |
Bill / Ordinance Number | Main Topic of Legislation | Summary | Effective Date |
Unemployment | Freezes employer contributions to the state unemployment insurance fund at $9,500. Requires employers to report to the Labor Commissioner refusal of an offer of employment by an individual who is receiving unemployment benefits and a job referral from Workforce West Virginia. | 1/1/2025 |
As we conclude this overview of 2025’s employment law changes, it’s clear that employers face both challenges and opportunities in the year ahead. The diverse range of new regulations – from AI governance to expanded leave rights – reflects the evolving nature of today’s workplace. While these changes may seem daunting, they also present an opportunity to strengthen workplace policies and enhance employee relations.
Our dedicated team of US experts remains at the forefront of these legislative developments, continuously monitoring and analyzing new requirements across all jurisdictions. We’re committed to providing timely, practical guidance to help your organization navigate these changes successfully. Our experts are already prepared with detailed compliance strategies and policy updates to address these new requirements.
We wish all our clients a prosperous and compliant 2025. Remember that your success is our priority, and we stand ready to help you tackle whatever challenges the new year may bring. For specific guidance on how these changes affect your organization, please don’t hesitate to reach out to Foothold America!
Laurie Spicer
UK Based
Over 25 years experience doing business in North American, European, and Asian markets with a primary focus and specialism on the complexity of the US market.
Lamar Manning
UK Based
Experienced HR professional with over 11 years of experience in driving business growth. Possessing dual US and UK citizenship, Lamar has experience in US HR, payroll and recruitment, bringing a unique perspective and international expertise to his approach.
