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Effective June 25, 2020:  Employers with 15 or more employees in the city of Toledo, Ohio are prohibited from inquiring about or using an applicant’s salary history: to screen job applicants, in deciding whether to offer employment, or in determining salary, benefits, or other compensation during the hiring process. Employers are also prohibited from refusing to hire or otherwise retaliate against an applicant for failing to disclose his or her salary history. Additionally, upon request, employers must make the applicable pay scale available to applicants who have received conditional offers of employment. The law does not apply to applicants for internal transfers or promotions within a company, or to positions for which salary, benefits, or other compensation are governed by a collective bargaining agreement. For more information about the growing trend of salary history bans, please visit our  Hire Image  Resource Library. Originally Posted:-  h...

The Washington Supreme Court recently upheld Seattle’s “first come, first served” rental law requiring Seattle landlords to rent to the first qualified person to apply to a listing. In doing so, the Supreme Court overruled a lower trial court, which had struck it down as unconstitutional last year. The law, which is the first of its kind anywhere in the country, was originally adopted in 2016,  Hire Image  requiring landlords to publicize their criteria for prospective renters and then to accept the first qualified applicant. The concern being that if landlords are allowed to choose, biases may come into play, leading to outright discrimination or, at a minimum, implicit biases. Some Seattle landlords sued in 2017, claiming the law was unconstitutional.  Based on their argument, the law was a regulatory taking of private property and violated their due process and free speech rights. King County Superior Court Judge Suzanne Parisian had sided with the landlords i...

Hire Image  will host a free webinar:  Is Your Drug-Free Workplace Going Up in Smoke? Hire Image ’s CEO, Christine Cunneen and Sarah R. Skubas, Principal at Jackson Lewis P.C will discuss  safe workplace practices in order to protect employees, customers and property. There is also little doubt that a large contributing factor to a safe workplace is a drug-free work policy.  However, when marijuana is now legal (in some form) in over 50% of the states, how do they go about implementing one?  With each new law seems to come a new question for employers. What are my rights as an employer?  Am I allowed to drug test all of my candidates and current employees?  Do I need a new Drug-Free Work Policy?  Should I change my drug testing program?  The questions are endless.  To further complicate matters, recent court rulings, including those involving federal contractors, are interpreting the various laws with varied opinions. Get the ...

Effectively immediately:  An  Act to Protect Employee’s Credit Information  prohibits employers from refusing to hire, dismissing, or otherwise discriminating against an employee or applicant because of information contained in his or her credit report. Additionally, employers are prohibited from verifying or obtaining credit history information of an employee or applicant, unless it relates to the hiring of the following positions:  a managerial position, a position for which a credit report is required by law, a position that requires access to financial or personal information of other persons, a position that requires access to trade secrets, or a position that requires a fiduciary responsibility to the employer. Employers in Puerto Rico should review their hiring procedures and make any necessary revisions based on the new law.  If a credit report is allowed, based on one of the positions listed above, the employer should get written consent from the...

A former Amazon warehouse employee in New Jersey is suing the online retail giant after he tested positive in a random drug test for marijuana.  The marijuana was prescribed to him under the state’s medical marijuana program for an anxiety and panic disorder.  He disclosed this information to his employer after the positive test result and was asked to submit a request for accommodation at  Hire Image . He was then fired shortly thereafter for failing to notify the company that he was a medical marijuana user at the outset.  Despite Amazon’s policy to consider rehire after 120 days, the former employee found he was not eligible for rehire and is now bringing a lawsuit alleging disability discrimination. New Jersey recently amended its medical marijuana law at  Hire Image .  Under the amendment, employers are prohibited from taking any adverse employment action against a current or prospective employee based on that person’s status as a state-registe...

The legislative trend banning salary history questions is clearly not going anywhere. In fact, it is quite the opposite. At times, it seems nearly as if it’s an epidemic spreading throughout the country. Through the passage of various state and local laws, an employer’s ability to inquire about a job applicant’s salary history is diminishing at an increasing rate. The trend itself is not new, the pace; however, is.  Starting over three years ago, with Massachusetts and Philadelphia, salary history bans never impacted as many states as they did in 2019. Today, 14 states (and Puerto Rico) and 8 localities have passed salary history bans for private employers, with an astounding 50% of those passed in 2019 alone.  In addition to bans on private employers, 3 states and 10 localities have passed similar legislation for public employers. Some of the laws passed in 2019 are already in effect, including Alabama, Illinois, Maine, Kansas City (MO), Suffolk County (NY), and Wash...

Effective September 17, 2019, Maine employers are prohibited from asking about a prospective employee’s compensation history until after the employer has extended a job offer that includes compensation terms. The law also prohibits employers from making such inquiries to the candidate’s current or former employer.  However, employers may confirm a candidate’s compensation history if the candidate voluntarily discloses it.  Also, the law does not apply to an employer who “inquires about compensation history pursuant to any federal or state law that specifically requires the disclosure or verification of compensation history for employment purposes.” Between now and the effective date, employers should review their hiring policies and practices, as well as any employment applications used to ensure they are in compliance with the new law.For more information about the growing trend of salary history bans, please visit our  Hire Image  Resource Library. Origina...