5 Employment Law Predictions for 2025

The U.S. is the only industrialized country that does not provide paid family medical leave for all workers. It’s unlikely that there will be any movement to develop a paid family leave plan for all workers at the federal level in 2025. We expect this issue to remain active at the state level for the next few years. Employers should keep an eye on local and state paid leave law requirements and changes.

Expect immigration reform to be a major issue in the next few years. Trump has indicated an intent to carry out largescale deportation in the U.S. If this occurs, it will have a significant impact on the available workers in the U.S. and will affect hiring and employment practices. Employers should take measures to ensure their employment eligibility verification process is airtight, especially in industries heavily reliant on unskilled labor or H-1B labor.

Just prior to Biden taking office in 2021, the DOL under Trump finalized a new rule which would have made it easier for businesses to classify workers as independent contractors. Biden’s DOL froze the rule, and it never took effect. We expect Trump’s administration to act on this issue in the next few years making things easier for employers to classify workers as independent contractors.

We do not expect to see major changes to restrictive covenant laws in the next few years at the federal level under the Trump administration.  It’s expected that the majority of activity limiting noncompete clauses in agreements is more likely to occur at the state level in the near future.