Laws are the rules that govern people’s lives and institutions. They can be written by governments or proposed by individuals. They can also be created by judges, lawyers and other experts, such as policymakers and journalists.
Some laws are written by government agencies, such as state and local governments, while others are made by Congress or the president. The federal government can make laws on matters such as immigration, the environment and public safety, for example.
New laws in 2021 include a range of new measures, such as minimum wage increases, animal protections and police accountability. They also include reforms to how we educate our children, protect our rights and increase our safety.
A number of these changes come as the country is facing a racial reckoning after the death of George Floyd, a Black man who was killed by police. Many states passed a host of new criminal justice laws to reflect this and address other concerns about how police treat Black men and women.
College athletes will be able to make money by endorsing products or services without losing their scholarships. This will help support those athletes while also expanding the opportunities of a growing industry in New York.
Siblings will now be counted as family members for the purposes of paid sick leave in New York. This will allow employees to take up to 12 weeks off to care for a brother or sister, and they can get as much as 67% of their usual salary.
In addition, airports in New York must offer a location where nursing mothers can breastfeed when they are flying, as well as a chair and electrical outlet to use. This is a part of the newly enacted “Baby Friendly Airport Act,” which is designed to reduce the risk of infants becoming dehydrated, sick or ill from air travel.
Laundry Licensing
The City’s current laundry licensing scheme dates back to the early 20th Century and does not adequately regulate certain activities, such as industrial laundries and delivery services that may operate in a manner that is harmful to human health or the environment. This bill will update the City’s laundry licensing scheme to better regulate the activities that laundries engage in and will create a tiered licensing system for industrial, retail and delivery laundries.
Data Breach Notifications
The City must notify the Mayor, the Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications and affected citizens if there is a security breach that involves the disclosure of private identifying information. This bill would expand the types of information that must be included in these notifications.
Severance Pay for Hotel Service Employees
This bill would require hotels to provide a severance package to hotel service workers who are displaced during a sale or bankruptcy. It would also prevent hotel service employers from terminating or reducing hours of employment if there is a significant change in the control of the hotel.
This bill would also require that restaurants and other food service establishments notify customers of their use of biometric identifier technology, and prohibit the sale of that information for monetary or commercial purposes. This bill also would ban the practice of on-call scheduling for retail employees, which requires an employer to call a worker when they’re about to start or finish a shift.