2019 Mid-Year Review

This year has brought many legislative changes.  Here is a look at items with effective dates on or after July 1 and a review of items effective during the first half of the year follows.

Effective July 1, 2019 – December 31, 2019 

• Massachusetts Paid Family and Medical Leave
  • Covered Individuals include: a current employee of a Massachusetts employer; a self-employed individual who has elected coverage under the Act; a covered contract worker; and a former employee, assuming that the employee has not been separated from employment for more than 26 weeks at the start of the former employee’s family and medical leave. Financial eligibility test must be met, as well as other requirements to meet the definition of covered individual. 
  • Contribution Rate: the program will be paid for by a mandatory 0.75% payroll tax contribution, or an adjusted amount set annually by the Department, and submitted to the Family and Employment Security Trust Fund. The benefits of the program will replace a worker’s pay with a weekly benefit cap of $850 or a rate adjusted to equal 64% of the state average weekly wage (SAWW). Employees will be required to cover all of the family leave contribution and 40% of the medical leave contribution. Employers will cover at least 60% of the contribution to the medical leave trust fund.
  • Click here for more information.
  • Effective October 1, 2019
  • PEAK ID: PCTY-68653, PCTY-74628, and PCTY-74634

• District of Columbia Paid Family Leave
  • Any employer performing services in the District of Columbia, that also pays unemployment insurance taxes for its employees, will be required to pay paid family leave taxes. This also includes non-profit organizations and household employers that pay unemployment insurance tax, as well as self-employed individuals who have opted into the paid family leave program.
  • A covered employee is any worker of a covered employer who spends more than 50% of his or her work time for that employer working in the District of Columbia; or whose employment for the covered employer is based in the District and who regularly spends a substantial amount of his or her work time for that covered employer in the District and not more than 50% of his or her work time for that covered employer in another jurisdiction
  • Following the occurrence of a qualifying parental leave event, an eligible employee has up to 52 weeks to file a claim for paid leave benefits.  Following the occurrence of a qualifying family or medical leave event, an eligible employee has up to 90 days to file a claim for paid leave benefit.
  • Paid-leave benefits are calculated based on an eligible individual’s average weekly wage; the total wages in covered employment earned during the highest 4 out of 5 quarters (the base period) immediately preceding a qualifying event, divided by 52.
  • April 1, 2019 –  Employers begin recording worker wages; July 1, 2019 – first collection of PFL employer contributions begins
  • Click here for more information.
  • PEAK ID: PCTY-68758

• Seattle Domestic Work Ordinance
  • A domestic worker cannot be required to work more than five consecutive hours without a 30-minute uninterrupted meal break.
  • The meal period is unpaid unless the worker is required to remain on-call.
  • Domestic workers are allowed an uninterrupted paid rest break of not less than 10 minutes for each four consecutive hours worked.
  • Effective July 1, 2019
  • Click here for more information.

• Dallas, TX Paid Sick Leave
  • The ordinance covers all private employers, but more leave must be provided by employers that had more than 15 employees at any time during the preceding year.
  • Employees who perform at least 80 hours of work in a year in Dallas are covered, including those who perform work through a temporary employment agency.
  • Employees accrue at least one leave hour for every 30 hours worked within the cities geographic boundaries.
  • The accrual cap depends on employer size; for those 16 or more employees the cap is 64 hours in a 12-month benefit period and for those with fewer than 15 employees the cap is 48 hours in a 12-month period.
  • Effective August 1, 2019 for employers with more than 5 employees. Effective August 1, 2021 for employers that have fewer than 5 employees.
  • Click here for more information
  • PEAK Article ID: PCTY-75107

• San Antonio, TX Paid Sick Leave
  • The ordinance applies to all private employers.
  • Employees are eligible for paid sick leave if they perform at least 80 hours of work for pay within the cities geographic boundaries are covered, including those performing work through the services of a temporary agency.
  • Employees must accrue at least one hour for every 30 hours worked within the geographic boundaries of San Antonio.
  • For those employers with 16 or more employees, the accrual cap is 64 hours within a 12-month period.  For those employers with 15 or fewer employees, the accrual cap is 48 hours within a 12-month period.
  • Employers are allowed to frontload 64 or 48 hours at the beginning of a 12-month period and carryover need not apply.
  • Effective August 1, 2019 for employers with more than 5 employees; effective August 1, 2021 for employers with 5 or fewer employees.
  • Click here for more information.
  • PEAK Article ID: PCTY-75109

• Washington State Paid Family Leave
  • Requires employers to provide 12 weeks of paid time off for the birth/adoption of a child, or for the serious medical condition of the employee or the employee’s family members
  • Employees must work 820 hours or more in a qualifying period to be eligible for benefits.
  • The benefits are capped at $1,000 with a minimum of $100 and is a calculated percentage of the employee’s gross wages.
  • Beginning July 1, 2019 – employers will report and remit quarterly premiums. For 2019 only both Q1 and Q2 will be due by July 31, 2019.
  • Click here for more information.
  • PEAK ID: PCTY-64126, PCTY-72861, PCTY-68308, PCTY-68522, PCTY-68195, and PCTY-65885

• EEOC EEO-1 Component 2 Pay Data
  • EEOC expects to have web portal available by mid-July 2019 to begin collecting EEO-1 Component 2 Summary Pay Data for the 2017 and 2018 reporting periods. This comes after a D.C. Federal District Court vacated the Office of Management and Budget’s stay of the revised EEO-1 on March 4, 2019. The report will be due by September 30, 2019. The EEOC has not provided additional details regarding when filing will open or filing details.
  • Click here for more information
  • PEAK Article ID: PCTY-73948 

• California Sexual Harassment Training 
  • Employers with 5 or more employees must provide supervisors and non-supervisory employees with a total of 2 hours of sexual harassment prevention training. 
  • Part-time, temporary, and independent contractors count toward the 5 employee minimum. 
  • An employer who has provided this training and education to an employee after January 1, 2019, is not required to provide training and education by the January 1, 2020, deadline. Training must be repeated once every 2 years.
  • Effective prior to January 1, 2020
  • Click here for more information
  • PEAK ID: PCTY-64861 

• Colorado “Ban the Box” 
  • Colorado Governor passed HB 1025, effective September 1, 2019 employers with 11 or more employees will be prohibited from stating in any advertisement or on any job application that a person with a criminal history may not apply.
  • An employer may not inquire into or require disclosure of a job applicants’ criminal history on an initial application form.
  • Inquiries may be made later in the hiring process, and employers may still obtain a job applicant’s publicly available criminal background report at any time.
  • The law will go into effect for all Colorado employers on September 1, 2021.
  • Click here for more information.

• Delaware Sexual Harassment Training
  • Under HB 360 Employers with 50 or more employees, employers are required to provide interactive training on sexual harassment prevention for all existing employees, and additional training to supervisors about their responsibilities and the retaliation prohibitions. 
  • The training must be provided to all new employees and supervisors within one year of commencement of their position.
  • Effective January 1, 2019
  • Click here for more information.

• Maine Salary History Ban 
  • Under LD 278 Maine employers are prohibited from asking an applicant about their compensation history until after the employer has extended a job offer including compensation terms. 
  • An employer may confirm a candidates compensation history if they voluntarily disclose it.
  • Effective September 17, 2019

• Washington Salary History Ban 
  • Washington Employers are not permitted to request applicant wage or salary history for their current or former employers. 
  • Employers may not require that an applicant’s prior wages or salary meet certain criteria. 
  • At the request of an applicant, the employer is required to provide the wage scale or salary range for the position the applicant is applying. 
  • Effective July 28, 2019
  • Click here for more information.

• Minnesota Paycheck Stub Updates
  • Minnesota recently passed the Wage Theft Act that now requires additional specific items to be on the paycheck stub, which are listed below.

• Rates of pay and the basis of the employee’s pay, “including whether the employee is paid by hour, shift, day, week, salary, piece, commission, or other method”
• Any allowances paid for meals or lodging
• The physical address of the employer’s main office or principal place of business, and a mailing address if different.
• The employers telephone number
  • The effective date is July 1, 2019.
  • Click here for more information.

Effective January 1, 2019

• Federal 2019 Inflation adjustments to contribution limits
  • Health Savings Account (HSA) Contribution Limits: the annual contribution limit for self-only HSA is $3,500 and the Family contribution limit is $7,000.
  • Click here for more information.
  • Flexible Spending Account (FSA) Limits: employees can contribute up to $2,700 to their health FSAs, up from the 2018 limit of $2,650. The increase also applies to limited-purpose FSAs.
  • Qualified Transportation Fringe Benefit Plan Limits: employees can contribute up to $265/month towards commuter and transit benefits and $265/month towards qualified parking benefits. This is a $5 increase for both types over 2018 amounts.
  • Qualified Small Employer Health Reimbursement Arrangement (QSEHRA): employers will be able to reimburse up to $5,150 for single coverage and $10,450 for family coverages under a QSEHRA. This is a $100 increase for single coverage and $200 increase for family coverage.
  • Click here for more information
  • PEAK ID: PCTY-66806

• Delaware Sexual Harassment Training
  • Requires employers with 50 or more employees to provide sexual harassment training to new employees within one year of employment, to existing employees within one year of the effective date of the act, and every two years thereafter.
  • Click here for more information

• New York City Anti-Sexual Harassment Training
  • All employees, including short-term or part-time employees, as well as independent contractors, are subject to the training requirements if they work more than 80 hours in a calendar year and work for at least 90 days. Thus, if an employee has worked fewer than 90 days or 80 hours in a calendar year, they are not subject to the sexual harassment training requirements.
  • Employers may choose to develop their own training, as long as the training meets the minimum requirements of the Local Law 96, or they may choose to use the training that will be developed by The New York Human Rights Commission and The New York State Division of Human rights and the New York State Department of Labor.
  • Effective date of April 1, 2019.
  • Click here for more information
  • PEAK ID: PCTY-65149

• California Sexual Harassment Training Update
  • Requires employers with five or more employees to provide at least two hours of sexual harassment training to all supervisory employees and at least one hour of sexual harassment training to all nonsupervisory employees by January 1, 2020, and once every two years thereafter.
  • Click here for more information
  • PEAK ID: PCTY-64861

• Oregon Equal Pay law expanded
  • Prohibits employers from screening job applicants based on current or past compensation includes a prohibition on using any information about an applicant’s past compensation, regardless of how the information was obtained, to determine a job applicant’s suitability or eligibility for employment.
  • Expands upon the Equal Pay Law’s criteria for evaluating whether employees perform “work of comparable character” and thus should be paid the same absent the existence of one or more bona fide factors justifying any disparity
  • Click here for more information

• Duluth, MN Paid Sick Leave
  • Requires employers in Duluth with 5 or more employees to provide employees with one hour of earned sick and safe time for every 50 hours worked.
  • Employee can accrue one hour of earned sick and safe time for every 50 hours worked.
  • An employee can accrue up to 64 hours of earned sick and safe time per year. Employers will permit an employee to carry over up to 40 hours of earned but unused sick and safe time into the following year
  • Click here for more information

• Michigan Paid Sick and Safe Time
  • The Earned Sick Time Act requires all private employers with one or more employees to provide paid sick and safe leave.
  • This law may be subject to amendment during the ongoing legislative session.
  • Effective date  April 1, 2019 or hire date, whichever is later
  • Click here for more information
  • PEAK ID: PCTY-63996

• Westchester County, NY Paid Sick Leave
  • Requires covered employers to allow eligible employees to accrue one hour of earned paid sick time for every 30 hours worked up to 40 hours per year.
  • Effective April 10, 2019.
  • Click here for more information
  • PEAK ID: PCTY-66351

• California Lactation Accommodation Update
  • Amends lactation accommodation provisions to require employers to provide a location other than a bathroom to express milk
  • Click here for more information
  • PEAK ID: PCTY-64861

• California Salary History Update
  • Amends the statewide salary history ban, adding guidance about the questions an employer may ask during an interview and when employers must disclose pay scales for positions.
  • Click here for more information

• California Criminal History
  • Creates additional exemptions to the restriction on inquiring about an applicant’s prior arrest and detention record.
  • Click here for more information
  • PEAK ID: PCTY-64861

• Connecticut Salary History
  • Prohibits an employer from inquiring about an applicant’s salary history before an offer of employment, unless the applicant voluntarily discloses such information.
  • Click here for more information

• Hawaii Salary History and Wage Transparency
  • Prohibits employers from inquiring about an applicant’s salary history or relying on that information when determining what compensation to offer the applicant.
  • Click here for more information
  • PEAK ID: PCTY-61392

Thank you for choosing Paylocity as your Payroll Tax and HCM partner.

This information is provided as a courtesy, may change and is not intended as legal or tax guidance. Employers with questions or concerns outside the scope of a Payroll Service Provider are encouraged to seek the advice of a qualified CPA, Tax Attorney or Advisor.