HRPA Releases State Law Guide as More Laws Appear on the Horizon

2025 promises another flurry of state workplace regulation and legislation.  HRPA’s new State Law Guide serves as your compass to navigate through the increasingly complex landscape of state labor and employment laws. 

How we got here: Continued Congressional gridlock and the increased hollowing out of federal regulatory power has left a vacuum in workplace regulation, empowering states to fill the void. 

The new norm: A more uniform, federal approach to workplace regulation has decentralized into a patchwork of state laws, complicating compliance.

• States have become the new workplace regulation bellwether. In the last few years alone, states have enacted dozens of new laws on issues such as pay transparency, paid leave, labor relations, and artificial intelligence. 

• 2025 promises more, with major legislation on artificial intelligence expected in California, while New York once again considers major restrictions, if not an outright ban, on non-compete agreements.  

HRPA's State Law Guide, recently featured in Harvard Business Review, is a definitive playbook that breaks down the most challenging and fastest-evolving areas of state employment law:

• Paid leave policies vary widely across states, with different standards for eligibility, duration, and funding.

• Pay transparency laws continue to diverge, from salary history bans to new pay range disclosure requirements.

• Non-compete agreements are facing increasing state-level restrictions that differ by industry and employee classification.

• AI regulation is emerging as a major compliance challenge, with states enacting new rules on its use in hiring and employment decisions.

Overview supplemented with detailed resources: In addition to a helpful overview of the major trends and most likely state legislation, the Guide includes a helpful digest of state bills on each issue and supplemental resources.