HR Compliance Changes in 2026: What Employers Need to Know Now

HR compliance doesn’t pause between election cycles. Regulatory guidance, state legislation, and court decisions keep moving regardless of what’s happening at the federal level — and 2026 has brought a meaningful set of changes that affect how employers handle overtime eligibility, leave administration, hiring documentation, and pay practices.

This guide covers the key HR compliance developments in effect or anticipated for 2026. It’s a starting point for audit, not a substitute for legal counsel — but if your team hasn’t reviewed these areas recently, this is the checklist to start with.

FLSA Overtime Threshold: Where Things Stand

The DOL’s 2024 rule that raised the FLSA salary threshold to $58,656 per year for the white-collar exemptions (effective January 1, 2025) faced significant legal challenges. Courts in several jurisdictions blocked the rule’s application, and the regulatory landscape has remained unsettled into 2026. Employers should confirm the current applicable threshold for their jurisdiction and classification structure — the pre-2024 threshold of $35,568 may still apply in some contexts depending on ongoing litigation outcomes.

Regardless of where the federal threshold lands, several states have their own salary thresholds that exceed the federal floor. California, New York, Colorado, Washington, and Alaska all set state-level thresholds that apply regardless of the federal rule’s status. Employers in those states need to track state salary thresholds separately from the federal one, and the higher state rate always controls.

Pregnant Workers Fairness Act: Implementation and Common Gaps

The Pregnant Workers Fairness Act (PWFA), effective since June 2023, requires employers with 15 or more employees to provide reasonable accommodations for known limitations related to pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions — even when the limitation doesn’t rise to ADA disability status. The EEOC issued final regulations in 2024 that clarified what counts as a covered condition and what accommodations are presumptively reasonable.

The most common compliance gap in 2026 is failure to train frontline managers on PWFA’s interactive process requirements. PWFA accommodation requests trigger an obligation to engage in a good-faith dialogue with the employee — the same interactive process as ADA accommodations. Managers who treat pregnancy accommodation requests as purely HR decisions, without understanding that they have their own role in documenting and engaging in the process, create liability gaps. If your manager training on PWFA hasn’t been updated since the final regulations, that’s the highest-priority gap to close.

Pay Transparency: State Requirements Are Accelerating

Pay transparency requirements — mandatory salary range disclosure in job postings, pay scale access for current employees, and pay data reporting — have expanded significantly at the state level. Colorado, California, New York, Washington, Illinois, and Massachusetts all have active pay transparency laws with varying requirements. Several more states have passed laws taking effect in 2025 and 2026.

The operational challenge for multi-state employers is that requirements vary: some states require salary ranges in every job posting, others require disclosure only upon request, some require ranges for internal transfers as well as external postings, and a few require employers to proactively disclose pay scales to current employees who ask. Managing these variations requires a pay transparency policy that’s specific to each state where you post positions — a single national policy that says “we disclose on request” doesn’t satisfy states that require proactive posting disclosure.

I-9 Remote Verification: The Authorized Alternative Process

DHS established an alternative I-9 verification process for E-Verify employers in 2023 that allows remote document examination — the authorized employer representatives review documents via video instead of in-person. This alternative process is available only to employers enrolled in E-Verify who are in good standing. It doesn’t apply to employees whose onboarding began before the employer enrolled in E-Verify.

Employers using the remote alternative process must retain copies of all documents presented, annotate the I-9 to indicate the alternative procedure was used, and complete the I-9 within the normal timeframe. The DHS guidance on what constitutes acceptable video review — quality standards, what counts as adequate document examination — should be reviewed directly from the current USCIS guidance rather than relying on third-party summaries, as implementation details have evolved since the original rollout.

Non-Compete Agreements: Federal Rule Blocked, State Law Controls

The FTC’s 2024 rule that would have broadly banned non-compete agreements was blocked by federal courts in 2024 and is not currently in effect. The federal landscape for non-competes remains as it was before the rule — no comprehensive federal restriction. State law continues to control enforceability.

Several states have significantly restricted non-competes in recent years: California has long banned them, Minnesota banned them in 2023, Oklahoma and North Dakota have near-bans, and several other states have imposed earnings thresholds below which non-competes are unenforceable. If your standard employment agreement includes a non-compete clause, legal review for every state where you have employees is necessary — a clause that’s enforceable in Texas may be void in California and Minnesota.

State-Level Paid Leave Expansion

State paid family and medical leave programs continue to expand. Delaware launched its program in 2025. Minnesota’s paid leave program took effect in January 2026. Several other states have programs in various stages of rollout. For multi-state employers, each new state program means new payroll deductions, new employer contributions (in states with employer-funded programs), and new leave administration requirements.

The administration burden is what catches employers off guard. State paid leave programs each have their own claim portals, benefit calculation rules, notice requirements, and coordination rules with employer-paid leave. An employer with employees in six states with active paid leave programs is effectively administering six separate leave systems in addition to any federal FMLA obligations. Centralizing leave administration — with a system that tracks state-specific accruals, claims, and notices — is increasingly necessary as the number of active state programs grows.

Netchex’s HR platform helps manage leave tracking, payroll deductions for state paid leave programs, and compliance documentation across multiple states. For HR teams managing employees across multiple jurisdictions, that centralized infrastructure reduces the risk of missing a new state program launch or miscalculating contributions. Talk to a Netchex consultant about leave administration for your multi-state workforce.

Frequently Asked Questions

This guide reflects publicly available product information and independent reviewer data (G2, Capterra, Trustpilot, Yelp, Better Business Bureau, Reddit, Software Advice, GetApp) as of 2026. Feature availability and pricing may vary by plan. Contact each provider for current details.