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Most US multinationals conduct regular pay equity audits, but for further insights into promoting equity and removing potential bias in compensation, companies are increasingly exploring adding performance ratings audits to the standard review cycle.

Performance ratings can often have a large impact on an employee’s rate of pay and/or bonus compensation. However, for many companies, performance ratings are discretionary, given by managers without specific guidelines or training to follow and without many (or any) checks and balances. In addition, considerations regarding leveling of job descriptions, both at the time of hire and as employees matriculate, may impact performance ratings. Because the results of a pay audit are only as good as the data inputs, it makes sense to take a closer look at how the underlying data comes to be.

Continue Reading Taking Your Pay Equity Analysis To The Next Level: Performance Ratings Audits

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Texas is now open for business–100% and without masks. On March 10, 2021, Executive Order GA-34 went into effect, lifting the COVID-19 mask mandate in Texas and increasing capacity of all businesses and facilities in the state to 100%. Except for indoor arenas and K-12 schools, Mississippi has followed suit. Other states have also recently eased mask mandates, increased occupancy limits on restaurants and bars, and rolled back restrictions on stadiums and theaters, while warnings from US infectious-disease experts abound.

It may be tempting for businesses to fully open as COVID-19 restrictions–some of which will soon see their one year anniversary–are pulled back. What should employers keep top-of-mind if the COVID-19 health and safety restrictions in their state or locality are loosened or rescinded?

Continue Reading Masks Up or Down: What Employers Should Consider as States Roll Back COVID-19 Restrictions

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The Department of Labor (DOL) has proposed to put the final nail in the coffin on two Trump era rules under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) that were favorable to employers. On March 12, 2021, the DOL’s Wage and Hour Division published in the Federal Register both a proposed rule to rescind the Trump administration’s rule on joint employer status under the FLSA and a proposed rule to withdraw the Trump administration’s rule on independent contractor status under the FLSA. In both cases, the DOL is seeking public comments for 30 days (until April 11, 2021). Neither of these proposed rules comes as a surprise to those keeping tabs on the Biden administration’s agenda, but the DOL has not proposed any new guidance, leaving employers wondering what comes next.

Continue Reading The DOL Proposes to Nix the Trump Administration’s Joint Employer and Independent Contractor Rules

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Special thanks to guest contributors Monica Kurnatowska, Bernhard Trappehl and James Brown.

In brief

The EU Commission has proposed a directive that would reinforce the entitlement to equal pay for men and women for the same work, or work of equal value, including by giving employees the right to comparative pay information and by requiring gender pay gap reporting for employers with 250+ employees, amongst other measures. Some EU member states already have aspects of these rules, while others do not, meaning that the rules could be a significant additional compliance burden for some organisations. The rules, if adopted, would be unlikely to come into force before late 2024.

Key takeaways

The EU Commission has proposed a new directive on pay transparency. If adopted, it would:

  • Require measures to ensure employers pay the same work, or work of equal value, equally.
  • Require employers to provide initial salary (or salary range) information to job applicants, pre-interview.
  • Prohibit employers from asking job applicants about salary history.
  • Create a right for a worker to request information about:
  • Their own pay level
  • Average pay levels, broken down by gender and categories of workers doing the same work / work of equal value
  • Require gender pay gap (GPG) reporting for employers with 250+ employees.
  • Create joint pay assessments if:
  • GPG is 5%+ for any category of workers doing the same work or work of equal value, and
  • employer has not justified the GPG.

Based on previous experience, we estimate that these proposals, if adopted, would need to be implemented by sometime in late 2024.

Continue Reading European Union: Commission Proposes Pay Transparency Rules to Secure Equal Pay

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As employers contemplate using compensation to incentivize employees and management toward achieving the company’s I&D goals, our global counselors and litigators share a framework for thinking through both the practical and legal considerations when designing a reward system related to I&D.

Click here to watch the video.

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Special thanks to our guest contributors Melissa Allchin and Sandhya Sharma.

In this Mobility Minute, our Global Immigration and Mobility attorneys look at the significant change in who may qualify for travel to the US from the Schengen Area, United Kingdom and Ireland after the revocation of National Interest Exceptions for certain business travelers, as announced by the State Department last week.

Click here to listen to the Mobility Minute on demand.

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Special thanks to guest contributors Ginger Partee and Matthew Gorman.

As the country awaits confirmation of Judge Merrick Garland, President Joe Biden’s pick for attorney general to head the U.S. Department of Justice, employers in the U.S. should begin to consider what a Biden administration DOJ might mean for their workplace.

Biden has appointed a number of civil rights advocates to lead the country’s key enforcement agencies, and issued a plethora of executive orders and White House memoranda.

Here is the question employers have: What does this look like in terms of DOJ enforcement of anti-discrimination provisions in the workplace?

While it remains to be seen exactly how the Biden administration DOJ will enforce anti-discrimination provisions in the workplace, two areas of enforcement activity employers should keep an eye on are (1) the DOJ’s Immigrant and Employee Rights Section, or IER, enforcement of the antidiscrimination provisions of the Immigration and Nationality Act, or INA, and (2) the DOJ’s employment litigation section’s enforcement of provisions of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act.

Click here to continue reading.

This article was originally published in Law360.

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The  UK government has announced that due to the continuing impact of the pandemic, the gender pay gap reporting deadline for the 2020/21 reporting period will be extended by six months to October 5, 2021 for qualifying employers in the private sector. Employers are, however, encouraged to report their figures before the deadline.

The reporting requirement for the 2019/20 period was suspended last year due to the pandemic and the government has confirmed that there is no requirement to report on those figures at all.

With thanks to James Brown, Rachel Farr and Mandy Li for this post.

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[T]he reason diversity and inclusion and equity of thought drives innovation and creativity is because innovation and creativity aren’t born out of sameness, they’re born out of differences; but people will not share their differences unless they experience belonging.”

Ritu Bhasin

In this video, Baker McKenzie’s Chief Inclusion and Diversity Officer, Anna Brown, moderates a discussion with Ritu Bhasin (author and globally-recognized expert in diversity and inclusion), Kimberly Kam (Director, Corporate Counsel, Starbucks) and Monica Kurnatowska (Baker McKenzie Employment Partner) examining how companies can expand initiatives to advance diversity and inclusion within their organization.

Click here to watch to the video.

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We recently published an update to our 50-state Shelter-In-Place / Reopening Tracker.

Please see HERE. This is updated weekly.

For your convenience, here is a summary of the major updates from around the country:

  • The following jurisdictions extended their state-wide orders and/or the duration of the current phase of their reopening plans: Alabama, Colorado, Illinois and Kentucky.
  • The following jurisdictions eased restrictions and/or advanced to the next phase of their reopening plan: Arizona, California, Louisiana, Maine, Michigan, Mississippi, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania South Carolina and Texas.

For more information, please contact your Baker McKenzie attorney.