The new year—and the return of the Trump administration to the White House—could bring all kinds of changes to the workplace. The president-elect is likely to reverse some of the wins of the Biden administration, which included expanding legal immigration to embracing pro-labor policies that help promote organizing efforts.
Many people fear that Trump will reinstate some of the anti-immigration measures he introduced during his first term, which restricted all kinds of immigration and also impacted highly skilled workers. While Biden’s pick to lead the National Labor Relations Board—Jennifer Abruzzo—has taken significant steps to bolster labor rights and strengthen workplace protections over the past four years, Trump’s appointees are likely to undo much of that work.
Then there are the proposals laid out in Project 2025, which take aim at workplace safety standards and organizing rights and even suggest eliminating public sector unions. (Trump has already selected several people for his administration with ties to Project 2025—after spending the campaign trying to distance himself from the initiative.) Should Trump choose to pursue many of those recommendations, his second term could prove even more damaging to workers’ rights.
Still, despite the looming uncertainty, there are a number of laws and policies that have already been enacted and will go into effect in 2025—many of which will benefit rank and file workers in the new year.
Minimum wage increases
States across the U.S.—and the political spectrum—have boosted the minimum wage over the last decade, partly in response to the Fight for $15 movement and other worker-led campaigns. Fourteen states have since passed a $15 hourly minimum wage, though some of them are still phasing in the new pay floor. In 2025, workers across 23 states and 65 localities will see their wages rise; by the end of the year, the minimum wage will exceed $15 in nine states and cross $17 in 51 cities and counties.
In states such as California and New Jersey, some healthcare workers will benefit from significant pay bumps, putting their hourly pay above $18. Across a handful of localities—including Washington, D.C., and Chicago—tipped workers will also get a raise, as those regions work toward phasing out the subminimum wage. This year, Michigan became the first state to eliminate the subminimum wage, which means tipped workers there will also see a wage increase in 2025.
Pay transparency
Fourteen states and several localities have now passed laws mandating that employers share some measure of pay transparency, whether that means posting salary ranges in job listings or providing that insight during hiring negotiations.
As of 2025, the majority of employers across five of those states—Illinois, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, and Vermont—will have to provide salary data when posting job openings, arming candidates with more information as they navigate discussions of compensation. A pay transparency law passed in Washington, D.C., also took effect earlier this year.
While some companies have sought to get around the law, usually by posting overly broad salary ranges, these measures have continued to gain traction and are catalyzing more pay transparency across the private sector. (Early data also suggests that these laws are closing the gender pay gap more quickly in states like Colorado, which was the first to implement pay transparency.) A number of other states, such as Michigan, are considering putting a similar law in the books, while others have introduced bills that failed to progress through the state legislature.
Paid sick leave
While paid family leave legislation has stalled at the federal level, many states have found a way to secure coverage for workers who need time off for health reasons or caregiving responsibilities. Some of the broader paid leave laws are only slated for enforcement in 2026, but starting next year, workers in Alaska, Missouri, and Nebraska can reap the benefits of access to paid sick leave if they need to take sick days for health reasons or to care for an ailing family member.
As of 2025, certain states with existing sick leave laws will extend coverage to include experiences including pregnancy loss or adoption or have expanded the definition of “family members” who are typically covered. In New York, a new amendment—and the first of its kind—will grant pregnant workers another 20 hours of paid prenatal leave (in addition to the state’s existing sick leave policy), which can be put toward doctors’ appointments and other prenatal care as needed.
Retail worker protections
In a handful of states, retail employees will gain new protections due to legislation that aims to prevent workplace violence. The Retail Worker Safety Act, which passed in New York, requires that all retailers have a clear workplace violence prevention policy and training program; larger workplaces are even required to install panic buttons. (While the law will be enforced in the new year, employers do have until 2027 to put a panic button system in place.)
A similar law was enacted in California, though it does not mandate the use of panic buttons. Both measures are partly a response to the increased violence and harassment retail workers often face on the job, which has only worsened since the pandemic.
Beyond protections against violence, retail employees have also notched other wins that could improve their working conditions. This year, city officials in Ann Arbor, Michigan, approved a law that will enable workers—whether in retail or hospitality—to sit while on the job, as long as that doesn’t interfere with their duties.
Similar “right to sit” laws have already been enacted in California, Florida, and Wisconsin, and in some states, there are still dated laws on the books that only grant women the right to sit. While pregnant workers, for example, are eligible for accommodations that would allow them to sit on the job as needed, these laws are largely modeled after norms in European countries, where retail workers are often seated.
Overtime eligibility
Earlier this year, the Biden administration finalized a rule that seemed like a boon for millions of salaried workers, making them newly eligible for overtime pay. It was the first time in decades that overtime eligibility had been expanded significantly; unlike hourly workers, salaried employees are typically not entitled to overtime pay unless their salary is below a certain threshold.
Under the Trump administration, employers were only required to pay overtime to workers whose salary was $35,568 or less; after the rule took effect in July, however, workers were eligible if they earned up to $43,888, and the salary cap would have increased again to $58,656 by 2025.
But in November, a federal judge struck down the rule, revoking overtime pay for workers who had qualified for it this year—and blocking a new group of workers from eligibility in 2025. (An estimated four million workers would have been impacted in the first year of implementation, according to the Labor Department.)
It’s not clear whether eligibility could change again under Trump, who has said he is opposed to the idea of overtime pay and already took steps to limit overtime during his first administration. Some of the recommendations in Project 2025 suggest that Trump might go even further when he assumes the presidency, by chipping away at existing overtime benefits or offering loopholes to employers who want to avoid paying up.
