ABUSIVE WAIVERS
In their next job search, workers might encounter employers asking them to waive their rights to basic protections. The abusive waivers bill would void provisions in contracts waiving rights or remedies relating to claims of discrimination, nonpayment of wages or benefits, retaliation, or harassment in employment.
PASSED
California
Maine
Maryland
New York
Vermont
Washington
TAKE ACTION
Massachusetts
AT-WILL EMPLOYMENT
In their next job search, workers might encounter employers asking them to waive their rights to basic protections. The abusive waivers bill would void provisions in contracts waiving rights or remedies relating to claims of discrimination, nonpayment of wages or benefits, retaliation, or harassment in employment.
PASSED
Montana
TAKE ACTION
Massachusetts
New York (New York City only)
North Carolina
BEREAVEMENT LEAVE
Workers deserve time off to properly grieve a loved one without worrying about losing their jobs. Bereavement leave bills would give workers time off to address the loss.
PASSED
California
Oregon
TAKE ACTION
Massachusetts
Missouri
CREDIT REPORTS
Employers shouldn’t use credit reports or ask candidates to disclose their credit worthiness, standing, or capacity as criteria for employment.
PASSED
California
Colorado
Connecticut
Delaware
Hawaii
Illinois
Maryland
Nevada
New Jersey
New York
Oregon
Vermont
Washington
TAKE ACTION
Massachusetts
Rhode Island
South Carolina
CRIMINAL HISTORY
(BAN THE BOX ACT)
Employers shouldn’t be able to ask about criminal history if it doesn’t apply directly to the role.
PASSED
California
Illinois
Virginia
TAKE ACTION
Iowa
Kentucky
Mississippi
South Carolina
Vermont
DISCRIMINATION AGAINST NATURAL HAIRSTYLES (THE CROWN ACT)
Rules about hairstyles are too often downright racist. The Crown Act aims to make discrimination against natural hairstyles and textures illegal. States listed below cover both schools and workplaces; some states only cover schools.
PASSED
Alabama
California
Colorado
Connecticut
Delaware
Illinois
Louisiana
Maine
Maryland
Massachusetts
Michigan
Minnesota
Nebraska
New Jersey
New Mexico
New York
Oregon
Tennessee
Texas
Vermont
Virginia
Washington
DOMESTIC VIOLENCE
Victims of domestic violence and family members of them sometimes experience discharge or other forms of discrimination at work or in the hiring process. But they deserve reasonable accommodations at work.
PASSED
Illinois
Maine
Massachusetts
North Carolina
TAKE ACTION
New York
INJURED WORKERS
We need stronger anti-retaliation law. This bill provides for a complaint and investigation mechanism for enforcement and otherwise addresses employer misconduct that prevents workers from receiving timely medical care and benefits after physical injury.
PASSED
California
Washington
TAKE ACTION
Massachusetts
New Jersey
New York
MEDICARE FOR ALL
This safety net will make it easier for workers to leave toxic workplaces, removing the link between work and healthcare and helping those who work for themselves. Guaranteed equitable health care access for all through a single payer health care system will ensure healthcare without regard to financial or employment status, ethnicity, race, religion, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, previous health problems, or geographic location. The act will provide access to continuous healthcare services without the current need for repeated re-enrollments or changes when employers choose new plans and workers change jobs. Coverage will be comprehensive and affordable, with no co-insurance, co-payments, or deductibles.
MINIMUM WAGE (LIVEABLE WAGE)
Workers shouldn’t have to work multiple jobs to pay for basic living expenses. This bill would raise the minimum wage over several years to $15 or $20 per hour (lower in some states) — though landlords simply raise rent, and bank simply raise bank fees to keep those at lower incomes where they are.
Learn more about the campaign.
PASSED
Alaska
California
Connecticut
Delaware
Florida
Illinois
Maryland
Massachusetts
New Jersey
New York
Rhode Island
Washington
District of Columbia
NON-DISCLOSURE AGREEMENTS
When employers make settlements with their presumed guilt and/or money savings, they often add gag clauses to protect their reputations. Yet those gag clauses silence targets and embolden serial abusers. The Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA) bill would ban NDAs.
PASSED
California
Hawaii
Maine
New Jersey
Oregon
Rhode Island
Washington
PASSED BUT RESTRICTIVE
Arizona
Colorado
Illinois
Louisiana
Maryland
Nevada
New Mexico
New York
Tennessee
Utah
Vermont
Virginia
TAKE ACTION
Connecticut
New York
Utah
ONE FAIR WAGE FOR TIPPED EMPLOYEES
Tipped workers (restaurant workers, drivers, and grocery pickers and deliverers) don’t make enough money to qualify for unemployment insurance in ways that non-tipped workers do. The One Fair Wage bill phases out the discriminatory subminimum wage for tipped workers that disproportionately affects women, making it gradually match the regular minimum wage.
Learn more about the campaign.
PASSED
Alaska
California
Minnesota
Montana
Nevada
Oregon
Washington
TAKE ACTION
New Hampshire
North Carolina
PAID FAMILY MEDICAL LEAVE AND PAID SICK LEAVE
We all do better when we have safety nets. We have the resources to provide a high quality of life for all as long as we have the political will. Support paid family medical leave and paid sick leave.
PASSED (PAID FAMILY MEDICAL LEAVE)
California
Colorado
Connecticut
Delaware
Maine
Maryland
Massachusetts
Minnesota
New Jersey
New York
Oregon
Rhode Island
Washington
PASSED (PAID SICK LEAVE)
Arizona
California
Colorado
Connecticut
District of Columbia
Maryland
Massachusetts
Michigan
Minnesota
Missouri
Nebraska
New Jersey
New Mexico
New York
Oregon
Rhode Island
Vermont
Virginia
Washington
TAKE ACTION
Iowa
Nebraska
New York
North Carolina
PAY DISCLOSURE
When workers disclose their pay history, employers can continue past discriminatory practices. This bill would ban employers from asking about pay history so workers in certain demographics can make salaries equitable to workers in more privileged demographics. Some of these bills allow employees to talk about their pay with co-workers — a way to expose the pay discrimination in the first place.
PASSED
Illinois
Massachusetts
New York
Rhode Island
Washington
PAY EQUITY
This bill would require employers to assess and correct pay disparities based on race, sex, and other characteristics.
PASSED
Arkansas
California
Colorado
Connecticut
Illinois
Maryland
Massachusetts
Michigan
Minnesota
Nevada
New York
Oregon
Rhode Island
South Carolina
Vermont
Virginia
Washington
TAKE ACTION
North Carolina
Ohio
West Virginia
PSYCHOLOGICAL ABUSE (WORKPLACE BULLYING AND MOBBING)
Psychological abuse at work ruins lives. It’s a misuse of power and control that violates workers’ right to psychological safety. Workplace psychological abuse is an issue of employee exploitation. Employers are not explicitly liable for the psychological harm of their employees. At its root cause is avoidance of employer liability. Employers are negatively incentivized to address it. The Workplace Psychological Safety Act would hold employers accountable for psychologically safe work environments.
PREGNANCY ACCOMMODATIONS
Variations of this bill require that employers provide reasonable accommodations for employees related to pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions unless the accommodation would cause an undue hardship on the employer.
PASSED
California
Colorado
Connecticut
Illinois
Maine
Massachusetts
Minnesota
New Jersey
New York
Oregon
Rhode Island
Vermont
Washington
TAKE ACTION
Iowa
Ohio
Pennsylvania
Washington
PTSD AND FIRST RESPONDERS
This bill requires compensation for police officers, correction officers, firefighters, and other emergency personnel diagnosed with PTSD for their mental health injuries on the job. Passage of this bill would say psychological injury on the job deserves compensation.
PASSED
Connecticut
Florida
Georgia
New York
Ohio
Oklahoma
Pennsylvania
Rhode Island
South Carolina
Washington
RIGHT TO STRIKE FOR PUBLIC EMPLOYEES
Withholding labor for stronger rights should be a fundamental human right. Strikes and the threat of them are a part of the collective bargaining process, especially for teachers. This bill calls for a repeal of a state law that bans public sector workers from going on strike.
PASSED FOR SOME PUBLIC EMPLOYEES
Alaska
California
Hawaii
Illinois
Louisiana
Minnesota
Montana
Ohio
Oregon
Pennsylvania
Vermont
TAKE ACTION
Kentucky
Massachusetts
New York
SCHEDULING FOR HOURLY WORKERS
(FAIR WORKWEEK)
Hourly workers deserve respect for their time and their ability to pay basic living expenses. The Fair Scheduling/Fair Workweek bill provides workers the right to: 14 days advance notice of hours, request specific hours without retaliation from the employer, rest for 11 hours between shifts, the offering of additional available hours before an employer can hire a new employee to fill them, and collect unemployment benefits when an employer’s failure to comply with Fair Scheduling practices is the worker’s reason for leaving a job.
Learn more about the campaign.
PASSED
California (Los Angeles, San Francisco, Berkeley, San Jose, and Emeryville only)
Illinois (Chicago only)
Maryland
Michigan
New York (New York City only)
Oregon
Pennsylvania (Philadelphia only)
Washington (Seattle only)
TAKE ACTION
New Jersey
New York
SEXUAL ORIENTATION AND GENDER IDENTITY DISCRIMINATION
Variations of this legislation add sexual orientation, gender identity, and gender expression to protected class status.
PASSED
California
Colorado
Connecticut
Delaware
Hawaii
Illinois
Iowa
Maine
Maryland
Massachusetts
Michigan
Minnesota
Nevada
New Hampshire
New Jersey
New Mexico
New York
Oregon
Pennsylvania
Rhode Island
Utah
Vermont
Washington
District of Columbia
WAGE DATA REPORTING
De-identified wage and salary data public reporting of the gender and racial makeup of workforces is crucial for employer accountability for bias. While the data may reveal equity, in many cases it could reveal disparities that employers could voluntarily remedy or allow workers to file suit. If this data were made public, it would allow plaintiffs and attorneys an opportunity to assess the likelihood that illegal discrimination plays a role in the reward structures of employers. California has already passed the Fair Pay Act that protects the rights of workers to ask about the compensation of coworkers in similar jobs.
PASSED
California
Illinois
Massachusetts
TAKE ACTION
New York
WAGE THEFT
This bill would hold lead contractors accountable for the wage theft violations of their subcontractors as long as there’s a significant connection to their business activities. It would also protect workers from wage theft violations such as failure to make wage payments, failure to abide by minimum wage, prevailing wage and overtime laws, and independent contractor misclassification — and strengthen workers’ protection against retaliation. Ultimately, it would promote fair competition by ensuring that all businesses, including lead contractors, play by the rules and give their workers an honest day’s pay for an honest day’s work.
PASSED
California
Maine
Minnesota
New Jersey
New York
Oregon
Virginia
Washington
WAGE TRANSPARENCY
It’s one thing to make it it illegal to ask about salary history, understanding the discriminatory impact of the question with accumulative differences among demographics. But employers can still ask for desired salary ranges, having the same effect. This bill provides even more protections for impacted workers by calling for employers to provide the pay scale for a particular employment position in the job posting, which also benefits employers.
PASSED
California
Colorado
Connecticut
Hawaii
Illinois
Maryland
Massachusetts
Minnesota
New Jersey
New York
Rhode Island
Vermont
Washington
District of Columbia
WORKPLACE VIOLENCE
Healthcare workers face some of the highest rates of workplace violence in the U.S., including physical assaults, threats, harassment, and chronic verbal abuse — particularly in emergency, behavioral health, and long-term care settings. Many workers report that violence has become normalized as “part of the job,” while understaffing, weak reporting systems, and fear of retaliation often prevent incidents from being addressed. These state bills aim to shift workplace violence from being treated as isolated incidents to a preventable organizational safety hazard by requiring healthcare employers to implement prevention plans, risk assessments, worker training, reporting systems, and anti-retaliation protections.
PASSED
California
Connecticut
Illinois
Maine
Maryland
Minnesota
New Jersey
New York
Oregon
Washington
Be part of history
Take Action in your State
take action on the federal level
We’re often asked why these bills aren’t introduced on the federal level. If we look at the history of passing federal legislation, that legislation started with state action. Women’s suffrage, interracial marriage, and gay marriage all started with state passage that reached a tipping point over time, leading to federal passage. Jennifer Lawrence explains this idea well.
But there are a few workers’ rights bills we have our eyes on, and you can take action on them by contacting your legislators on the federal level to encourage them to not just support the bills but make them priorities:
BE HEARD Act (Bringing An End To Harassment by Enhancing Accountability and Rejecting Discrimination in the Workplace) (HR 2148)
Current law doesn’t do enough to stop discrimination, particularly for the most vulnerable workers. The BE HEARD Act strengthens and broadens discrimination laws, removes barriers for targeted and victimized employees, and helps employers create incentives and accountability for safe workplaces, including psychological safety:
It extends protections to all. Title VII of the Civil Rights Act doesn’t address workers in small businesses. This law would cover all employees regardless of business size plus independent contractors, volunteers, interns, fellows, and trainees — and add LGBTQ workers as a protected class.
It gives targeted employees a fair chance in court. Case law requires that harassment be “severe or pervasive” to win in court, often unattainable and that groping may not even fall under. The bill outlines what conduct is and is not unlawful to give guidance to the courts who’ve historically excused psychologically abusive conduct, blocking justice, and preventing others from speaking up.
It promotes transparency. Acts of discrimination are most often kept private, furthered with agreements that mandate arbitration rather than lawsuits upon starting jobs. The bill would ban mandatory arbitration and non-disclosure agreements upon accepting a job.
It restores protections for workers harassed by supervisors. The bill would make holding employers liable for supervisor harassment easier.
It assists employers in creating harassment-free workplaces. The bill authorizes research and data collection and gives employers template policies, trainings, and surveys plus best practices.
FAIR (Forced Arbitration Injustice Repeal) Act (HR 963)
The FAIR Act defines aims to end predispute arbitration agreements. Arbitration agreements do not favor employees because they deprive them of their rights to the civil justice system.
Paycheck Fairness Act (HR 7)
An effort to address the gender pay gap, the Paycheck Fairness Act holds employers accountable for retaliating against workers who share wage information and places the burden on employers to justify pay gaps. Workers can then sue for wage discrimination.
PRO Act (HR 2474)
The PRO Act will empower workers to negotiate better wages, benefits, and working conditions while preventing employers from interfering in union elections and other workers’ rights violations through penalties. It will also override “right-to-work” laws that prevent unions from collecting dues from the workers they represent. (Unions drive gender equality, higher wages, better benefits, and safer workplaces, but union membership is only 10 percent of the country’s workforce.)
Restoring Justice for Workers Act (S4502/HR8691)
This Act will prohibit predispute arbitration agreements that require arbitration of work disputes and prohibit retaliation against workers for refusing to arbitrate work disputes.
SAVE Act (HR 7961)
The SAVE Act will criminalize assault of hospital personnel.
Workplace Violence (HR 1195)
Since the House has passed the Workplace Violence Prevention for Health Care and Social Service Workers Act (HR 1195), workplace violence has only increased according to the American Nurses Association (ANA)’s surveys. It’s now the Senate’s turn to help end the violence now.
Overall, the likelihood of health care workers being exposed to violence is higher than prison guards or police officers – with 1 in 4 nurses having been assaulted at work. And health care settings have only become riskier and more intense from the COVID-19 pandemic. We cannot address workforce shortages without addressing working conditions. They go hand-in-hand.
For years, ANA has been leading the charge to address workplace violence through its #EndNurseAbuse campaign, raising awareness about this issue and pushing for regulatory and legislative solutions. If passed, the bill would require the Occupational Safety and Health Administration to develop and enforce specific standards for health care and social service employers to hold them accountable for protecting their employees.