Workforce Bulletin

As featured in #WorkforceWednesday®: This week, we’re covering the new H-1B visa fee, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s (EEOC’s) closure of disparate impact cases, and recent key labor appointments.

New Fee for H-1B Visas

Employers must now pay $100,000 for each first-time H-1B petition filed on or after September 21, 2025. Current visa holders are not affected. Exceptions may apply, but details are limited.

EEOC Shuts Down Disparate Impact Cases

The EEOC has closed nearly all disparate impact cases following a recent executive order. These claims can still be pursued in court. The agency will also dissolve its Office of Enterprise Data and Analytics, although EEO-1 reporting requirements appear unchanged.

Key Labor Roles Confirmed

The Senate has confirmed Daniel Aronowitz as Assistant Secretary of Labor for the Employee Benefits Security Administration. Additionally, the Senate has confirmed over 100 other labor-related appointments—including 11 top labor positions—restoring a quorum at both the EEOC and the Merit Systems Protection Board.

The EEOC’s Shift Away from Disparate Impact Liability

Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, the Age Discrimination in Employment Act, and the Americans with Disabilities Act prohibit employers from implementing facially neutral procedures that unintentionally discriminate against individuals based on their protected categories. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) is the federal agency tasked with investigating claims of unintentional discrimination, called disparate impact.

According to an internal memorandum obtained by Bloomberg Law, the EEOC plans on closing all pending disparate impact discrimination charges based at the end of September 2025. Once these charges are closed, the EEOC is expected to issue right-to-sue letters allowing claimants to file their case in federal court. Charges that involve claims of both disparate impact and disparate treatment are likely to remain with the EEOC in normal course.

As featured in #WorkforceWednesday®: This week, we explore how key changes introduced by President Trump’s Executive Order 14281, “Restoring Equality of Opportunity and Meritocracy” (“EO 14281”), raise important questions for employers navigating compliance with varying federal, state, and local laws.

EO 14281 poses significant challenges for employers because it seeks to limit disparate impact liability but clashes with established state and local regulations and laws, such as New York City’s law regarding the use of automated employment decision tools. This tension underscores the increasing complexity of managing artificial intelligence (AI)-driven decision-making in the workplace amid shifting legal standards.

On Wednesday, April 23, 2025, President Trump signed EO 14281, titled Restoring Equality of Opportunity and Meritocracy (EO), stating a new Trump Administration policy “to eliminate the use of disparate-impact liability in all contexts to the maximum degree possible . . . .”

We, along with several of our colleagues, already explained this EO, but this shift in federal policy—barely noticed by most people amidst myriad controversies, memes, and crypto schemes, as well as a number of other executive orders—is important enough to warrant further consideration by anyone who manages workplaces and those of us who advise employers about civil rights laws. As a cover story in the Sunday, May 11, 2025 issue of the New York Times observed, the EO’s directive to curtail the use of disparate impact liability is part of a larger effort to “purge the consideration of diversity, equity and inclusion, or D.E.I., from the federal government and every facet of American life. . . .” and focuses on “the nation’s bedrock civil rights law.”