There have been some recent developments in state and federal law that may affect employers in New Hampshire set forth below:
New Hampshire Amends Youth Night Work Statute
Employers in New Hampshire should be aware that the legislature just recently passed amendments to the laws concerning youth night work. Effective July 14, 2019, the new R.S.A. 276:13 provides that any youth that is part of an employer’s workforce who works more than twice during a week past 8 p.m. or before 6 a.m. cannot work more than 8 hours in any shift during that particular week. According to the NH DOL, this new law pertains to youth 16 or 17 years old. The law is more restrictive for younger workers. Under RSA 276-A: 4, IV, no youth under 16 years of age shall work earlier than 7 o’clock a.m. or later than 9 o’clock p.m.
Be aware that the new statute is different from the old R.S.A. 276-A:13, which has been repealed. The old law merely prohibited youths from being “permitted to work at night…more than 8 hours in any 24 hours nor more than 48 hours during the week” and defined “night work” for youths as being “permitted to work more than 2 nights each week, for any time between the hours of 8 o’clock p.m. and 6 o’clock a.m. of the day following.”
Given the new law, New Hampshire employers should take a close look at their scheduling practices and make sure that any youth employee who works more than 2 times in a week does not get scheduled or does not work any shift longer than 8 hours during that same week. To put it simply, all shifts worked must be 8 hours or less in any week in which the youth employee works more than 2 times between the hours of 8 p.m. and 6 a.m.
Employers should keep in mind that, for purposes of determining compliance with this law, the workweek generally is not the employer’s designated workweek but rather the 7-day period running Sunday through Saturday (unless otherwise noted in the statute). See RSA 276-A:4,VI. For more information, employers can visit the DOL website announcing the new amendment.
Don’t miss the September 30 Deadline to Submit Pay Data to the EEOC
Employers with 100 or more employees should also be aware that, as a result of a Federal Court ruling this past Spring, they must submit to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission their pay information about employees (sometimes referred to as Component 2 data), by race, ethnicity and sex, by September 30, 2019.
This requirement has been the subject of contention as the current administration has tried, so far in vain, to turn back the actions of the prior administration in this area. As the fight continues in court, the deadline stands. Whether the requirement changes again in the future remains to be seen.
For those who are interested, here’s the back story: Originally, large and mid-size employers were required to submit information about the number of employees in each job category by race, ethnicity and sex (Component 1 data) to the EEOC by May 31. This reporting requirements expanded to include hours worked and pay information (Component 2 data), and the deadline was extended accordingly. The Obama administration’s revision to the EEO-1 form requires employers to report wage information from Box 1 of the W-2 form and total hours worked for all employees by race, ethnicity and sex within 12 proposed pay bands. But it was the addition of this Component 2 data that became the subject of legal battles, that until recently left ambiguous when and if employers would be required to comply with these Obama-era revisions.
The fight started when the EEOC under the Trump administration stayed these pay-data provisions in 2017. The National Women’s Law Center challenged the Trump EEOC’s suspension of the pay-data collection provisions and on March 4, 2019, a federal judge lifted the EEOC’s stay, effectively ruling that the EEOC must start collecting the Component 2 information. See National Women’s Law Center, et al., v. Office of Management and Budget, et al., Civil Action No. 17-cv-2458 (D.D.C.). On May 3, 2019, the Department of Justice filed a Notice of Appeal in the above case. But the EEOC further notes that the filing of “this Notice of Appeal does not stay the district court orders or alter EEO-1 filers’ obligations to submit Component 2 data.”
Thus, as of now, according to the EEOC’s website, EEO-1 filers should submit Component 2 data for calendar year 2017, in addition to data for calendar year 2018, by September 30, 2019, as Ordered by the court’s recent decision in National Women’s Law Center, et al., v. Office of Management and Budget, et al., Civil Action No. 17-cv-2458 (D.D.C.). The URL for the portal set up by the EEOC to submit this information can be found at: https://eeoccomp2.norc.org.