Check out our 2024 employment law checklist to refresh yourself on employment laws that your company should be compliant with along with some specific laws that recently became effective, including:

• Chicago Paid Leave and Paid Sick & Safe Leave: Effective July 1, 2024, after a 6-month delay in implementation, Chicago’s newest ordinance requiring all employers in the city of Chicago to provide up to 40 hours of paid leave and 40 hours of paid sick leave for employers working in the city is finally in effect.
• Chicago’s Minimum Wage Increase: Effective July 1, the City of Chicago’s One Fair Wage Ordinance increased minimum wage from $15.00 per hour to $16.20 per hour for employers with 4 or more workers.
• Cook County’s Minimum Wage Increase: Effective July 1, Cook County increased minimum wage from $14.00 per hour to $14.05 per hour.
• Illinois Freelance Worker Protection Act: Effective July 1, nearly anyone hired or retained as an independent contractor in Illinois for compensation of at least $500 will be required to have a written contract memorializing the agreement, must pay the worker within 30 days after completion of services or delivery of product, and will be entitled to the same protections against discrimination, harassment, or retaliatory behavior that employees are protected from.
• Colorado Job Application Fairness Act: Effective July 1, employers will be prohibited from seeking any information that could reveal an applicant’s age including but not limited to attendance and graduation dates from educational institutions. Employers should ensure that information sought does not inadvertently reveal information about an applicant’s age.
• California Workplace Violence Prevention Plan: Effective July 1, all California employers that have 10 or more employees are required to implement a workplace violence prevention plan that creates policies to identify workplace hazards, implement routine assessments of potential workplace violence, conduct employee trainings, and create reporting and investigation processes.
• New York Paid Lactation Breaks Updated: Effective June 19, New York requires that employees be provided at least 30 minutes of paid break time to express breast milk for their nursing child up to three years follow the birth of a child. The State Department of Labor provided additional guidance that says 20 minutes once every three hours was a reasonable amount of time for breaks.

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