The number of remote workers tripled from 2019 to 2021, with 17.9% of America’s workforce (27.9 million people) spending the majority of their work week at home. This dramatic shift has created a grab bag of perks and drawbacks: while workers are all about the flexibility and lack of commute, many employers are struggling with new security risks, employee oversight, and legal compliance – including your “Know Your Rights” Poster.
No doubt, drafting compliant employment agreements, hiring documents, and required labor law signage has always been challenging for employers. Now that employees could span all 50 states, that challenge has grown monumentally.
So, how can employers keep up on ever-changing labor laws surrounding notices and signage? Here, we’ll cover one of the most significant changes to labor law poster requirements and offer a simple solution that allows employers to stay compliant—even when the bulk of their staff is remote.
The “Know Your Rights” poster is changing
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) recently released a new version of their “Equal Employment Opportunity is the Law” poster. Here’s what employers need to know about the new poster:
- Name: The old “Equal Employment Opportunity is the Law” poster has been renamed to “Know Your Rights: Workplace Discrimination is Illegal.”
- Purpose: As with the old “EEO is the Law” poster, the new poster is meant to inform employees about their right to a safe, discrimination-free workplace.
- Content: The new poster includes much of the same information about workplace harassment and discrimination. It covers protected topics such as:
- Sexual orientation
- Pregnancy
- Sex
- Race
- Religion
- Age
- Pay equity
- Disability
- And more
- Format: The most noticeable change in the new poster is the format, which makes it easier to read and understand.
- Updates: The new poster clarifies the definition of sex discrimination to include discrimination on the basis sexual orientation, gender identity, or pregnancy.
- Accessibility: The new poster includes a QR code that allows employees to view the information on a mobile device.
- Display requirements: Employers are required to display the poster in a highly visible area of the office. The EEOC also recommends displaying the electronic version of the poster on the organization’s website.
Keep in mind: this change to the federal EEO poster is just one of many labor law requirements businesses need to keep up on. The U.S. Department of Labor is constantly fielding questions about required notices, which is really no surprise. In order to stay compliant on just the federal level, businesses have to keep up on laws outlined by the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), the Employee Polygraph Protection Act (EPPA), and more. That’s not to mention the different requirements instituted by each state.
Streamlining labor law poster compliance
If the rules about posting required notices has your head spinning, you’re not alone. Labor law posters are changing all the time, and many employers struggle to keep up with the changes. Often, they find out about non-compliance the hard way, dropping serious cash on fines and lawsuits.
But we have good news: SixFifty is taking the stress out of labor law poster compliance, just as we’ve done with Privacy Docs, Employment Docs, and Business Docs. We updated our 50-State Hiring Kit to include the latest federal EEO poster, so you can seamlessly hire employees from anywhere within the U.S. Our hiring kit gives you state-specific information for the hiring or relocating process, keeping up compliance all along the way.
Never worry about required notices again
You have more important things to worry about than the latest labor law poster requirements. That’s our job. Let us take the task off your plate with our legal tools for small- and mid-size businesses.
SixFifty’s tools are intuitive, time-saving, and stress-reducing, giving you world-class legal expertise at an affordable price. Check out our 50-State Hiring Kit today to generate an easy-to-understand blueprint for hiring in new states and put labor law poster requirements on auto-pilot. Request a demo today to see our tools in action.