Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island lawmakers were busy throughout 2024 enacting labor and employment-related legislation already impacting the workplace. Understanding these critical legal updates is essential for employers seeking to comply and ensure fair labor and employment practices in an evolving regulatory landscape. Below is a selection of these important laws, highlighting key elements of each new legislation.
CONNECTICUT
Public Act No. 24-8: An Act Expanding Paid Sick Days in the State
In May 2024, Governor Ned Lamont signed new legislation expanding Connecticut’s Paid Sick Leave Law in phases beginning in 2025. Currently, the law covers employers with 50 or more employees and applies only to non-exempt “service workers.” The new law expands coverage to virtually all private employers, removing the “service workers” limitation to essentially include all employees. Employers should note the following:
- For employers with 25 or more employees, the law takes effect January 1, 2025.
- For employers with 11 or more employees, the law takes effect January 1, 2026.
- For employers with at least one employee, the law takes effect January 1, 2027.
Under the new law, employees will accrue one hour of paid sick leave for every 30 hours worked, up to 40 hours in a year. Employees will be entitled to carry over 40 hours annually unless their employer frontloads the time. Employers will no longer be able to require notice or require an employee to find coverage. Additionally, the law enables employees to take time for certain reasons involving family members as defined by the law and is no longer limited to a spouse or child. The law also expands the reasons for leave and now includes the closure of the employer’s place of business or a family member’s school or place of care if a public official orders its closure due to a public health emergency. Further, Connecticut has added the following reason for leave, among other changes: the determination by a health authority, the employer, the employer of a family member, or a health care provider, that the employee, or their family member, poses a risk to the health of others due to exposure to a communicable illness. Employers that already provide paid leave under the same or better terms and conditions will be considered compliant with this law.
Public Act No. 24-5: An Act Concerning Changes to the Paid Family and Medical Leave Statutes
Effective on October 1, 2024, this law changed the Paid Family and Medical Leave Insurance (PFML) program. Now, covered employers making payments of any wages to employees are required to register with and submit reports to the PFML Authority (Authority). Further, the Family Violence Leave Law now allows leave for sexual assault victims for qualified reasons, such as relocation, participation in a civil or criminal proceeding related to or resulting from such sexual assault, etc. The law also requires health care providers to display an informational poster about the PFML program. In addition to the foregoing changes, the law amends provisions related to employer requirements, federally recognized tribes, concurrent payments, overpayments, penalties, and makes other minor and technical changes to the statutes.
MASSACHUSETTS
House Bill 4999: An Act Promoting Access to Midwifery Care and Out-of-Hospital Birth Options
Notably, this legislation, primarily focused on improving health services for pregnant women, contains a provision expanding the reasons employees can use Massachusetts Earned Sick Time. Effective November 21, 2024, employees may use accrued and available sick time to “address the employee’s own physical and mental health needs, and those of their spouse, if the employee or the employee’s spouse experiences pregnancy loss or a failed assisted reproduction, adoption or surrogacy.”
House Bill 4976: An Act Honoring, Empowering, and Recognizing our Servicemembers and Veterans
This law took effect on November 7, 2024, and requires covered employers to post a veterans’ benefits and services notice created by the Secretary of the Commonwealth and the Secretary of Labor and Workforce Development. The notice must be posted in a “conspicuous location in the workplace accessible to employees” and distributed to each employee at the start of employment and annually. Employers with more than 50 full-time employees are covered under this law.
House Bill 4890: The Frances Perkins Workplace Equity Act
Massachusetts has become the latest state to pass a pay transparency law. This law imposes two new obligations on covered employers:
- Salary range disclosure.
- Pay data reporting.
Effective July 31, 2025, employers with 25 or more employees in Massachusetts must include a “pay range” in all job postings, including those by a third party, such as a recruiter. Employers will also be required to:
- Disclose the pay range for an employee’s current role upon request;
- Disclose the pay range to employees being offered a promotion or transfer for the new position; and
- Disclose the pay range for a specific position to applicants upon request.
Notably, the Act defines a “pay range” as “the annual salary range or hourly wage range that the covered employer reasonably and in good faith expects to pay for such position at that time.” Further, the Act defines an offense under the law as “[one] or more job postings for positions made by the same employer during a 48-hour period.” Accordingly, employers who re-post job openings on several websites without the requisite pay range will not be fined for each posting so long as the postings appear within the same 48-hour window.
This Act also imposes a new pay data reporting obligation on employers with 100 or more Massachusetts employees subject to federal Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) report requirements. The Act requires covered employers to submit annual pay data reports categorized by race, ethnicity, sex, and job category to the Secretary of the Commonwealth; however, employers may submit the federal EEO-1 report to satisfy this requirement. The first report must be submitted no later than February 1, 2025.
RHODE ISLAND
Senate Bill 2671: An Act Relating to Courts and Civil Procedure—Procedure in Particular Actions—Arbitration
Effective June 29, 2024, this law revised the Rhode Island Arbitration Act in three significant ways. First, the law amended the Act to specifically state that parties have “the right to be represented by an attorney” and that this right cannot be waived. The revised portion of the law also provides that an arbitration agreement is null and void if it penalizes or discriminates against a party for retaining representation during the arbitration. Second, the law revised the Act to provide new consequences for parties receiving arbitration demands and failing to apply for a stay of arbitration within 20 days. As such, the receiving party will be deemed to have waived any objection “that a valid agreement was not made or has not been complied with and from asserting in court the bar of a limitation of time.”
Lastly, the revised Act now provides that if an employer is required to pay the fees and costs for arbitration (whether that be because of the arbitration agreement, applicable law, or an arbitration provider’s rules) and the employer fails to pay those fees and costs within 30 days of the due date, the employer will waive their right to compel arbitration. Consequently, the employee can compel arbitration or withdraw the claim and file an action in court. If the employee compels arbitration, the revised Act provides that the employer will be responsible for paying associated attorneys’ fees and costs. Furthermore, the revised Act permits the arbitrator to impose sanctions on the employer regardless of whether the employee compels arbitration. The sanctions can include monetary sanctions (such as attorneys’ fees and costs), evidence sanctions (an order prohibiting the employer from conducting discovery), and/or terminating sanctions (such as holding the employer in contempt).
House Bill 7171: An Act Relating to Labor and Labor Relations—Temporary Disability Insurance—Benefits
This law amended the Rhode Island Temporary Caregiver Insurance law to expand benefits for covered employees. Specifically, covered employees who were previously permitted to take six weeks of job-protected leave for a qualified reason (e.g., bonding with a newborn or recently placed adopted or foster child and caring for a family member with a serious health condition) during which they would receive partial wage replacement benefits can now take up to seven weeks each year, effective January 1, 2025. Additionally, the law provides for further expansion of the leave benefit as of January 1, 2026, when covered employees will be entitled to eight weeks of job-protected leave.
Senate Bill 2472: An Act Relating to Labor and Labor Relations—Workers’ Compensation—General Provisions
As of June 17, 2024, independent contractors in Rhode Island must file a written or electronic notice of designation every year “for each hiring entity that retains their services,” certifying that they are exempt from workers’ compensation coverage. This law also amended the state workers’ compensation law to clarify that if the Department of Labor and Training notifies an independent contractor that they failed to file a designation notice and provide such notice within 20 days, their designation as an independent contractor will lapse.
House Bill 7696: An Act Relating to Businesses and Professions—Nurses
As of June 17, 2024, Rhode Island prohibits employers from entering into any contract or agreement that creates or establishes a partnership, employment, or any other form of professional relationship with an advanced practice registered nurse (APRN) licensed to practice that restricts the APRN’s right to practice. Any agreement that includes such restrictions will be deemed void and unenforceable concerning that provision but will not void or render the remaining provisions of a contract or agreement unenforceable. Restrictions rendered void include, but are not limited to:
- The right to practice in any geographic area for any period of time after termination of the partnership or professional relationship;
- The right of an APRN to provide treatment, advise, consult with, or establish a professional relationship with any current patient of the employer; and
- The right of an APRN to solicit or seek to establish a professional relationship with any current patient of the employer.
The law provides an exception for covenants or agreements related to the purchase and sale of a practice, provided that the restriction is not more than five years.
House Bill 7532: An Act Relating to Labor and Labor Relations—Minimum Wages
Up until June 24, 2024, the effective date of this Act, domestic workers in Rhode Island were exempt from the Rhode Island Minimum Wage Act and the minimum wage and overtime provisions. This Act has eliminated that exemption. Employers will now be required to pay “any individual employed in domestic service or in or about a private home” the state minimum wage for all hours worked and time and a half for all overtime.
Senate Bill 2045: The Rhode Island Secure Choice Retirement Savings Program Act
This law has established the Rhode Island Secure Choice Retirement Savings Program, a payroll deposit program aimed at helping private sector employees who do not have access to employer-sponsored retirement plans. Private employers with five or more employees will be required to enroll, and enrollment will be free. Employees will be automatically enrolled and will determine their contribution amounts. The Office of the General Treasurer will administer the program.
Senate Bill 2128: An Act Relating to Labor and Labor Relations—Posting of Veterans Benefits and Services
Effective January 1, 2025, employers with 50 or more full-time employees are required to display a veterans’ benefits and services poster in the workplace. The poster must be displayed in “a conspicuous place accessible to employees.” The Department of Labor and Training will work with the Office of Veterans’ Services to create and distribute the poster.
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