PROVIDENCE – A number of business-related laws previously passed by the General Assembly will take effect on Jan. 1.
Among them is a 75-cent raise in the state’s minimum hourly wage, which will move from $12.25 to $13.
Redefining Higher Education: The Strategic Imperative of a Three-Year Bachelor’s Degree
For over a century, the structure of undergraduate education has remained largely unchanged—typically requiring four…
Learn More
Employers will be legally required to pay employees $13 an hour throughout 2023, with the minimum wage increasing $1 in both 2024 and reaching $15 by 2025, per the legislation approved by lawmakers and signed by Gov. Daniel J. McKee in 2021.
Massachusetts is also increasing its minimum wage in the new year, moving from $14.25 to $15 starting Jan. 1.
However, Rhode Island and Massachusetts are not among the 19 states whose minimum wage is indexed to inflation, meaning the bottom wage is automatically adjusted to reflect an increase in prices.
The latest consumer price index shows prices have risen by 7.1% in the previous 12 months, according to the most recent data published in November by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Other laws taking effect Jan. 1:
- The Equal Pay Law, expanded in 2021, will require equal compensation for “comparable work” regardless of race, gender, sexual orientation, religion, nationality, age or disability. According to the legislation, comparable work is defined as that which requires “substantially similar skill, effort, and responsibility, and is performed under similar working conditions.” Other requirements include employers providing wage information to certain job applicants and employees seeking a job transfer and prohibiting employers from asking applicants about their salary history and/or relying on that wage history in the hiring decision.
- An increase to the state’s temporary caregiver insurance benefits provided to employees from a maximum of five weeks to six weeks. According to the legislation, “an employee shall be eligible for temporary caregiver benefits for any week in which he or she is unable to perform his or her regular and customary work because he or she is bonding with a newborn child or a child newly placed for adoption or foster care with the employee or domestic partner” or “caring for a child, parent, parent-in-law, grandparent, spouse, or domestic partner, who has a serious health condition.”
- Health insurers will be prohibited from so-called “gender rating,” the discriminatory practice of charging women higher rates than men for individual insurance. Studies have shown that women are often charged between 10% to 50% more than men for insurance providing identical coverage.
Christopher Allen is a PBN staff writer. You may contact him at Allen@PBN.com.
