Month: February 2022

In December 2021, The Brookings Institution released portions of a study that revealed what the wage increases given to frontline workers at 13 “household name” companies actually mean in the bigger economic picture. At Amazon, for instance, the average hourly wage went up 17 percent, from a pre-Covid-19 pandemic $15.75 in January 2020 to $18.50 by October 2021. Employees at…

Is Tesla really worth a $1 trillion? In October 2021, the electric-vehicle company – founded just 18 years earlier – hit a staggering trillion dollar valuation. When confronted with these massive numbers, it can be easy to forget that valuations are not abstract figures, but real representations of a company’s achievements. Yet, in Silicon Valley, where companies are often valued…

A few weeks ago, many in the cybersecurity field started posting about the “log4j vulnerability.” According to CNBC, “Log4j” exists in open-source code and is widely used by many companies, including “Twitter, Amazon, Microsoft, Apple, IBM, Oracle, Cisco, [and] Google.” In December 2021, stories emerged of a vulnerability that enables malicious actors to manipulate the code. Billions of people and…

An Employee Stock Ownership Plan (“ESOP”) is a type of qualified retirement plan that provides employees with ownership interest in their company through shares of stock. The purpose of an ESOP is to align employee interests with those of the company, since its employees are also stockholders. Through an ESOP, employees can either purchase stock from their employer or receive…

On January 1, 2022, a California law went into effect that, among other developments, prohibits nondisclosure agreements (NDAs) that keep employees quiet about the discrimination they have suffered in the workplace. The state legislature passed the bill, known as SB 331 or the Silenced No More Act, on October 7, 2021. What Does the Silenced No More Act Do? SB…

In the last days of 2021, New Yorkers scored several legislative victories expanding legal protections for workers across the City and State. Below, our employment law attorneys explain the types of changes that will be enacted under the new laws in 2022. Legal Protection for Domestic Workers First, the State finally recognized what employment and labor laws have too often…