Legal Solutions At Work

On December 8, 2020, the D.C. Council approved a budget that allowed for several important provisions of The Tipped Wage Workers Fairness Clarification Amendment Act of 2018 (the “Act”) to finally go into effect. It is important to note that these provisions are actually a collection of overlapping and at times confusing legislation spanning several… More

Only a few weeks into his new Administration, President Biden has already started to change the landscape for employers. Summaries of the most pertinent changes are below. • Pause to New Independent Contractor Classification Rule. The Administration froze the implementation of all regulations that had not yet taken effect, pending further internal review. This means… More

At the start of the year, the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals in Lemon v. Myers Bigel, affirmed the dismissal of a North Carolina lawsuit brought by an equity partner alleging gender and race discrimination on the part of her former law firm. The Court agreed that because the claimant was appropriately characterized as an… More

Guest Post: The Economic Aid to Hard-Hit Small Businesses, Nonprofits, and Venues Act, referred to as the Economic Aid Act, has earmarked $284.5 billon for a Second Draw of Paycheck Protection Program (“PPP”) loans. The new legislation for the PPP loans is similar to the First Draw with a few significant changes. Use of PPP funds Payroll… More

Guest post from T. J. Wilkinson the Shulman Rogers Tax Law Group: The CARES Act was amended at the end of 2020 to provide further tax benefits to taxpayers who received PPP loans. On January 6, the IRS released guidance consistent with that amendment, and obsoleted certain prior IRS guidance that disallowed certain tax benefits… More

We are trying something new! It’s a new year and a new administration, and we are all still grappling with the pandemic. 2021 will likely bring changes in Employment Laws on the federal, state and local level. We know that people sometimes hesitate to call us because they fear the legal bill. But sometimes it’s… More

Marc Elrich, Montgomery County Executive, recently signed into law a bill that significantly expands prohibitions on employers inquiring about an applicant’s criminal record (commonly known as “Ban-the-Box” laws). Montgomery County’s new Ban-the-Box law expands these prohibitions to all employers and expands the prohibition of inquiries into more types of criminal records. This Ban-the-Box law, which… More

Last week our world was spinning between COVID and events at the U.S. Capitol — and amidst all that mayhem — we made an inadvertent error in our January 6th ALERT. The corrected information is italicized below: Maryland: Effective January 1, 2021, Maryland’s statewide minimum wage increased from $11.00/hour to $11.75/hour for employers with 15… More

In mid-December, the D.C. Council passed what may perhaps be the broadest ban on non-compete provisions in employment agreements in the United States. If enacted by the Mayor, this ban would affect nearly every D.C. employer. The Ban on Non-Compete Agreements Amendment Act of 2020 (the “Act”) prohibits an employer from requiring or requesting “that… More

In acknowledgment of the increased number of employers now managing a workforce remotely, the U.S. Department of Labor recently issued guidance regarding the electronic posting of notices required by certain federal statutes. Specifically, alternative means for employers to satisfy the notice requirements of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), the Family and Medical Leave Act… More