Keeping Up With Pay and Regulatory Changes and The Impact on Future Hiring

Published by Pooja Maggon at May 3, 2021

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Today’s leaders have a lot on their plates. The demand for talent is at an all-time high given the emergence of new technologies, the speed at which digital transformations are happening, and the globalization of the market. Add to that the necessity for companies to adapt to the changes in remote work, post-pandemic labor shifts, having a robust DE&I strategy, and, on top of all of that, they must keep up with the latest pay and regulatory changes that impact workers in various parts of the globe. It can feel overwhelming.

For instance, in Canada, development of the Pay Equity Act is expected in 2021. The Pay Equity Act was passed in 2018, but the federal government has now issued Pay Equity Regulations for comment to support the implementation of the Act. The Act applies to federally regulated employers with more than ten employees, including the federal private and public sectors. Employers will be required to establish pay equity plans this year as established in the Act’s original timelines.

There are also amendments to the Employment Equity Regulations in Canada, which introduced new pay transparency measures to raise awareness of the wage gaps experienced by women, Indigenous Peoples, persons with disabilities, and members of visible minorities in federally regulated workplaces. From June 1, 2022, federally regulated employers with 100 or more employees will be required to include aggregated wage gap information in their annual reporting on employment equity.

In the U.S., federal legislation will require employees performing services on or in connection with certain types of government contracts to be entitled to a minimum wage of $10.95 per hour.

Family Leave, Sick Leave, and COVID-19 Leave, which went into effect last year for employers with 500 or fewer employees, provided mandatory paid leave time for workers diagnosed with COVID-19, those caring for a family member with COVID-19, or caring for children whose place of care was closed due to the pandemic. Biden extended it through March 2021, but employers may need to watch out for additional extensions.

Another example is the Colorado Equal Pay, effective Jan 1, 2021, requiring any employer with even one Colorado employee to inform all employees of promotional opportunities worldwide and the compensation range for the position and descriptions of incentive compensation and benefits.

Add to this changes in tax policy, workplace safety/OSHA, tax compliance if an employee’s home is in a different location than the employer’s place of business, joint employment, and worker classification, and it becomes clear the volume of regulations that can impact a company’s entire workforce — be in full-time, part-time, contract, SOW, IC, or freelance.

While a company’s legal department is usually responsible for staying abreast of regulatory changes, understanding what’s coming and how it may impact future hiring, remote hiring, talent strategies, and choosing staffing partners for your contingent labor is important for all hiring managers to understand.

At eTeam, we pride ourselves on being at the forefront of all regulatory changes that have the potential to impact contingent labor — a population that will outnumber a company’s full-time employees in the not too distant future. According to Gartner, the gig economy is growing three times faster than the overall U.S. workforce. It’s projected that by 2023, more than half (52%) of the U.S. workforce will be gig economy workers.

Organizations need to partner with companies that understand where the market is going, how these regulatory changes may impact their entire workforce, and how to put policies and procedures in place to ensure they are following all federal and state guidelines.

At eTeam, we have a legal department that monitors changes in regulations globally in 14 different countries where we have office locations. We regularly advise our internal teams in different areas of labor policy to incorporate internal process changes, as well as advise our clients who may be impacted by these changes.

Our client-facing teams also use these and incorporate such changes in proposal development and advise our clients on matters of relevance and importance. Our HR and payroll teams continuously incorporate the same in their processes to adhere to local compliances and regulatory changes by county.

Additionally, we inform our consultants and employees worldwide as necessary to ensure they receive the most up-to-date information. It is our goal to be as thorough and informative as possible and our employees, consultants, and clients and to be seen as a strategic partner when it comes to regulatory changes.