USA

Impact date: Effective 6 January 2026 On 8 October 2025, the Mayor of Philadelphia signed amendments to the city’s Fair Criminal Record Screening Standards Ordinance (the Fair Chance law) into law.

Under the amendments, employers may consider misdemeanor convictions in their employment decisions if the crime occurred within the past four years, instead of the previous seven-year standard. Employers may still consider felony convictions occurring within the past seven years, but they are not permitted to consider an applicant’s or employee’s summary offenses.

Additionally, employers are also prohibited from considering expunged or sealed criminal convictions, even if those convictions appear on a criminal background check. The amendments clarify that criminal history inquiries, as restricted by the Fair Chance law, include an employer’s “inquiry” into an applicant’s criminal history using any search of public or government records or the internet, whether conducted by the employer or a third-party. Employers are still required to conduct an individualized assessment of six factors before rejecting an applicant or employee from a job based on criminal conviction history.

Lastly, the amendments impose new obligations on employers during the decision-making process, requiring that they provide a pre-decision notice of their intent to reject an applicant for a job opening due to their criminal history. The employer must notify the employee in writing of certain outlined conditions and appeal rights.

Impact date: 24 January 2026

The CROWN Act was enacted in November 2025 and amends the Pennsylvania Human Relations Act to prohibit employment discrimination on the basis of an employee’s “traits historically associated with the individual’s race, including hair texture and protective hairstyles.” The law also addresses potential discrimination regarding head coverings and hairstyles associated with an individual’s religious creed.

Employers may still maintain valid health and safety policies regarding these head coverings if the policies are adopted for non-discriminatory reasons, specifically tailored to a given activity, applied equally and is required for the health or safety of the employee. The law provides guidelines for implementing other workplace policies and health and safety rules that may have a bearing on hairstyles and textures provided they meet the protective factors outlined in the revised statute.

Impact date: 1 February 2026 Employers are required to deliver a standalone “Know Your Rights” notice to current employees on an annual basis and to new employees upon hire, using the Labor Commissioner’s template. The new law also requires employers to give all current employees the opportunity to designate an emergency contact by 30 March 2026 and to collect this information at hire thereafter.

The notice, required to have been distributed by 1 February 2026, must cover, among other topics:

• worker compensation benefits and contract information for the Division of Worker’s Compensation
• employee rights regarding immigration agency inspections and protections against unfair immigration-related practices
• employee rights to organize or engage in concerted activity
• a summary of constitutional rights when interacting with law enforcement at work
• any other material developments and enforcement agencies identified by the Labor Commissioner

Impact date: 22 February 2026 Amendments to the New York City earned Safe and Sick Time Act (ESSTA) expand employees’ rights and increase employers’ safe and sick time compliance obligations, but scale back employers’ obligations relating to temporary schedule changes.

The ESSTA currently requires employers to provide safe and sick time to employees working in New York City for statutorily defined reasons:

• employers with 100 or more employees must provide up to 56 hours of paid sick/safe leave each year
• employers with five to 99 employees or employers with four or fewer employees and a net income of $1,000,000 or more must provide up to 40 hours of paid sick/safe leave each year
• employers with four or fewer employees and a net income of less than $1,000,000 must provide up to 40 hours of unpaid sick/safe leave each year

This must be provided to employees immediately, and there is no waiting period for use.

Employers may impose a minimum usage increment of up to four hours per day and must separately track and report both paid and unpaid time balances to comply with ESSTA’s notice and recordkeeping requirements. The amendments also broaden the qualifying reasons for using safe and sick time under ESSTA to caregiving, pursuit of subsistence benefits or housing, and workplace violence and qualifying public disasters.

The amendments also formally incorporate the New York City Department of Consumer and Worker Protection’s rule aligning ESSTA with New York State’s paid prenatal leave requirements.

Impact date: Employees become eligible for benefits as of 1 May 2026 (subject to possible delays). Contributions to the Maine Paid Family and Medical Leave Program began on 1 January 2025. Employees are eligible for benefits as of 1 May 2026.

Employees who earn at least six times the State’s Average Weekly Wage (SAWW) during the base period are eligible to take up to 12 weeks of leave for the birth, adoption, or foster care placement of a new child; to care for their own or a family member’s serious health condition; organ donation; for specified purposes related to domestic violence, sexual assault, or stalking; or the death or serious health condition of certain family members on active military duty.

The Program applies to all employers. Employees can receive up to 100% of the SAWW, which is currently $1,198.84, funded by employer contributions, but employers can deduct up to 50% of the contribution from employee wages.

Impact date: 1 June 2026 Under the Neonatal Intensive Care Leave Act (NICLA), when the child of an employee is a patient in a neonatal intensive care unit, Illinois employers must provide:

• ten days of unpaid leave (employers with 16-49 employees)
• 20 days of unpaid leave (employers with 50+ employees)

Leave may be taken intermittently or consecutively, is in addition to FMLA leave and is tacked on at the end of FMLA leave. Employers may not require employees to substitute accrued paid leave prior to taking NICLA leave, and employees must be reinstated to their former position or a substantially equivalent position with no loss of benefits held or accrued prior to taking leave.

Employers may require “reasonable verification” of the child’s NICU stay but cannot request any confidential information protected by HIPAA or any other law.

Impact date: The Amended Act has delayed the effective date to 19 December 2026. New York’s Trapped at Work Act (“Act”) prohibits agreements entered into as a condition of employment, that require workers to repay money if they leave employment before a stated period of time. Under the Act, employers may not require, as a condition of employment, any “employment promissory note” or agreement that (i) requires payment to the employer if the worker leaves before a specified time, or (ii) labels repayment as reimbursement for employer-provided training.

The Act defines the term “employer” broadly to include subsidiaries and any entity that provides training to workers. Additionally, the term “worker” includes employees, independent contractors, interns and externs, volunteers, apprentices, and sole proprietors providing services. The term does not include individuals “whose sole relationship with the employer is as a vendor of goods.”

On 13 February 2026, amendments to the Act were signed into law, providing for a delayed effective date, exception for common compensation arrangements, a standalone exception for tuition repayments, a narrower definition of covered workers as “employees”, and still no private right of actions for employees to sue employer for violation.

Impact date: 30 June 2027 (Effective Date); 1 October 2027 (Notice Date)

In accordance with a new Bill (H.B. 1155), non-compete agreements in employment will be prohibited, even among high-wage earners. With limited exception, non-compete agreements will become void and unenforceable for all businesses and employees starting on 30 June 2027. The Bill broadens the definition of “noncompetition covenant” to encompass agreements with respect to performers, and an agreement that “threatens, demands, requires, or otherwise effectuates that an individual return, repay, or forfeit any right, benefit, or compensation, as a consequence of the individual engaging in a lawful profession, trade or business of any kind.” By 1 October 2027, employers will be required to provide written notice to current and former employees and independent contractors of unenforceability of any such provisions in existing employment agreements with them.

The Bill does not prohibit non-solicitation agreements but amends the law to require that these provisions be “narrowly construed” and provides insight as to who is a prospective client.

Impact date: 1 July 2027 Senate Bill (SB) 590 expands the eligibility of benefits under the state paid family leave program to include individuals who take time off to care for a seriously ill designated person. Starting on 1 July 2028, benefits under the state-paid family leave program will be available to employees caring for a designated person. SB 590 specifically codifies and defines a “designated person”, defining it to mean any individual related by blood or whose association with the employee is the equivalent of a family relationship.

When requesting family temporary disability insurance benefits to care for a designated person, the worker must both identify the individual and attest under penalty of perjury to the nature of the relationship, including either how the designated person is related by blood or how the worker’s association with the designated person is the equivalent of a family relationship.

Employers may still limit employees to one designated person per 12-month period, and paid family leave benefits remain limited to eight weeks with any 12-month period.

Impact date: 1 September 2027 Delaware signed House Bill (H.B.) 105 into law, which requires employers with 26 or more employees to include certain compensation and benefit information in job postings. The Bill requires covered employers who announce, post or make known a job opportunity to disclose the “hourly or salary compensation range and a general description of the benefits and other compensation.” The law defines the “hourly or salary compensation range” as “the minimum to maximum pay range for the position, set in good faith by reference to any applicable pay scale, previously determined range for the position, the actual range of others currently holding equivalent positions, or the budgeted amount for the position, as applicable.”

The disclosure requirement applies to both internal and external job postings. If a posting for the job opportunity has not been made available to an applicant, the employer must provide the required compensation and benefit information “prior to any offer or discussion of compensation and at any time at the applicant’s request.”

The law applies to employers with 26 or more employees and covers jobs located in Delaware and non-international remote positions offered by Delaware-based employers. The law does not explicitly state whether the 26-employee minimum includes only employees located in Delaware or also those outside of Delaware.

Impact date: Employees may become eligible for benefits as of 3 January 2028

As of 1 January 2025, delays to contributions and benefits under the Maryland Paid Family and Medical Leave Insurance Program have been agreed. Contributions to the program will begin in January 2027 and benefits will be available beginning on 3 January 2028.

The Maryland Paid Family and Medical Leave Insurance Program applies to all employers with at least one employee. Employees who have worked at least 680 hours over the four most recent quarters are eligible for up to 12 weeks of leave for the birth, adoption, or foster care placement of a new child, or to care their own medical condition or that of a family member, as defined in the statute. An additional 12 weeks may be available to care for the employees own serious medical condition or that of a family member if the initial 12 weeks was for the birth, adoption, or foster care placement of a child. Employees can receive up to 90% of their salary with a maximum of $1,000 per week funded by employer and employee contributions.