The Latest – Indiana’s Employer Immigration Crackdown, Washington’s New Hiring Limits, and a Wave of July 1 State Mandates (June 2026)

Jenny Kiesewetter is a practicing ERISA and employee benefits attorney who partners with HR teams on a wide range of workplace compliance matters — from benefit-plan obligations to day-to-day HR policies and regulatory requirements. Her guidance helps employers spot risks early, navigate regulatory change, and make informed decisions that support both employees and the organization.

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Federal agencies have spent the year pulling back, but the states are not waiting. A cluster of new employer mandates takes effect this summer, reaching into hiring, layoffs, warehouse floors, and the tools companies use to watch their workers. Six of them deserve a place on your summer compliance calendar, and several carry penalties that earlier state laws lacked. Here is what to track.

Effective Date: July 1, 2026 (Senate Enrolled Act 76, the FAIRNESS Act).

What’s Changing:

Indiana enacted Senate Bill 76, known as the FAIRNESS Act, creating state-level penalties for employers that knowingly or intentionally recruit, hire, or continue to employ unauthorized workers in Indiana. Starting July 1, 2026, an Indiana employer may not knowingly or intentionally recruit, hire, or continue to employ an individual who is not authorized to work in the United States. The Indiana Attorney General investigates alleged violations and brings enforcement actions.

Penalties start with a five-business-day suspension of state operating authorizations and can reach permanent revocation for repeat or willful violations. Employers have a defense if they used reasonable diligence to confirm work authorization, which may include E-Verify or another federal electronic verification program when appropriate. The law also protects employees who cooperate with the Attorney General on compliance issues.

HR Takeaway

• Enroll in E-Verify and use it consistently; the safe harbor makes it your strongest defense.
• Apply Form I-9 and verification steps uniformly for every new hire to limit both unauthorized employment and discrimination claims.
• Prepare a response plan for an Attorney General inquiry, since penalties may reach suspension or revocation of your authority to operate.

Effective Date: July 1, 2026, for employers with 15 or more employees (January 1, 2027, for smaller employers); Engrossed House Bill 1747, signed April 21, 2025.

What’s Changing:

Washington amended its Fair Chance Act through Engrossed House Bill 1747. The amended law bars employers from asking about or obtaining an applicant’s criminal history before extending a conditional offer of employment. The earlier version let employers inquire once they decided an applicant was otherwise qualified, so this change moves the entire conversation to a later point in hiring.

Employers still cannot use arrest records or juvenile adjudications. Adult convictions are different, but the employer needs a documented business reason connected to the job before relying on one.

The notice rule is also more specific now. After a conditional offer, employers must give the applicant written notice of the law, and a copy of the Attorney General’s Fair Chance Act guide if they say the job requires a background check. The same notice is required if the applicant brings up criminal history during the interview.

Violations can get expensive fast. The penalties can reach $1,500 for a first violation, $3,000 for a second, and $15,000 for each later violation, assessed per aggrieved applicant or employee. The new rules apply July 1, 2026, for employers with 15 or more employees, and January 1, 2027, for smaller employers.

HR Takeaway

• Remove criminal-history questions from applications and any pre-offer screening for Washington roles.
• Document a legitimate business reason tied to the specific job before you take adverse action based on a conviction.
• Update job-posting templates to include the required legal summary and the Attorney General’s Fair Chance guide.

Effective Date: July 17, 2026 (Legislative Bill 921, signed April 14, 2026).

What’s Changing:

Nebraska adopted its own Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act through Legislative Bill 921. Nebraska WARN requires 90 days’ advance written notice, half again as long as the federal WARN Act’s 60-day requirement, before a business closing or mass layoff that causes an employment loss for 100 or more full-time employees at a single site. Notice must reach affected employees, any union representatives, and the Nebraska Department of Labor.

The trigger differs from the federal law in a way that can catch large employers off guard. Federal WARN ties a mass layoff to both a headcount and a 33 percent share of the workforce, while Nebraska WARvN uses a flat count of 100 full-time employees with no percentage threshold. A layoff that falls short of federal WARN can still trigger the Nebraska law.

The Department of Labor enforces the law and may impose a civil penalty of up to $100 per day. Employees do not have a private right to sue under the Act.

HR Takeaway

• Start reduction-in-force planning earlier, because the 90-day clock means you must spot a triggering event well in advance.
• Assemble a notice packet that includes affected job titles, employee names, and current handbooks and personnel policies.
• Review your workforce language demographics so you can post notices in every language that 5 percent or more of your employees speak.

Effective Date: July 1, 2026 (Senate Bill 298, Public Act 26-1, signed March 3, 2026); written quota disclosures to current employees due by August 1, 2026.

What’s Changing:

Connecticut’s new Warehouse Worker Protection law, enacted as part of Senate Bill 298, regulates large warehouse distribution centers that run their operations on productivity quotas. The law applies to employers with at least 250 employees at a single Connecticut warehouse, or at least 1,000 employees across one or more Connecticut warehouses.

Covered employers must give each affected employee a written description of every quota that applies to that worker, including any adverse action that can follow a missed quota. Current employees must receive these disclosures by August 1, 2026, and new hires must receive them when they start.

The law also limits how a quota can be built. A quota cannot prevent compliance with Connecticut’s meal-period rules, interfere with bathroom use, including reasonable travel time, or measure output over a window shorter than the full workday. Employees may request their own work speed data in certain circumstances, and employers may not retaliate against workers who ask for that data or bring a claim.

HR Takeaway

• Confirm whether your Connecticut headcount crosses the 250-employee single-site or 1,000-employee statewide threshold.
• Draft and deliver written quota descriptions to current warehouse employees before the August 1, 2026, deadline.
• Audit quota formulas so they never cut into meal periods, restroom breaks, or required travel time.

Effective Date: Became law January 11, 2026 (Public Law Chapter 524, Legislative Document 61); takes effect 90 days after the Legislature’s 2026 adjournment, now reported by the Maine Legislature as July 2026.

What’s Changing:

Maine enacted An Act to Regulate Employer Surveillance to Protect Workers, which bars private and public employers from monitoring employees through electronic devices or systems without first giving notice. The law covers monitoring through computers, phones, and similar electronic systems, and it excludes security or safety cameras and GPS or other safety devices on employer-owned vehicles.

The law imposes two notice duties. An employer that conducts surveillance must tell applicants about it during the interview process and must give all current employees written notice at least once each calendar year. Employers may not use audiovisual monitoring in an employee’s home, personal vehicle, or on personal property unless the job duties require it, and employees may decline a request to install data-collection or transmission applications on their personal devices.

The Maine Department of Labor enforces the law, with fines of $100 to $500 for each violation. The law does not apply in personal-care-services settings.

HR Takeaway

• Inventory every monitoring tool in use, from keystroke and email tracking to app-based location data.
• Add a surveillance disclosure to your interview script and a written annual notice to your employee communications.
• Stop any audiovisual monitoring of personal spaces unless you can tie it directly to job duties, and let employees opt out of monitoring apps on personal devices.

Effective Date: July 1, 2026, milestone under the Dignity and Pay Act (Senate Bill 55, signed May 2025); full prohibition July 1, 2027.

What’s Changing:

Georgia’s Dignity and Pay Act (Senate Bill 55) winds down the use of federal Section 14( c ) certificates, which have allowed employers to pay workers with disabilities below the minimum wage. The law sets a step-down schedule rather than an immediate cutoff.

Employers holding a certificate issued by the U.S. Department of Labor on or before July 1, 2025, could pay below the minimum wage until July 1, 2026. Starting July 1, 2026, those employers must pay affected workers at least half of the federal minimum wage. On and after July 1, 2027, all employers must pay workers with disabilities at least the full federal minimum wage.

Georgia joins a growing group of states ending subminimum-wage programs, a shift that reflects evolving expectations about pay equity for workers with disabilities.

HR Takeaway

• If you hold a 14( c ) certificate, raise affected wages to at least half the federal minimum wage now and budget for full minimum wage by July 2027.
• Review job structures and supported-employment arrangements that depended on the subminimum rate.
• Communicate the pay change to affected workers and update payroll coding ahead of the July 1, 2026, step-up.

State legislatures keep moving workplace compliance forward, regardless of where federal agencies place their enforcement priorities. These six laws add July deadlines for hiring, layoffs, warehouse quotas, surveillance, immigration compliance, and subminimum wages.

Multistate employers should start with the laws tied to their active operations. Indiana employers should review work-authorization practices. Washington employers should move criminal-history questions and background-check disclosures later in the hiring process. Connecticut warehouse operators should prepare quota disclosures. Nebraska employers planning large layoffs should build in 90 days’ notice. Maine employers should put surveillance disclosures in writing. Georgia employers using 14(c) certificates should adjust pay before the next phase begins.

Timing drives the risk here. These are not long-range policy debates. They are compliance changes with dates already on the calendar.

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