From recruiting and retention to company culture and the latest in HR tech, HR Brew delivers up-to-date industry news and tips to help HR pros stay nimble in today’s fast-changing business environment.

HR Brew

Sam Blum

hr-brew.com

Business people in suits signing contracts. 

Joe Biden's FTC wants to ban non-compete clauses 

Under the Biden administration, the FTC is dipping its toes into federal labor rules. 

The FTC wants to ban non-compete clauses, allowing roughly 30 million workers to make more money

A Starbucks cup is stuffed full of union voting ballots.

We spoke to a labor lawyer about the legal protections employees have when organizing.

High-profile union campaigns offer a learning opportunity for HR

Picket signs that read "Fed up" "Pay us more" "Higher wages now"  "forced overtime"

New research from Harvard Business School may help employers keep workers. 

The key to retaining low wage workers? Opportunity for growth, survey says

Employee working at his laptop with manager over shoulder

Labor

An illustration of a photo of HR Brew reporter Paige McGlauflin.

Paige McGlauflin

The Great Resignation may feel like a distant nightmare for many employers, who, in 2025, have regained leverage on the labor market. But as the country’s changing population increasingly creates labor shortages, that post-pandemic period may feel like the good old days.

Impending labor shortages stemming from demographic changes, 

, have been on employers’ radar. As 2025 US immigration policy shifts the makeup of the market, a challenge that might’ve felt like a future problem for HR pros is becoming a more imminent issue.

“The demographic challenges have been plaguing talent leaders for most of the time that I’ve been in this work, which has been my entire working lifetime,” Alison Lands, VP of the employer mobilization practice at Jobs For the Future, told HR Brew. “The labor market has only continued to get tighter, and the pain points have only continued to get more painful. So there’s never a better time to think about it than right now. Kicking the can down the road will make things more difficult.”

The US birth rate has been declining since 2007, when an average 2.12 babies were born to women of a childbearing age. In 2023, the fertility rate hit a new low, falling to 1.61 births, 

. Projections for 2025 from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) suggest the US fertility rate will remain around 1.6 births as women choose to continue delaying childbearing due to factors including higher costs of living, as well as greater access to education and career opportunities.

As a result, “we’re just simply not producing enough workers to replace the number of workers that are retiring. And that’s been a long-term trend. It hasn’t shown any signs of reversing,” said Lands. “And for a very long time, we’ve been able to sort of soften the effects of that, or mitigate some of them, because we’ve had a pretty steady or healthy amount of external in-migration.” According to the 

, foreign-born workers made up 19.2% of the US workforce in 2024, the highest share since the agency began tracking in 1996.

This changed when President Donald Trump—who 

 on promises of immigration restrictions and deportations—took office in January 2025. It’s unclear exactly how many immigrants have since been deported (the Department of Homeland Security claims to have deported 400,000 individuals, while 1.6 million “self-deported,” though some experts have 

 skepticism over those estimates). After nine months of his second administration, the immigrant population has shrunk for the first time since the 1960s, as border crossings reached 

, the administration imposed restrictions like its 

This will likely impact the US economy in the coming years, significantly. A brief published by the 

 assessed the potential economic impacts of the Trump administration’s immigration policies, based on high and low deportation scenarios. The low scenario assumed that 1.3 million migrants would be deported by 2028, reducing employment by 1.1%, and the GDP by 1.2%. The high scenario assumed as many as 8.3 million migrants could be deported, reducing employment by 6.5% and the GDP by 7.4%. Either scenario could exacerbate 

“Some of that external in-migration is reducing…it’s contracting from what it has been for the past couple of decades, and coupled with our declining replacement rate, it’s putting additional pressure on our labor market,” Lands said. “So structural labor shortages are now even being, I think, more acutely felt.”

Many employers are already exploring solutions to labor shortages. Some 

 believe, for example, that AI can help, while others feel its value may be overstated. “AI may be able to ameliorate some of it, but it’s not going to correct all of it,” Lands said.

 and to buy—more than one-fifth of senior leaders surveyed by EY said their organization has invested 

 in AI—and it doesn’t always achieve the intended results: 95% of generative AI expenditures have 

“This stuff is still really expensive,” said Svenja Gudell, Indeed’s chief economist. “Particularly for smaller firms, where money could still be a point of an obstacle when it comes to full adoption of some of these technologies.”

 of electricity and water is required to power AI, creating 

. And it may not even benefit many industries experiencing acute labor shortages. Consider healthcare, which has seen 

 amid the cooling labor market. While healthcare workers may use AI to assist with tasks such as note taking or diagnosing, their jobs are 

“We’re going to see some limitations that AI has on these sectors where either you need more physical presence, or it’s simply policy driven [where] it needs to really be perfect before we can do it,” said Gudell.

As labor shortages increase, employers could be challenged to find the talent they need. 

“Particularly with the onset of AI, on-the-job training and re-skilling will become even more important, especially if you’re in a world where you don’t have massive amounts of labor, just lying on the shelf free to hire,” said Gudell.

As attrition rates fall amid a cooling labor market, employers have a ripe opportunity to upskill and reskill their workforces. They just have to take the initiative, and so far, 

“I think there’s an appetite for workers who want to learn these skills. What we’re not seeing are employers who are making sufficiently large investments in upskilling and reskilling to prepare their workforce to have those human AI-collaboration and AI literacy skills that they’re going to need in order to get ahead of the AI curve,” said Lands. “If we wait until the technology is already here in order to train people on it, then we’re going to have some rough adaptation moments.”

Some employers are diversifying how they attract talent, including finding ways to bring foreign-born workers to the US, said Gudell. The share of US job postings 

 was 257% higher in May 2025 than in February 2020, according to Indeed data. (Though President Trump’s $100,000 fee for H-1B visas 

“They’re certainly flexing their creative muscle in order to attract other talent,” said Gudell.

Some companies may consider expanding operations internationally to attract talent. In fact, a 2024 

 found that one-third of midsize and large US companies planned to start hiring internationally in 2025. But this option may only be feasible for large employers, or those with the infrastructure to hire internationally, according to Lands.

“At the moment, I’m thinking there’s probably a disincentive to doing that unless you’re already a large multinational that has the apparatus in place,” she said.

 altogether. Employers can use this to their advantage, as long as they cater to the preferences of the generations in their workforce.

“Now we have as many as five generations all simultaneously, working alongside one another, and culturally, they’re pretty different from one another in their mores and attitudes towards work, how they work, and their ways of working,” said Lands. “Because of this, that’s introducing another demographic shift that companies have to adapt to in order to attract talent, in order to retain talent, in order to support teaming environments and get the most out of their people.”

Benefits—particularly financial, mental, and physical wellness benefits, Lands said—can 

 among their C-suite peers, finding ways to address labor shortages will be critical.

“I do think the demographic challenges aren’t going away. It’s kind of like climate change or any other big structural system. It’s in the process of flux. It has to calibrate itself,” said Lands. “Talent is one of the most important investments that a business will make, and 70% of business costs are related to labor, people and talent. So any progress you can make in this part of the business is going to yield a positive impact to the bottom line.”

Declining fertility and immigration rates are creating labor-shortage headaches for HR

But employers can explore solutions including AI, upskilling their existing workers, and catering to a multi-generational workforce.

US employers face labor-shortage headaches amid declining fertility rate, immigration crackdown

An illustration of reporter Courtney Vinopal's headshot.

Courtney Vinopal

 on Sept. 30 explaining how federal labor law applies to specific workplace situations. Among the letters was a document addressing the issue of tip-pooling, which allows tipped service workers to share their tips with one another in a “pool.”

In this opinion letter, the DOL stated that front-of-house oyster shuckers, despite not regularly receiving tips directly from customers, can be included in a tip pool.

Why some front-of-house workers count as tipped employees. 

The DOL issued its letter in response to a question from a seafood restaurant that asks its servers to contribute to a tip pool that includes colleagues who aren’t usually tipped directly by customers, including the oyster shuckers in question.

Federal law allows employers to pay tipped workers as little as $2.13 an hour provided they earn at least $7.25 an hour—the federal minimum—when tips are included. They receive a tip credit of up to $5.12 an hour for doing so.

Under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), employers may also require these workers to contribute to a tip pool provided included members are “limited to employees who customarily and regularly receive tips,” James R. Macy, acting administrator for the DOL, wrote in the letter.

The DOL determined the oyster shuckers in question would fall under that category given they often interact with customers. Such interactions may include “sharing and detailing oyster offerings to customers, making suggestions to customers regarding the oyster offerings, and fielding questions about the different options,” the DOL said. It compared the position to that of a sommelier who explains wines to customers and offers wine pairings—another profession the agency has determined is “a customarily and regularly tipped occupation.”

A dishwasher who shucks oysters and peels shrimp from time to time in the restaurant’s kitchen, however, wouldn’t fall under this category, as the worker “lacks sufficient interaction with the customers who leave tips, a portion of which are subsequently contributed to a tip pool,” Macy wrote.

HR teams can take this letter into consideration when considering which of their organization’s employees may be included in a tip pool.

While the document aligns with previous DOL guidance regarding tipped occupations, attorneys with law firm Littler Mendelson 

 regulations will differ when determining which employees are eligible for the “No Tax on Tips” credit 

 of occupations that will be eligible to claim this credit, the Treasury Department said dishwashers and cooks would qualify, even though such workers have not historically been considered tipped employees by the DOL.

It’s worth noting that a number of states require workers to pay a higher tipped minimum wage than the federal government, and some jurisdictions 

 the tipped minimum wage altogether. HR teams should comply with the most restrictive statutes in such cases.

Legislative Lowdown recurring feature illustration

DOL troubleshoots tip pools in recent opinion letter 

Front-of-house oyster shuckers can be included in tip pools because they regularly interact with customers, an official with the agency said.

Legislative lowdown: DOL addresses tip-pooling in first batch of opinion letters

When fast-food workers began walking off the job to demand a $15-an-hour minimum wage in 2012, McDonald’s was at the center of the fight. The fast-food chain resisted workers demanding higher pay for a number of years, though ultimately capitulated, saying it 

 policies to increase the minimum wage at the state or local level.

Given the chain’s previous opposition, it was somewhat surprising to see McDonald’s recently call on its restaurant-industry colleagues to pay their workers 

McDonald’s opposes low wages for restaurant workers. 

In early September, McDonald’s CEO Chris Kempczinski 

 against the tipped minimum wage, which allows establishments like restaurants and bars to pay their tipped workers as little as $2.13 an hour, as long as they earn the federal minimum of $7.25 when tips are included. This practice creates “an uneven playing field,” Kempczinski told CNBC.

The issue even led McDonald’s to pull out of the National Restaurant Association, the lobbying organization that opposes movements like Fight for $15.

McDonald’s, of course, has a dog in the fight, as it’s not able to take advantage of the tipped minimum wage. Meanwhile, competitors like Chili’s are able to save labor costs by paying their workers below the federal minimum, and in turn offer prices on par with McDonald’s, the Wall Street Journal 

How tipped wage policies are affecting HR. 

McDonald’s is the biggest fast-food chain to put its thumb on the scale with regards to the tipped minimum wage, but the debate has already prompted policy changes at the state and federal level—with implications for HR teams.

Both Democrats and Republicans embraced proposals to end taxes on tips during the 2024 presidential campaign, and a version of this policy ended up in the Republican tax bill that was 

. Starting next year, workers in certain jobs can deduct up to $25,000 from their tipped income each tax year. It’s unclear how widespread an effect the policy will have on tipped workers, as many don’t earn enough income to pay federal taxes, but it’s 

reporting requirements for employers (a draft version of a W-2 form for 2026 includes sections for businesses to report “qualified tips” and a code for a worker’s “tipped occupation”).

The “no tax on tips” proposal was a “red herring” to cater to low-wage workers, said Saru Jayaraman, president of the advocacy organization One Fair Wage. Nevertheless, “it at least elevated the question of, what are we going to do for this massive workforce that is the lowest paid workforce in America and is living on tips?” she said.

Several jurisdictions—including California, Washington state, Chicago, and DC—have already enacted laws to phase out the tipped minimum wage. Jayaraman expressed optimism that McDonald’s could spur more companies to speak out about paying workers a full minimum wage.

When asked about how paying a full minimum wage has impacted businesses, Jayaraman pointed to Denny’s. In 2021 its CFO admitted on 

 that raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour in California had been good for the chain’s bottom line.

Another factor HR teams may have to consider when looking to raise tipped workers’ wages is just 

 the practice of tipping has become in US establishments.

“I don’t see us getting away from a tipping culture. It seems to be continuing to build,” said Erica Brune, CEO and co-founder of Lever1, an HR outsourcing firm based in St. Louis. Brune said she hasn’t seen many of Lever1’s clients in the hospitality industry move to raise base pay and phase out tipping, but rather focus on how to offer a competitive salary when taking both hourly pay and tips into account.

She noted that when employers do decide to raise wages, it’s hard to walk back that decision.

“When you change a wage base, you can’t step it back,” she said.

McDonald’s puts its thumb on the scale regarding the minimum wage

McDonald’s recently came out against the tipped minimum wage, which allows competitors to cut into its profits. 

The call to end the tipped minimum wage is growing louder. Here’s what that means for HR.

There’s good news and bad news for anyone who felt like things were not as they appeared to be with the labor market.

The good news: You weren’t crazy. And the bad news: The labor market was performing 

 worse than initially reported by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).

Employers added 911,000 fewer jobs between April 2024 and March 2025 than previously reported, according to a 

The preliminary benchmark, accounting for around 76,000 fewer jobs a month on average, is the largest downward revision since 2002. By comparison, 

 downsized job growth by 818,000 (though it was later adjusted to 598,000), and a revision in March 2009 downsized growth by 902,000.

Despite being released in September 2025, the benchmark is unrelated to the latest employment situation data from the BLS, which found that employers added 

“The latest economic data—which are wholly unaffected by today’s preliminary revisions—suggest the labor market is weakening for all workers,” Elise Gould and Ben Zipperer, senior economists at the Economic Policy Institute, 

 via the nonprofit. “Job growth has been especially weak since May. Household survey rates also point to falling prime-age Black employment and higher unemployment for US-born workers.”

Leisure and hospitality saw the steepest downward revision of all major industries, adding 176,000 fewer jobs than originally reported. That was followed by professional and business services and retail trade, which saw declines of 158,000 and 126,200, respectively.

However, transportation and warehousing and utilities both had more job growth than initially reported, adding 6,600 and 3,700, respectively.

Each year, the BLS adjusts its employment numbers for a specific period, originally taken from its monthly establishment survey, using estimates from state unemployment insurance tax records as its benchmark. These records are less timely, but more comprehensive than the BLS’s survey, which has in recent years 

 to get robust response rates. The BLS is expected to release its full revision early next year.

One reason for the discrepancies between the monthly survey data and revisions may be how immigration is factored into each report, Ron Hetrick, principal economist at Lightcast, 

. State unemployment insurance records only include workers who are eligible for unemployment, not undocumented workers who are on employers’ payrolls and pay taxes but ineligible for unemployment benefits. Meanwhile, the monthly survey data does not ask about immigration status. And, as the Trump administration began revoking the legal statuses of thousands of immigrants, they were removed from payroll counts.

“There were more people working on payrolls and that is what the survey is measuring. Now they aren’t,” Hetrick wrote. “These people drove growth and were initially counted, and now they are leaving payrolls.”

 Tuesday’s revisions come as the Trump administration has 

 to the agency’s data and practices. President Trump’s nominee to lead the BLS has advocated for releasing the jobs report on a quarterly basis to ensure what he claimed is greater accuracy. But economists reacting to Tuesday’s benchmark data noted that despite its flaws, it’s better to take the monthly report for important talent-related decision making than have to wait months to get that data.

“If I had to choose between less accurate information today to guide a decision, versus more accurate data four months from now—after the decision is made—I’d always choose the former,” Kory Kantenga, head of economics for the Americas at LinkedIn, 

An illustration of a businessman slipping down a downward trending line graph.

Employers added 910 fewer jobs than initially estimated, per BLS revision

Tuesday’s preliminary benchmark from the BLS marks the largest downward revision of employment data in recent history.

Employers added 910,000 fewer jobs than the BLS originally estimated

The Bureau of Labor Statistics’ August 

 was, well, not good. Employers made few job gains, while the unemployment rate rose to its highest level in years. As the labor market slowed further this summer, experts have again sounded the alarm about an economic downturn. Let’s take a closer look.

Employers added just 22,000 jobs in August, well below 

 of 75,000. Meanwhile, June job gains were revised down by 13,000, and July job gains were revised up to 79,000. The unemployment rate increased to 4.3%, the highest seen since October 2021.

 that a recession may be imminent, while Mark Zandi, an economist at Moody’s, 

 that the labor market is already in one, and has been since June, Business Insider reported. While one month of data is not enough evidence of a recession, the unemployment rate rising while job gains are slowing is a concerning early sign, said Glassdoor’s chief economist, Daniel Zhao, noting if this trend continues in the coming months, it could trigger the Sahm rule (a recession indicator).

“A more substantial downturn is definitely something that businesses have to plan for,” Zhao said. “It’s not a guarantee, but especially with the increasing unemployment rate there are more signs that the job market is weakening in an unhealthy manner.”

Amy Glaser, SVP of business operations at staffing firm Adecco, cautioned employers against letting the topline August numbers drive their talent decision-making.

“We’ll have to wait and see what comes out in September. At this point, I’m still optimistic the labor market is going to remain resilient and strong,” she said. “We’ve called 2025 the year of durability in terms of the labor market. Unemployment changed very minimally, so there’s still opportunity out there for millions of Americans on a daily basis.”

Healthcare added around 31,000 jobs in August, the largest increase of any industry but also below the average monthly gains of 42,000 that the sector reported over the last year. The healthcare industry has made up the bulk of the labor market’s job gains in recent years, and now a moderation in healthcare hiring may not adequately make up for cooling in other sectors.

“There’s no guarantee that healthcare will continue to add jobs at the pace that we’ve seen in recent years. So even if healthcare is continuing to add jobs in the short to medium term, it might not be enough to outweigh the declines in jobs that we’re seeing across all other industries,” Zhao said.

Healthcare was followed by social assistance, which added more than 16,000 jobs, and accommodation and food services, which added over 13,000 jobs. Additionally, retail trade added 10,000 jobs, mostly driven by general merchandising.

Meanwhile, professional and business services reported a decline, with 17,000 fewer jobs added—the steepest of any industry. That sector was followed by durable goods manufacturing and the federal government, which added 19,000 and 15,000 fewer jobs, respectively.

Unfortunately for employers, it’s uncertain how the economy will play out over the next few months. The Federal Reserve is expected to meet and cut interest rates later this month. Lower interest rates could free up cash for businesses and allow them to pursue business investments that lead to hiring.

“Overall, I would say that rate cuts will be stimulative, but it’s not a guarantee that it will outweigh some of these other factors that aren’t related to rates at all,” Zhao said.

The other primary factor at play is tariffs. Despite being locked up in court challenges, many of President Donald Trump’s 

 went into effect in August, charging a 10% to 50% tax on imported goods, depending on the origin country. The impact of tariffs on consumers and businesses isn’t yet known, though sectors like retail and leisure and hospitality—both of which reported employment gains in August—will likely be negatively affected, according to Zhao.

In light of this uncertainty, Glaser said employers are focused on making multiple contingency plans.

“I think if Covid taught us anything as employers, it taught us the ability to be agile and to move quickly,” she said. “So employers are trying to get ahead of it, as we speak today.”

Weak August jobs data is bad news for employers

“A more substantial downturn is definitely something that businesses have to plan for,” an economist tells HR Brew.

Abysmal August jobs report puts recession fears back on employers’ radar

Following major shakeups at the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), September’s labor market data has many on their toes.

President Donald Trump fired BLS commissioner Erika McEntarfar on Aug. 1, following a 

 that estimated employers added only 73,000 jobs in July and revised job growth down by 258,000 in May and June.

“She will be replaced with someone much more competent and qualified. Important numbers like this must be fair and accurate, they can’t be manipulated for political purposes,” Trump 

 on his social media platform. There has been zero evidence of “rigged” data on her part.

McEntarfar’s removal raised concerns among experts including former BLS commissioners (appointed by both Democratic and Republic presidents), who warned it could 

 Then, on Aug. 11, Trump nominated a replacement: E.J. Antoni, chief economist of the Heritage Foundation, the conservative think tank that published Project 2025.

 in front of the Senate HELP Committee this month, has been met with outcry from many economists, who’ve said he is 

 to lead the BLS and fear he would use the agency and its data to 

further the Trump administration’s political agenda

, rather than report objective statistics.

The outcry sends a worrying signal to HR and talent acquisition (TA) leaders, who use BLS data for everything from forecasting changes in labor supply and demand by location to tracking wage growth by industry.

“Bipartisan groups, including former BLS officials and commissioners, economists, watchdog orgs, condemned that firing as a literal threat to statistical independence… [that] is something that will make every chief people officer, every economist, every talent acquisition leader, raise their eyebrows quite a bit,” Matt Staney, VP of community at HIGHER Community, a professional group that counts more than 12,000 senior TA leaders among its members, told HR Brew.

At the time of McEntarfar’s firing, Lauren Winans, CEO and principal HR consultant at Next Level Benefits, assumed that the BLS commissioner must have done something “really egregious” to warrant her dismissal, until she looked at the revisions.

“But then when you dig into it, the updates and the revisions that were made to the data are pretty standard, because it’s statistical data, and because things are collected in somewhat of an antiquated way, and there are delays,” she said, adding later, “I thought the rush to judgment to immediately go after the commissioner was a little shortsighted, because then it creates this crack in the stability and the credibility of the agency itself.”

. But proposals from the Trump administration and Antoni to “improve the data”—by 

 for a quarterly, for example—could impact how HR leaders craft their hiring strategies, Winans said. Additionally, after significant methodological changes, it could take months before the data is trustworthy again.

“Certainly if they make a shift in methodology, I probably would give it at least a couple of cycles before I maybe trust the data, because when you switch that methodology, that does kind of create some significant change in the way the numbers look and how long it takes to kind of catch up with itself,” Winans said, noting she would continue to use the data as one of several indicators of economic health.

However, McEntarfar’s baseless firing over an upsetting jobs report has already sowed mistrust in future data among HR and TA leaders, said Staney. Employers were planning their hiring strategies on a quarterly basis, as crises from policies like tariffs worsened economic uncertainty. As the integrity of the jobs data creates more uncertainty, TA leaders’ planning will only become more short term.

“When TA leaders pitch workforce strategy to execs, they need to be able to point to independent and trusted sources, and we’re running out of those now, if these sources become political tools,” said Staney. “If he just implants a loyalist into the BLS to just paint whatever picture he wants, we’re going to be flying completely blind, and nobody’s going to trust anything, and companies are not going to hire in a healthy way, and our unemployment situation will worsen.”

President Donald Trump stands in the oval office, with large printouts of economic graphs stacked on the Resolute desk

BLS’s leadership shakeup sends worrying signal for employers

President Trump’s firing of the BLS commissioner, and subsequent outcry from experts, is a bad sign for HR leaders who rely on the data.

Why leadership changes at the BLS are worrying for employers

The Department of Labor (DOL) is expanding a series of programs that allow employers to report and correct workplace violations to avoid formal investigations or lawsuits.

The Biden administration had discontinued one such program, which focuses on payroll violations, over concerns it violated workers’ rights and disincentivized employers from following the law. That program will now be revived, giving employers the opportunity to resolve violations under both the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) and the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA).

Why the Trump administration is encouraging self-audits. 

The DOL highlighted six agencies under its direction that are launching, continuing, or expanding self-audit programs, including the Employee Benefits Security Administration, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), and the Wage and Hour Division (WHD).

 issued regarding the agency’s self-audit programs, Deputy Secretary of Labor Keith Sonderling said the programs were intended to give employers the tools “to correct potential violations proactively.” The practice of self-auditing, he added, is “one of the most effective ways to build a culture of compliance and trust.”

Payroll Audit Independent Determination (PAID)

 program, which launched in 2018, allows employers to identify potential minimum wage, overtime, and leave violations. If they report violations to the WHD and correct them by paying workers back wages, for example, they may avoid formal investigations or litigation, according to the DOL.

When the Biden administration discontinued the PAID program in January 2021, Wage and Hour Division Principal Deputy Administrator Jessica Looman cited concerns that the program barred workers from suing their employers over such violations. “The Payroll Audit Independent Determination program deprived workers of their rights and put employers that play by the rules at a disadvantage,” she said 

The revived PAID program allows employers to report and correct a broader range of violations, as it applies to both the FLSA and

the FMLA (the latter wasn’t previously covered).

Only employers without a history of FLSA or FMLA violations within the last three years may participate in the program, 

. They also can’t be subject to any investigations or lawsuits alleging violations of these laws, and must inform the WHD of any complaints they’ve received from workers regarding potential violations. Businesses participating in the PAID program must pay back wages owed to their workers within 15 days after receiving a summary of unpaid wages from the DOL, and also provide proof they have done so to avoid a formal investigation or litigation.

While this program provides an opportunity for HR teams to get ahead of potential payroll or leave violations at their workplaces, it’s important to note that it doesn’t supersede state or local laws. In states where the statute of limitations for wage claims is longer—such as New York or Massachussetts—businesses could open themselves up to lawsuits by disclosing violations to the federal government, Fisher Phillips attorneys 

This marks the latest move by the DOL to ostensibly encourage compliance while easing up on penalties for employers. In June, the agency announced it 

 its opinion letter program to guide employers on compliance, and in July the DOL said it would make it easier for small businesses 

 it will no longer seek liquidated damages in settlements concerning wage or overtime violations under the FLSA.