Oregon’s mandatory paid sick leave went into effect beginning January 1, 2016 for employers with more than 10 employees (for employers located within Portland, it's at least six employees). Mandatory paid sick leave will go into effect January 1, 2018 for Washington employers due to the passage of Initiative 1443, which was on the November 8, 2016 ballot.

On November 14, 2016, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) released an updated version of the Form I-9. There was a transition grace period allowed until January 22, 2017, but now all employers must utilize the correct form. Administrators should familiarize themselves with the differences between the old and new forms, and they should learn about the benefits of the new electronic version of the form.

In May 2017, we issued a blog post outlining the development of the State of Oregon's OregonSaves program, which is billed as a Mandatory State Retirement Savings Program for employers. Just over a year later, the program is now open to employers of all sizes who have employees in Oregon and don’t currently offer an employer-sponsored retirement plan.

Just the other day, we received a notification from the program allowing us to opt out and receive our certificate of exemption. We thought we'd take that as a signal to republish an edited version of this post, since the program is still being rolled out and some of you might have missed the news last year. Here it is.