In February 2019, the New York City Commission on Human Rights released a legal enforcement guidance about race discrimination on the basis of hair.

According to the Commission, the New York City Human Rights Law (NYCHRL) “protects the rights of New Yorkers to maintain natural hair or hairstyles that are closely associated with their racial, ethnic, or cultural identities. For Black people, this includes the right to maintain natural hair, treated or untreated hairstyles such as locs, cornrows, twists, braids, Bantu knots, fades, Afros, and/or the right to keep hair in an uncut or untrimmed state.” The phrase “Black people” includes those who identify as:
African;
African American;
Afro-Caribbean;
Afro-Latin-x/a/o; or
Otherwise having African or Black ancestry.
According to the guidance, hair-based discrimination implicates many areas of the NYCHRL, including prohibitions against race, religion, disability, age, or gender-based discrimination. The Commission’s guidance seeks to highlight the protections available under the NYCHRL for people who maintain particular hairstyles as part of a racial or ethnic identity, or as part of a cultural practice, regardless of the changing nature of these characteristics.

Covered entities with policies prohibiting hairstyles associated with a particular racial, ethnic, or cultural group would, with few exceptions, violate the NYCHRL’s protections against race and related forms of discrimination. Additionally, although the guidance focuses on Black communities, these protections broadly extend to other impacted groups including, but not limited to, those who identify as Latin-x/a/o, Indo-Caribbean, or Native American, and also face barriers in maintaining “natural hair” or specific cultural hairstyles.

I am often asked by clients: "What personnel and employment documents should we keep on file and for how long?" So, here is my basic response:

Rather than deciding what to keep and what to throw out, create a document-retention policy. This means you only retain the documents that are required to be retained by law, because of business necessity, or because it might just be useful--what I call the "you never know" category. The last two categories are specific to each business; the first, however, should follow the law and here is what the law requires:

• For at least 2 years, keep basic employment and earning records like timecards, wage-rate tables, shipping and billing records, and records of additions to or deductions from wages.
• For at least 3 years, keep payroll records, certificates, agreements, notices, collective bargaining agreements, employment contracts, and sales and purchase records.
• Basic payroll data.
• Dates FMLA leave is taken, including hours of leave for times of less than a full day.
• Copies of written notices given to employees as required by the FMLA.
• Documents describing benefits, policies and practices regarding paid and unpaid leave.
• Premium payment records for employee benefits.
• Records of disputes over the designation of leave as FMLA.
• Records relating to medical certifications, recertifications or medical histories created for FMLA purposes, kept in separate files from the usual personnel files.

I-9 Forms
Under the Immigration Reform and Control Act, you must keep copies of an employee's I-9 (Employee Eligibility Verification Form) for 3 years after the date of hire. If the employee works longer than three years, hold on to the form for at least another year after he or she leaves.

FLSA
Under the Fair Labor Standards Act you must:

Equal Pay Act
In addition to the payroll records that the FLSA requires, you must also keep, for at least 2 years, any records that show why you may pay different wages to employees of different sexes, such as wage rates, job evaluations, seniority and merit systems, and collective bargaining agreements.

Discrimination
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission highly recommends that employers keep all employment records for at least 1 year from the employee's date of termination. The federal Age Discrimination in Employment Act requires that you retain payroll records for 3 years. In addition, an employer must keep files of benefit plans and seniority and merit systems while they are in effect and for at least 1 year after they end.

FMLA
If your company is covered by the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), it must retain the following records for 3 years:

OSHA
Under the Occupational Safety and Health Act, employers must keep records of job-related injuries and illnesses for 5 years. But some records, like those covering toxic substance exposure, must be kept for 30 years.

ERISA
For benefit plans under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act, an employer must retain summary descriptions and annual reports for 6 years.
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The New York Department of Labor has adopted proposed changes to increase the salary threshold for “white collar” executive and administrative employees to qualify as exempt. Accordingly, employers are required to pay the following minimum salaries as of their respective dates to maintain the executive and administrative overtime exemption under New York law:

Large employers (those with 11 or more employees) in New York City:
$825 per week effective December 31, 2016.
$975 per week effective December 31, 2017.
$1,125 per week effective December 31, 2018.

Small employers (those with 10 or fewer employees) in New York City:
$787.50 per week effective December 31, 2016.
$900 per week effective December 31, 2017.
$1,012.50 per week effective December 31, 2018.
$1,125 per week effective December 31, 2019.

Employers in Long Island and Westchester:
$750 per week effective December 31, 2016.
$825 per week effective December 31, 2017.
$900 per week effective December 31, 2018.
$975 per week effective December 31, 2019.
$1,050 per week effective December 31, 2020.
$1,125 per week effective December 31, 2021.

Employers in the remainder of New York State (outside of New York City, Long Island, and Westchester):
$727.50 per week effective December 31, 2016.
$780 per week effective December 31, 2017.
$832 per week effective December 31, 2018.
$885 per week effective December 31, 2019.
$937.50 per week effective December 31, 2020.

In May of this year, the New York  City Commission on Human Rights announced a list of 31 new genders that are protected by New York City's anti-discrimination laws.  The list includes the terms "androgynous," "gender bender," "gender gifted," "third sex," "genderqueer," "gender fluid" and "pangender."  And the list is by no means intended to be "exhaustive."  I suppose they couldn't think of any other gender types at the moment.

This all comes within the scope of New York City Human Rights Law passed in 2005 known as the 2005 Civil Rights Restoration Act.  Apparently, the law needed updating, or at least further clarification, because such gender terms and different gender concepts were not within the contemplation of the legislators back in 2005, and so now the City wants to make clear who is protected.

The NYC Human Rights Law also requires employers and covered entities to use an individual’s preferred name, pronoun and title (for example, Ms./Mrs.), regardless of the individual’s sex assigned at birth, anatomy, gender, medical history, appearance, or the sex indicated on the individual’s identification.

Be careful employers:  the penalties for violating the law are harsh:  $125,000 for each violation or $250,000 if the discriminatory conduct is considered willful.

The times, they are a changin'....