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The pandemic underscored the importance of paid sick leave, a benefit to help workers and their families when they fall ill. Now voters in Missouri, Nebraska, and Alaska are deciding whether employers must provide it.

Guidance from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission says employers can legally require workers to get a COVID-19 vaccine before returning to the office. But workers can claim exceptions.

State laws in both Oklahoma and Texas allow employers to develop their own workplace injury plans that generally cover fewer injuries, cut off benefits payments sooner and control access to doctors.

At a time when most pregnant women work, there are new efforts to keep companies from unfairly targeting employees because of a pregnancy. Allegations of pregnancy discrimination persist and have even risen in recent years despite a decades-old law against it.

A worker's smoke breaks cost an employer even more than the increased costs of health care. Some employers charge higher health insurance premiums to employees who smoke or refuse to hire them altogether.