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Year-End Review 2019

December 26, 2019

State and Federal legislative changes overview that took effect the last six months of 2019.
Alert

This year has brought many legislative changes. Here is a look at items that become effective in the first six months or 2020 as well as a review of those that became effective in the last six months of 2019.

Effective January 1, 2020 – June 30, 2020

Overtime Exemption Rule 

  • Increases “standard salary level” from $455 to $684 per week (equivalent to $35,568 per year for a full-year worker).
  • Increases the total annual compensation level for “highly compensated employees” (HCE) from $100,000 to $107,432 per year.
  • Permits employers to use nondiscretionary bonuses and incentive payments (including commissions) that are paid annually or more frequently to satisfy up to 10% of the standard salary level.
  • Revises special salary levels in US territories and in the motion picture industry.
  • Effective Date: January 1, 2020.
  • Click here for more information.
  • PEAK ID: PCTY-79029

Regular Rate of Pay Final Rule 

  •  The Department of Labor (DOL) announced the final Regular Rate rule under the FLSA. The rule clarifies what employee benefits may be excluded from the regular rate of pay.
  • Effective Date: January 15, 2020.
  • Click here for more information.
  • Please see PEAK for additional details.

California ABC Test 

  •  Employers with California workers must apply the ABC test to current independent contractors to determine if they are misclassified as an independent contractor instead of an employee.
  • All California employers regardless of size fall under the ABC test, except for doctors, real estate agents and hairdressers, who may retain independent contractor status.
  • The full bill text can be found here.
  • PEAK ID: PCTY-78532

California Sexual Harassment Training 

  • Employers now have until January 1, 2021 to provide sexual harassment prevention training under SB 1343.
  • Employers with five 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.
  • Covered employers who provided the requisite sexual harassment training and prevention to an employee in 2019 are not required to provide refresher training and education again for such employee until two years after the training was completed.
  • The full bill text can be found here.
  • PEAK ID: PCTY-78867

Federal 2020 Inflation adjustments to contribution limits 

  • Health Savings Account (HSA) Contribution Limits: the annual contribution limit for self-only HSA is $3,550 and the family contribution limit is $7,100. 
    • Click here for more information.
    • PEAK ID: PCTY-75094 
  • Flexible Spending Account (FSA) Limits: employees can contribute up to $2,750 to their health FSAs, up from the 2019 limit of $2,700. The increase also applies to limited-purpose FSAs.
  • Qualified Transportation Fringe Benefit Plan Limits: employees can contribute up to $270/month towards commuter and transit benefits and $270/month towards qualified parking benefits. This is a $5 increase for both types over 2019 amounts.
  • Qualified Small Employer Health Reimbursement Arrangement (QSEHRA): employers will be able to reimburse up to $5,250 for single coverage and $10,600 for family coverages under a QSEHRA. This is a $100 increase for single coverage and $150 increase for family coverage.
    • Click here for more information
    • PEAK ID: PCTY-80226

California Consumer Privacy Protection Act (CCPA) 

  • California’s landmark privacy law is effective January 1, 2019.
  • Enforcement by the California Attorney General is delayed six months after the final regulations are in place or by July 1, 2020 the latest.
  • The CCPA applies to for-profit businesses that collect and control California residents’ personal information, do business in California, and meet one of three requirements set forth in the law.
  • There are several new protections created, including: 
    • Right to access information: consumers will be able to know what information is collected about them, who has access to it, and what it’s being used for.
    • Right to deletion: consumers will be able to request that a company delete their personal information.
    • Right to opt out: consumers can tell collectors of information that they cannot sell that information.
  • Temporary exceptions apply to personal information that is used for employment purposes, so that many of the consumer rights do not apply in the first year to employee personal information collect by the employer and associated third party service providers. 
    • Under the temporary exception, employers are still required to provide CCPA notices to applicants, contractors and employees.
    • The temporary exception only applies to a business’s employment related data
  • Click here for more information.
  • Please see PEAK for additional resources.

California Lactation Accommodation 

  • Requires employers to provide a private, safe lactation room with a seat, electricity, and a surface, that is not a bathroom and is in proximity to the employee’s workstation.
  • Employers must also provide access to refrigeration or a cooler and running water near the workspace.
  • Effective Date: January 1, 2020.
  • Click here for more information.

Colorado Equal Pay & Salary History 

  • Changes the pay equity law to state that employers cannot discriminate in wages among employees based on sex, unless the employer can demonstrate a difference based on seniority, merit, location, experience, or other specified reasons
  • Effective Date: January 1, 2020.
  • Click here for more information.

Washington D.C. Paid Leave Act: Notice Requirements 

  • Employers are responsible for posting and maintaining a notice explaining employees’ right to paid leave benefits.
  • Effective Date: January 1, 2020
  • Click here for more information.

Illinois Artificial Intelligence Video Interview Act 

  • An employer that asks applicants to record video interviews and uses an artificial intelligence analysis of applicant-submitted videos must notify each applicant in writing before the interview and obtain consent.
  • Effective Date: January 1, 2020.
  • Click here for more information.

Illinois Sexual Harassment Training Requirements 

  • Beginning 1/1/2020 employers must train all employees. All employees must be trained by 12/31/2020.
  • Restaurant and Bar employers must provide additional industry specific training.
  • Click here for more information.
  • PEAK Article: PCTY-78009

Minneapolis Wage Theft Act 

  • Prohibits wage theft and enacts requirements for employers to issue pre-hire notifications to employees including the employee start date, sick and safe time rights, overtime policies, and applicable gratuity policies.
  • The act also prohibits retaliation against employees exercising their rights under these sections and creates new penalties for non-compliance.
  • Effective Date: January 1, 2020
  • Click here for more information.
  • PEAK Article: PCTY-78537

Duluth, MN Paid Sick Leave 

  • The ordinance applies to both full-time and part-time employees who perform work within the geographic boundaries of the city for more than 50%of their working time in a 12-month period
  • Employees are eligible to accrue one hour of paid sick or safe leave for every 50 hours worked.
  • The accrual maximum cap is 64 hours within a 12-month benefit period.
  • Up to 40 hours of PSST can be carried over into the new 12-month benefit year, so the accrual amount could be higher than 64 hours.
  • Employers can choose to front-load 40 hours of sick time annually.
  • Employers may enforce a 90-day probation period.
  • Effective Date: January 1, 2020.
  • Click here for more information.
  • PEAK Article: PCTY-80332

Nevada Applicant Marijuana Drug Testing 

  • Prohibits employers from refusing to hire applicants based on a positive screening test for marijuana and allows new employees to ask for a second test to rebut the results of the first test.
  • Effective Date: January 1, 2020.
  • Click here for more information.

Nevada Paid Leave 

  • Private employers with 50 or more employees will be required to provide paid sick leave benefits to their employees
  • Employees are eligible to accrue one hour of paid sick or safe leave for every 52 hours worked.
  • The accrual maximum cap is 40 hours within a 12-month benefit period.
  • Unused, accrued paid sick leave can be carried over to a new benefit year, so the annual cap may be twice the applicable annual cap.
  • Employers can choose to front-load 40 hours of sick time annually.
  • Employers may enforce a 90-day probation period.
  • Effective Date: January 1, 2020
  • Click here for more information.
  • PEAK Article: PCTY-76227

New Jersey Salary History Ban 

  • Prohibits employers from requesting applicants’ previous salary or wages and bans employers from requiring that a previous salary meet any minimum or maximum threshold.
  • Exempts voluntarily shared information, confirmation of salary history after an offer, positions where federal law requires such disclosure, and acquisition of salary history that is publicly available.
  • Effective Date: January 1, 2020.
  • Click here for more information.

New York Salary History Ban 

  • Prohibits employers from asking job applicants for wage or salary history, relying on past wages to determine whether to make an offer or refusing to interview or hire someone based on prior wages.
  • Effective Date: January 1, 2020.
  • Click here for more information.

New York Paid Family Leave 2020 Updates 

  • Farm laborers and other eligible employees can now have access to 10 weeks of job protected, paid time off to bond with a new child, care for a family member with a serious health condition, or assist loved ones when a family member is deployed abroad on active military service.
  • Employees taking Paid Family Leave will receive 60% of their average weekly wage, up to a cap of 60% of the current Statewide Average Weekly Wage of $1,401.17. The maximum weekly benefit for 2020 is $840.70.
  • The contribution is 0.270% of an employee’s gross wages each pay period. The maximum annual contribution is $196.72.
  • Effective Date: January 1, 2020
  • Click here for more information.
  • PEAK Article: PCTY- 79352

Oregon Pregnancy Accommodations 

  • Requires employers to provide reasonable accommodations to employees for issues related to pregnancy or childbirth, unless it would cause an undue burden.
  • Employers must also notify employees of these protections.
  • Creates employee remedies, including filing a complaint or bringing a civil action for relief.
  • Effective Date: January 1, 2020.
  • Click here for more information.

Philadelphia Fair Workweek Act 

  • Requires large retail, hospitality and food service establishments to: 
    • give existing employees the right of first refusal to work additional hours before hiring new employees;
    • post and provide advance written notice of work schedules;
    • provide predictability pay for any changes of the posted schedules; and
    • permit a rest period of nine hours between shifts.
  • Click here for more information.
  • PCTY Article: PCTY-68364

Pittsburgh, PA Paid Sick Leave  

  • Employees with earn one hour of paid sick leave for every 35 hours worked.
  • Employers with 15 or more employees are required to provide employees with paid sick leave.
  • Paid Sick Leave accrues on the first day of employment or the effective date but employers may enforce a 90 days probationary period before an employee can use paid leave.
  • Effective Date: March 15, 2020.
  • Click here for more information.

Virginia Paycheck Stub Requirements 

  • Amends law on pay stubs to require employers to provide – on each regular pay date – written statements (by a paystub or online system) that shows the employer’s name and address, number of hours worked in the pay period, pay rate, gross wages earned during the pay period, and any deductions and their purpose.
  • Effective Date: January 1, 2020.
  • Click here for more information.

Washington Sexual Harassment Training 

  • Requires hospitality, security, and property services contractor employers to provide preventive sexual harassment training and panic buttons to each employee, and to adopt a sexual harassment policy.
  • Effective Date: January 1, 2020 for employers with 60 or more employees.
  • Click here for more information.

Washington Paid Family Leave 

  • Benefits are will be available for employees to use.
  • Employees can take up to 12 weeks of paid family or medical leave for a qualifying reason.
  • Employees may take an additional two weeks of paid leave for a serious health condition related to pregnancy.
  • Effective Date: January 1, 2020.
  • Click here for more information.
  • PEAK Article: PCTY-64126

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.

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 TBD
  • 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 first and second quarter 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 deadline was extended to 01/31/2020.
  • Click here for more information.
  • PEAK Article ID: PCTY-73948

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.

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.

 

Date Posted: December 26, 2019