New federal minimum wage? Republican Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Missouri) on Tuesday introduced legislation that would increase the federal minimum wage to $15 per hour from the current $7.25 per hour.  If adopted, the bill, dubbed the “Higher Wages for American Works Act of 2025,” would increase the hourly standard wage to $15 starting Jan. 1, 2026,

Canada increases wage threshold under temporary worker program:  Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC) has announced an increase in the wage threshold under the Temporary Foreign Worker Program (TFWP), effective June 27, 2025.

Is the company picnic dead? Long a staple but in recent years fading, company picnics have been a morale booster and networking opportunity for employees.

CareerBuilder + Monster filing bankruptcy: CareerBuilder + Monster, which once dominated the online recruitment industry, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Tuesday and said it plans to sell its businesses. 

Employees want financial benefits: Fewer than 2 in 5 employees believe someone cares about them as a person at work or respects them, according to the Morgan Stanley at Work’s 5th annual report “State of the Workplace Financial Benefits.”

Who smokes up? Boomers, especially women Boomers: Researchers at UC San Diego and NYU discovered that marijuana use by Americans aged 65 and older increased by nearly 46% from 2021 to 2023, according to an NYU press release.

Do you hire just who you like? Bias in the hiring process has long confounded HR and business leaders. What combination of training and technology can drive recruiters and hiring managers to shelf their preconceived notions about what candidates look like or where they come from? 

Do your employees steal from work? Two in three employees in the United States have confessed to committing at least one type of theft at their current workplace, according to a new survey.

DEI commitments by employers appear unchanging: Littler, a law firm focusing on labor, recently published a study showing that only about 8% of leading American companies have or intend to alter their diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) policies.

Is AI taking your job? About 4 in 10 business leaders have laid off employees as a result of deploying AI.

Brittany Panuccio nominated to be EEOC Commissioner: President Trump has nominated Brittany Panuccio, an assistant U.S. attorney in Florida, to fill one of the three open seats on the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

Pharmaceutical costs going to continue driving up health care costs:  In April at the National Republican Congressional Committee, President Donald Trump shared that his administration will announce tariffs on pharmaceuticals "very shortly."

EEO-1 reporting is scheduled to open May 20th: The portal is scheduled to open on May 20, 2025, and companies will have until June 24, 2025, to submit their reports. On April 15, 2025, in response to Executive Order 14168, Defending Women From Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government, the EEOC filed an Information Collection Request (ICR) with OMB requesting what it classified as a non-substantive change to remove the option for employers to...

Employees want compensation for long commutes in RTO situation: According to professional recruitment consultancy Robert Walters, U.S. professionals spend 1-5% of their annual salaries on commutes alone. Unsurprisingly, 60% of employees believe commutes are the most important expense employers can subsidize, and 74% name commutes as a major factor when considering a new job.

Are you prepared for I-9 and immigration enforcement? Federal immigration authorities may be gradually boosting their enforcement activities, but the slow pace has not changed employers’ need for caution.