United States: Employment and HR

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services has implemented significant changes to employment-based petition processes in 2025-2026, including mandatory electronic payments and updated Form I-129 requirements. These modifications have increased the risk of administrative errors, leading to petition rejections and delays for employers managing international workforces.

Executive employment agreements require careful attention to interconnected provisions that affect compensation, severance, tax treatment, and post-employment obligations. Understanding how bonus structures...

Hiring household employees like nannies, caregivers, and housekeepers creates formal employer obligations that many families overlook. This guide examines the legal, tax, and compliance requirements that apply when bringing domestic workers into your home, from work authorization and payroll taxes to state-specific employment protections and insurance coverage.

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has recently rescinded decades-old affirmative action guidance, announced a deregulatory agenda targeting employee selection procedures and demographic data collection, and released new strategic priorities through 2030. These changes shift the agency's focus toward intentional discrimination claims while altering the evidentiary landscape and enforcement priorities that have shaped workplace civil rights enforcement for decades.

Federal courts are increasingly scrutinizing whether sexual harassment claims are sufficiently plausible to trigger the Ending Forced Arbitration of Sexual Assault and Sexual Harassment Act's exemption from arbitration agreements. A recent California decision demonstrates that merely labeling workplace disputes as sexual harassment is insufficient to avoid arbitration when the alleged conduct fails to meet legal standards for severity or pervasiveness under state employment law.

The EEOC has withdrawn its controversial subpoena seeking private information about University of Pennsylvania employees affiliated with Jewish groups and programs, despite winning enforcement in district court. Legal experts suggest this strategic retreat may be designed to preserve favorable precedent about the agency's broad investigative authority while avoiding appellate review that could overturn the lower court's decision. Penn agreed not to challenge the district court opinion in exchange for the wi

Memorial Hermann Health System, a Texas nonprofit hospital system, has settled a suit under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) relating to 401(k) plan fees and fund choices.

As the SECURE 2.0 Act deadline for mandatory catch-up contributions for some plan participants looms, many retirement plan sponsors are beginning to amend their plan documents to meet its requirements.

Employers face strategic decisions about whether to adopt Trump Account Contribution Programs (TACPs) following new DOL guidance clarifying their ERISA status. This analysis examines how TACPs compare against existing family-friendly benefits like dependent care FSAs, 529 plans, HSAs, and student loan assistance, providing a framework for total rewards committees to evaluate demographic fit, competitive positioning, and budget trade-offs.

When an employer documents that an employee's National Guard obligations are the reason for demotion or termination, it creates overwhelming evidence of discrimination under federal law. This case reveals how the Department of Justice approaches USERRA enforcement against private employers and what triggers federal litigation. The consent decree imposed extensive compliance obligations that extended far beyond monetary damages, demonstrating the lasting consequences of explicitly linking adverse employment

Welcome to our July update, where we highlight some of the latest developments in employment law. In this edition, we consider two recent cases. We also summarise recent and forthcoming changes in employment legislation...

A Pennsylvania federal judge allowed Dana Rivkind's sex and disability discrimination claims against Oracle America Inc. to proceed, while dismissing her hostile work environment, retaliation, and emotional distress claims. The case examines whether Oracle's actions following Rivkind's whistleblowing about a Metaverse project—including medical evaluations, isolation, and eventual termination—constituted unlawful discrimination based on sex and disability.