On June 5, 2025, the U.S. Supreme Court altered the landscape for employers facing “reverse discrimination” Title VII lawsuits in the Sixth, Seventh, Eighth, Tenth, and DC Circuits, by striking down a rule that had required plaintiffs from “majority groups” to allege additional “background circumstances” to state a prima facie case of employment discrimination. Examples
Employment & Labor
Former EEOC Officials Respond to EEOC Technical Assistance Document “What You Should Know About DEI-Related Discrimination at Work”
On April 3, 2025, 10 former Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (“EEOC”) officials, including former commissioners, general counsel, and Chairs Charlotte A. Burrows and Jenny R. Yang, issued a public letter responding to the recent EEOC technical assistance document, “What You Should Know About DEI-Related Discrimination at Work,” which we described in a…
German Federal Labor Court Rules on Phantom Shares; What Employers Need to Know
The German Federal Labor Court (Bundesarbeitsgericht – BAG) has issued two new decisions impacting virtual stock option plans (VSOPs). In a March 19, 2025 decision (BAG, March 19, 2025 – 10 AZR 67/24), BAG ruled that virtual stock options (“phantom shares”) are not speculative options/opportunities, but rather part of the remuneration already earned…
European Companies Wrestle with U.S. Government’s Anti-DEI Push
On March 29, United States embassies across Europe began sending letters and an accompanying “Certification regarding compliance with applicable federal anti-discrimination law” to companies in Belgium, Bulgaria, Denmark, France, Italy, Luxembourg, and Spain. This certification purports to apply Executive Order (“EO”) 14173 (“Ending Illegal Discrimination and Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity”) to U.S. government suppliers and contractors…
EEOC Technical Assistance: “What You Should Know About DEI-Related Discrimination at Work”
On March 19, 2025, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (“EEOC”) released two “technical assistance” documents titled, “What You Should Know About DEI-Related Discrimination at Work” and “What To Do If You Experience Discrimination Related to DEI at Work” (“technical assistance”). The technical assistance follows President Trump’s issuance of Executive Order 14173…
Federal Appeals Court Reinstates Provisions of DEI Executive Orders
As explained in a prior blog post, on January 21, 2025, President Trump signed Executive Order 14173 (“Ending Illegal Discrimination and Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity”) (the “EO”), establishing new requirements for federal contractors and grant recipients to agree that their compliance with federal anti-discrimination laws is “material to the government’s payment decisions” for purposes of…
President Trump’s “Ending Illegal Discrimination and Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity” Executive Order Targets Federal Contractors and the Private Sector
On January 21, 2025, President Trump issued the Ending Illegal Discrimination and Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity Executive Order (the “EO”), which revokes Executive Order 11246, a 60-year-old Civil Rights-era directive that prohibited federal contractors from discriminating on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, or national origin, and required federal contractors to…
New Pay Transparency Laws Effective in 2025
Five states have joined the growing number of states with pay transparency laws requiring employers to include compensation information in job postings. An Illinois law and a Minnesota law took effect on January 1, 2025, and New Jersey, Vermont, and Massachusetts laws will take effect later this year. While the new laws differ in their…
New York Employers Required to Provide Paid Prenatal Leave
Pursuant to the New York Paid Prenatal Leave Law (the “PPL Law”), beginning on January 1, 2025, New York employers must provide employees with 20 hours of paid leave for prenatal healthcare service appointments during their pregnancy or related to pregnancy (“Paid Prenatal Leave”) in a 52-week period. The PPL Law amends the New York…
Federal District Court Vacates Biden’s DOL Overtime Rule
As discussed in our prior post, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) issued a final rule earlier this year that increased the salary thresholds required to classify certain employees as exempt from overtime pay requirements under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). On November 15, 2024, the federal district court for the Eastern District…