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What new laws go into effect on Jan 1 in your area?
I don't know how common this is but in Illinois, USA a lot of our new laws signed each year have an effective start date of Jan 1 of the next year. I thought it might be interesting to share some new laws going into effect in your state and country, if not on Jan 1 specifically then in the coming year.
(Apologies, the tags aren't pre-populating anything useful so I'll leave this to the pro-taggers.)
Edit: fixed my parentheses
Illinois:
Medical Insurance reform bill and several others
Added discrimination/harassment of employees based on family responsibilities to civil rights violations.
Employers with 15+ employees must include pay scale and benefits in job postings and companies will be held liable for failing to do so.
Prohibition of corporal punishment in schools (not sure if this wasn't banned at all, or if there were loopholes)
Landlords must allow tenants to pay in cash or check to avoid fees and cannot retaliate against tenants for bringing issues to light in media, court, etc.
Mobile IDs/Licenses will be allowed (and providing them does not imply consent to search the phone), and offering 8 year licenses in the next two years.
Adds AI images into existing CSAM laws, also makes non-consensual "digital replicas" of people made with generative AI.
Gym memberships can now be canceled by phone, online or email, not only by going into the gym. If you have a "free trial" that lasts 15+ days of any service, they have to notify you 3 days before renewal.
Overhauling child labor laws to set some more limits on hours minors can work, updating list of jobs minors cannot work, etc.
A bunch more
Honestly bravo to Pritzger IMO.
I would certainly hope that the phone automatically locks in the background with a pin/password when pulling up a mobile ID to facilitate that. Otherwise, fantastic.
We don't currently have an app, but yeah we'll see what they offer once they get there. I did appreciate the pre-emptive protection of it not implying consent to search the phone.
Will they be sufficient identification for if you get pulled over? In AZ it isn't, so it's like... cool I can use my digital id for some airports now I guess...
Law enforcement can request the physical copy but I'm not sure how that works while driving if they don't. Sounds like it's mostly for businesses and government offices and things. But still
I guess if you live somewhere with good public transportation this is less of an issue. I have to drive everywhere so it's pointless to have a virtual ID that I can't use for driving.
I don't, but most of my use of an ID is purchasing products that require it so we'll see how useful the app ends up being.
These sound… weird? Like they will drive up costs but not necessarily improve outcomes. We do both of these things in Canada where we have government provided healthcare, so I don’t see it as a profit oriented measure, just common sense.
I think there's definitely a concern that it could raise costs, but the flip side is that patients are having to jump through months at a time of options that don't work for them because they're cheaper rather than using what's best fit per the doctor's recommendation. There is a balance between "try and see what works" and "you must try each of these for a month and fail before we'll approve the thing specifically designed for your condition"
It's the more unique aspect of the law afaict so we'll see how it plays out. But having dealt with insurance company issues with my partner, all the steps between him and the care he needs are frustrating.
I have been consistently impressed with him. I really appreciate what he's been doing for our state, we've been able to turn a corner from our defunct past it seems.
My county recently passed a referendum to increase funding for the forest preserves, which will mean more trails and green spaces to use. Very excited for that as well.
Now if only Chicago could figure their shit out...
Edit: you forgot that minimum wage is finally going up to $15/hr and tipped minimum wage to $9/hr.
Hopefully we can stay that way.
Can it ever. But that's awesome for your county
I did lose track of where that last minimum wage step was, I couldn't remember if we'd hit 15 last year or this, but I don't supervise student staff and thankfully don't work minimum anymore myself. The tipped minimum going up is big, if we're going to keep having a tipped minimum, I'm glad it's going up
New Jersey:
State minimum wage getting boosted to $15.49 for most employees.
The Pay Transparency Law is taking effect: Any employer with more than 10 employees must disclose pay range and benefits on job postings.
New Jersey Data Privacy Act, The first violation will result in a penalty of $2,500, while a second violation will attract a penalty of $20,000. That's more than double CCPA's punishment for intentional violations....and nonprofits are not exempt. It's a pretty solid refinement of what has come before.
The 2025 budget has a lot of goodies. Consolidation of the property tax relief programs. Expansion of child tax credits. RetireReady NJ to go live, which should help expand access to retirement savings programs. More state funding for public schools, further easing burdens of property taxes. Expanding the public pre-K program, keeping with the target to get universal free pre-K. Murphy is now the first governor to fully pay the pension payments 4 years in a row. Added tax burden for large businesses to fund public transit, with a tax reduction for small/medium businesses. All of this with a $6 billion budget surplus, which is going to be used in part to help restructure the state's funding to be more sustainable.
Oh and just two days ago we got prohibition on banning books, third in the nation. Suck it censors.
Feeling pretty good about this one. Murphy is really cleaning up the mess Chris Christie left behind and shoring up against federal hostilities.
Those are solid, we banned school book bannings in a previous year!
Glad to see NJ is representing!
Illinois was the first to do so actually! Another Pritzker W.
Ontario
Ontario Building Code update - the largest in the code's history, including new standards for energy efficiency and accessibility.
New Criminal Rate of Interest.
Family Legal Services Provider program begins - allows paralegals to provide certain legal services in family law.
Gotta keep those bathrooms clean for construction workers.
Michigan has a minimum wage increase for tipped and non tipped employees, with the intention of completely closing the gap by 2030.
https://www.michigan.gov/leo/news/2024/10/01/michigan-minimum-wage-rate-2025-increase-schedule
Additionally, all employers have to start providing sick time to their employees, but that one is by February 21st.
https://www.michigan.gov/leo/bureaus-agencies/ber/wage-and-hour/paid-medical-leave-act
We got Personal Plus time last year which is 40 hours a year for all full time employees with zero "prove why you're out of work." Glad to see more sick time reqs though.