Legislative Alert

ENACTED LEGISLATION
COLORADO: Legislation enacted to prohibit employers from inquiring about salary history
Summary: S.B. 85 prohibits employers from inquiring about a prospective employee's wage history or from relying on wage history to determine a wage rate. Employers are prohibited from discriminating or retaliating against a prospective employee for failing to disclose such wage history. The law takes effect on Jan. 1, 2021.
Impact(s): Colorado employers
View source document

WASHINGTON: Salary history ban enacted
Summary: Gov. Jay Inslee signed the Equal Pay and Opportunities Act, HB 1696, into law. The new law prohibits employers from asking applicants about their prior salaries. It also requires employers to provide pay scale information when asked. Employers can confirm an applicant's prior salary if the applicant has voluntarily disclosed the information or if the employer has made an offer of employment with compensation. The law becomes effective on July 28, 2019.
Impact(s): Washington employers
View source document

COURT OPINIONS
U.S. COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT: Circuit court clarifies beginning of seven-year reporting window for non-conviction records
Summary: The Ninth Circuit reversed a district court's judgment in favor of a tenant screening company under the Fair Credit Reporting Act and California's Investigative Consumer Reporting Agencies Act and Unfair Competition Law. The court held that the seven-year reporting window under Section 605 is counted from the date-of-entry of criminal charges rather than the date of dismissal. One judge dissented in a lengthy opinion.
Impact(s): FCRA compliance – for general legal review
View source document

U.S. DISTRICT COURT FOR THE NORTHERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA: Defendant healthcare company's motion for summary judgment is granted on statute of limitations grounds
Summary: A federal court granted an employer's motion for summary judgment in a proposed class action suit against a healthcare provider, holding that the FCRA's statute of limitations barred the suit. The court concluded that the plaintiff brought the case more than four years after she should have known that the company pulled a consumer report on her, well after the FCRA's two-year allowance. Furthermore, the court was not convinced by the plaintiff's contention that she did not know that a background check had been performed or that she was not aware of the disclosures' alleged inadequacies at the time, concluding that plaintiff should have realized that the company pulled a consumer report on her when she started the job because her employment was conditioned on a successful background check.
Impact(s): FCRA compliance – for general legal review
View source document

OTHER UPDATES
MASSACHUSETTS: Attorney General cites 19 businesses for violation of "Ban the Box" law
Summary: The Massachusetts Attorney General cited 19 business for violation of the state's "Ban the Box" law, which ended in agreements being made with two larger companies with fines of $5,000 and the requirement that they alter their application process to comply with the state's requirements. The remaining 17 employers were sent letters by the Attorney General warning them that their employment applications contained improper questions and requiring them to come into compliance immediately. In addition to prohibiting employers from including criminal history inquiries on an initial employment application, the state's law prohibits employers from asking applicants about certain criminal history at any time during the application process or employment. Additional requirements on employers were imposed in October 2018 to include a detailed statement about expunged records on any form that seeks information about an applicant's criminal history, in addition to a statement about sealed records.
Impact(s): Massachusetts employers
View source document

ARKANSAS: 2019 annual renewals for insurance producers
Summary: The Arkansas Insurance Department has issued a bulletin reiterating that every licensed entity which appoints an insurance producer in the state of Arkansas must annually file a renewal appointment under the Producer License Model Act with the Insurance Commissioner. The insurance company's renewal of a producer's appointment indicates that the appointing company has reviewed the producer's background and fitness to continue to act as an agent of the company. Thus, the 2019 procedures for appointment renewals and terminations require that a company must annually review its records on its appointed Arkansas producers and business entities and decide whether the company will renew each appointment.
Impact(s): Arkansas employers
View source document

This document and/or presentation is provided as a service to our customers. Its contents are designed solely for informational purposes, and should not be inferred or understood as legal advice or binding case law, nor shared with any third parties. Persons in need of legal assistance should seek the advice of competent legal counsel. Although care has been taken in preparation of these materials, we cannot guarantee the accuracy, currency or completeness of the information contained within it. Anyone using this information does so at his or her own risk.