Changes to minimum wage, paid leave, and more take effect next month

School may be out for the summer, but employment law doesn’t take a vacation.

More than 55 compliance changes are set to kick in around July 1, according to tracking by compliance platform Brightmine.

Here are a few labor law updates to look out for come mid-year.

New minimum wages take effect. The minimum wage rate will go up in two states and Washington, DC come July 1.

In Alaska, the minimum wage will rise from $13 to $14 an hour, while in Oregon the standard minimum wage will increase from $15.05 to $15.55 an hour, with different rates in place for the Portland metro area and non-urban counties.

DC workers will be entitled to $18.40, up from $17.95 per hour.

Workers in more than 20 localities throughout the US—including Chicago, San Francisco, and Los Angeles—will also see minimum wage hikes as of July 1. And in California, a minimum wage rate that applies specifically to healthcare workers will increase, with new rates ranging from $19.28 to $25 an hour depending on the role.

These increases are announced well in advance of the effective date, and often go up according to the Consumer Price Index. Given the long lead on minimum wage, HR professionals should “budget for it ahead of time” if they have workers that will be affected, Kara Govro, principal legal analyst with Mineral, an HR and compliance services platform, said.

Additionally, if the effective date “falls in the middle of a payroll cycle and it’s going to be a pain to change someone’s pay mid-payroll cycle, then plan to do it a few days or a week early,” she said.

Pay transparency widens. Virginia and Maine will join the pay transparency movement when their laws take effect in July.

In Virginia, employers will be required to share a good faith salary range for every “job, promotion, transfer, or other employment opportunity” they post, either internally or externally.

The Virginia statute, which takes effect July 1, also prohibits employers from asking about a prospective employee’s salary history, or retaliating against any current or prospective employee who fails to provide it. Additionally, Virginia employers will be barred from considering salary history when determining a new employee’s pay, unless they voluntarily provided it.

Maine’s pay transparency law takes effect July 29. In addition to sharing pay ranges in job postings, Maine employers must also share the range for a current employee’s role if they ask for it once the law takes effect.

“These internal disclosure requirements are super interesting, and actually the ones to keep an eye on,” Govro said. Just a handful of other states require employers to share information about pay ranges with current employees. Such requirements challenge employers to create internal structures, systems, and pay ranges that are fair, defensible, and well reasoned, she said.

Employers should be particularly careful if their minimum wage goes up in a state that also requires pay transparency, Melissa Burdorf, senior content manager for policy solutions at Brightmine, said. If minimum wage is changed in a payroll system but not an external job posting, for example, “that could be a problem.”

Non-competes, paid leave, and everything in between. Employers may have to change how they approach paid leave or non-compete agreements, as well, depending on where their workers are located.

One state worth watching is New Jersey, where paid family and medical leave will extend to employers with 15 or more workers starting on July 17 (the current law applies to employers with 30 or more employees). Eligible employees will also be able to take New Jersey paid family leave sooner, after they’ve been with a company for three months, down from 12.

Paid leave is also expanding in Hawaii starting July 1, as eligible employees will be able to take it to support family members on active-duty military service.

Certain states are cracking down on non-compete agreements, as well, with laws that take effect mid-year. Starting July 1, Tennessee businesses can’t use non-competes when employing workers who make less than $70,000 a year. And in Virginia, a law that takes effect July 1 will bar employers from enforcing a non-compete against a worker who is fired without cause, unless they provide them severance or another form of monetary compensation.

Amid this quickly shifting legal landscape, it’s particularly important to communicate such changes with managers, Burdorf said.

“Always keep them in the loop of changes to policies, practices, et cetera,” Burdorf said. “They’re the closest touchpoint to your workforce, especially in a remote environment, or a hybrid environment.”