On February 21, 2025, Governor Gretchen Whitmer signed into law two bills amending the state’s Wage Act and Earned Sick Time Act (ESTA). As we previously explained, absent those amendments, February 21 would have been the effective date for those laws as ordered by the Michigan Supreme Court. Below, we share highlights of the new bills as preliminary guidance.
On March 8, 2023, the Michigan Legislature passed Senate Bill 4, amending the Elliott Larsen Civil Rights Act (ELCRA), and adding protections for individuals based on their sexual orientation, gender identity or expression. Codifying the Michigan Supreme Court’s 2022 decision in Rouch World v MI Department of Civil Rights, which held that discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation constitutes a violation of ELCRA as currently written, the amendment makes Michigan the 24th state to incorporate provisions for safeguarding individuals based on sexual orientation. The amendment, however, goes one step further to add protections for “gender identity or expression.”
In the wake of the landmark decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, we have been closely monitoring legal developments across the country. In addition to well publicized “trigger laws” that were effectuated as a result of the U.S. Supreme Court’s order, states have taken up a variety of legislative actions in response to the ruling, which placed authority for the regulation of abortion with the states.
Recent Updates
- Executive Order 14398 Survives Preliminary Challenge: What Contractors and Subcontractors Should Know with Respect to DEI
- How Employers Can Manage Shorter EEOC Charge Response Deadlines
- Menopause as a Protected Class: Growing Trend or a Hot Flash?
- The Second Circuit Joins Fellow Circuits in Extending Limitations on Mandatory Arbitration Agreements
- Updating Your First Aid Kit: What Employers Need to Know About Opioid Antagonist Requirements in New York