Employment Law in Motion
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New Hiring and Employment Records Laws Take Effect in Washington
During the 2025 legislative session, Washington State enacted several new measures that will significantly impact employer obligations related to hiring practices and personnel recordkeeping.
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Oregon Cannabis Employers No Longer Need to Comply with Measure 119 and Obtain Labor Peace Agreements
On May 20, 2025, the U.S. District Court for Oregon permanently prohibited Oregon state officials from enforcing Measure 119.
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Significant Changes for Alaska Employers, including Minimum Wage Increases and Mandatory Paid Sick Leave Programs, Begin July 1, 2025
In November 2024, Alaskan voters passed Ballot Measure 1. The law takes effect July 1, 2025, and has three main provisions: (1) increasing the minimum wage now and into the future (which also impacts exempt salary levels), (2) mandating paid sick leave for most employees, and (3) prohibiting mandatory employer-sponsored meetings on political or religious matters.
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Trials by Social Media and How Employers Can Respond
Social media has been extensively used, and abused, since its inception. For all the beneficial and valid uses of social media, there is a seemingly equal number of improper, illegal, and even criminal uses. Employers have been navigating social media’s use, or invasion, of the workplace since the dawn of social media, from employees using work time to scroll on Facebook to sexual harassment via Instagram. Add to these social media challenges a relatively new development: trial by social media.
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The Particularities of Trade Secret Identification
It is not uncommon for employers to discover that a departing employee has downloaded information before walking out the door. But the mere fact that an employee downloaded information does not necessarily mean the employee—or his or her new employer...
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Update on Jurisdictions Exceeding Washington State’s Minimum Wage in 2025: Burien and Everett
As we discussed in a previous blog post, the Washington State minimum wage increased to $16.66 per hour on January 1, 2025. This new state wage also impacts the salary levels for the white-collar exemptions from the minimum wage. In a separate blog post, we also discussed the minimum wages in multiple jurisdictions within Washington that exceed the Washington State minimum wage, and which also increase each year to account for inflation, including Bellingham, Renton, SeaTac, Seattle, Tukwila, and unincorporated King County. These updates continue as Burien voters recently approved a ballot measure to align Burien’s minimum wage ordinance with Tukwila’s ordinance, and Everett joined the jurisdictions increasing their minimum wage to exceed Washington State’s minimum wage.
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