Insights

October 07, 2025
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Category: Wage and Hour

DOL Issues Guidance on Joint Employment

A new DOL opinion letter concludes that a restaurant and a members’ club located inside the same hotel were joint employers under the Fair Labor Standards Act. DOL found that the following facts suggested joint employment: Facilities appearing operationally integrated, including physical proximity, common spaces, and common services; Shared ownership; Management teams that periodically supervised work for the other entity;...
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October 06, 2025
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Category: Agency Enforcement

DHS Proposes H-1B Rule That Favors Higher-Paid Workers In Lottery

The Department of Homeland Security proposed a rule September 24 that would replace the current random H-1B visa lottery with a weighted selection system that favors beneficiaries in higher-paying jobs. Under the proposed rule, when registering for the H-1B lottery, employers would need to provide the offered wage, the corresponding wage level, the job’s SOC code, and the work location....
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October 02, 2025
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Category: Agency Enforcement

E-Verify Suspended During Shutdown — What Employers Need To Know

As of October 1, the E-Verify system is temporarily unavailable because of the government shutdown. This means that for the duration of the shutdown employers will be unable to access their accounts or perform any E-Verify-related actions, including case creation, user management, or mismatch resolution. The Department of Homeland Security has suspended the three-day rule for creating E-Verify cases, but Form...
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October 01, 2025
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Category: Affirmative Action and DEI

CWC Urges OFCCP To Revisit Administrative Enforcement Regime

The Center for Workplace Compliance (CWC), our affiliated nonprofit membership association, has submitted two comment letters to the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs. CWC’s comments respond to OFCCP’s proposals to (1) rescind its regulations related to Executive Order 11246 and (2) transfer any remaining regulations needed to enforce the Vietnam Era Veterans’ Readjustment Assistance Act (VEVRAA) to 41 C.F.R. Part 60-300. CWC’s...
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October 01, 2025
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Category: Agency Enforcement

Partial Government Shutdown Closes Most Agencies Responsible For Workplace Regulation

Congress failed to pass annual appropriations or a stopgap measure, resulting in a federal government shutdown effective October 1, 2025. Most workplace enforcement agencies — including the Labor Department’s OFCCP, Wage and Hour Division, and DOL-VETS, along with the EEOC and NLRB — have suspended nearly all operations. Only limited essential functions continue, and agency staff are largely unavailable to...
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September 30, 2025
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Category: Agency Enforcement

Ashley Romanias Takes Over As OFCCP Director

The Trump Administration has quietly installed a new Director of the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs. While there is no official word yet from the Department of Labor, Ashley Romanias has taken the helm at OFCCP, a key appointment that does not require confirmation by the U.S. Senate. According to her LinkedIn profile, Ms. Romanias began working as a...
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September 29, 2025
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Category: Disability, Accommodations, and Leaves

Federal Agencies Can Let Employees Telework As A Religious Accommodation, DOJ Tells EEOC

The Department of Justice has specified factors for federal agencies to consider when deciding whether to allow federal employees to use situational telework as a religious accommodation. Private-sector employers could extrapolate from this policy. President Trump’s Return to In-Person Work directive instructed federal agency heads to order employees back to in-person work full-time but authorized them to grant necessary exemptions....
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September 25, 2025
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Category: Affirmative Action and DEI

CWC Urges OFCCP To Consider Alternatives To Section 503 Rulemaking

The Center for Workplace Compliance (CWC), our affiliated nonprofit membership association, has filed comments with the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs urging it to consider alternatives to its proposed revisions of nondiscrimination and affirmative action regulations under Section 503 of the Rehabilitation Act. OFCCP has proposed eliminating the requirement that contractors “invite applicants and employees to self-identify their disability...
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September 24, 2025
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Category: Immigration

H-1B Visa Costs Increased By $100,000 Per Petition

A new Presidential proclamation imposes a $100,000 fee on most new H-1B petitions for workers outside the United States. President Trump’s Restriction on Entry of Certain Nonimmigrant Workers was issued September 19. It took effect September 21, 2025, and will last for 12 months unless it is extended. The administration cites abuse of the H-1B program as the rationale. The...
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September 24, 2025
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Category: Wage and Hour

Court Decides When Remote Workday Begins

A remote worker’s workday does not begin when the worker turns on the computer, a federal judge ruled September 4 in Lott v. Recker Consulting. The workday starts when a remote worker opens and begins operating a program used as part of their principal work activities, and it ends when the employee closes out of the last such program, the judge...
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