As I noted a while back, the inflation that the nation observed in 2023 was likely going to have a substantial impact on the state’s minimum wage. The law, which connects the state minimum wage to changes in the federal employment cost index (ECI), was originally passed in 2019 when inflation wasn’t of major concern ..read more

October is one of my favorite times of the year. (And no, not just because of the Pumpkin-flavored coffee/donuts/muffins at Dunkin, though that certainly helps). But for the last several years, our firm has been producing our Fall Webinar series. And this year is no exception. In our complimentary four-part webinar series (register here), we ..read more

Fall is typically the time that employers start to think about insurance renewals and keeping employee healthcare costs under control. I had a recent conversation with Kyle Anderson, Director of Business Development at Goodroot about it and asked if we could take some of that conversation online to hopefully share some insights into how companies ..read more

In past posts, I’ve talked about bereavement leaves and the passing of notable individuals, but one topic that I’ve not written about before is the death of a co-worker. That changes today, unfortunately. Last Wednesday, we lost one of our beloved co-workers, David Deresienski, who was Shipman & Goodwin’s Senior Director of Human Resources. Dave ..read more

This week, the Hartford Business Journal has a cover piece on the rise of remote work and the issues surrounding it. For some unknown reason, they decided to put a picture of me on the cover too. Obviously, they’re playing to their subscribers and not selling most of their papers at newsstands (note to my kids’ generation: You can still find newsstands at airports.) In any event, putting aside their editorial decision, the article discusses the post-pandemic world that we’re living in where remote work is an acceptable form of work to some. But as I am quoted in the article, the acceptance of ..read more

Long time readers of this blog know how geeky I can be when it comes to the annual report statistics released by the CHRO. Back in 2022, for example, I noted the continued decline in cases filed with the state agency that is responsible for investigating discrimination claims. (I also called myself a “stat nerd” when it came to the CHRO Annual Report.) But it turns out that I’m not the only one. Recently, a supervising accountant for the state put up a new dashboard analyzing the statistics. Now, as he told me via e-mail, he’s been a pro se litigant in two CHRO matters — in additon to holding ..read more

For those of you that haven’t read the 91-page primary decision last Tuesday from the Connecticut Supreme Court in Dur-A-Flex, Inc. v. Dy, there’s a lot to unpack from an enforcement of trade secret perspective, which goes a bit beyond the scope of this blog. But buried deep in the decision is an interesting holding regarding non-compete agreements between employers and employees. Several years into at-will employment, the employer in that case required the employee to sign a non-compete agreement. The employee argued that the non-compete agreement was unenforceable because it lacked consider ..read more

In a significant legal development, a Texas federal judge has issued a preliminary injunction against the Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) rule that bans noncompete agreements. This ruling is in response to a challenge by tax preparation company Ryan LLC and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. The court’s decision puts a temporary hold on the rule as applied to these Plaintiffs, which was set to take effect in September, pending a review of the FTC’s authority to enforce such a sweeping prohibition. While it is not yet a nationwide injunction, it’s clear that the rule itself is in jeopardy of being ..read more

It’s not often that we have to provide day-to-day updates on the status of the United States Department of Labor rule that raises salary thresholds for overtime exemptions, but here we are. My colleague, Sarah Westby, posted an update yesterday on a major case from Texas in which the state challenged the rule. Late last Friday, a federal court there issued an injunction preventing the rule from being applied to Texas state workers finding that the rule was likely unlawful. But the court declined to issue a broader injunction, letting the rule take effect July 1, 2024. You can read more about ..read more

With the state having just experienced the first heat wave this summer, employers are facing the heat to finish some of their preparations for new laws and regulations that are scheduled to take effect. Here are three areas to think about: Paid Sick Days – Governor Lamont recently signed legislation greatly expanding the state’s current paid sick days law. Currently, it applies in both the public and private sector to certain jobs. The bill that Governor Lamont approved, will apply this law to nearly every occupation (not just retail and service jobs) though seasonal employees and some tempo ..read more