#hiring
Financial considerations when hiring employees or contractors
The DOL's February 2026 proposal would replace the six-factor totality test with a weighted two-factor standard focused on control and opportunity for profit or loss — here is how it works, what still depends on state law, and a checklist to audit your freelancer relationships now.
BLS projects 120K+ accounting openings yearly while CPA pipeline shrinks — 77% shortage index, 134% hiring index, and why firms are rethinking pay and pathways.
Pay data reports for 2025 due May 13 2026 — 100+ employee employers must file pay, demographic and new work-pattern data with CRD; SB 464 adds 23 job categories from 2027.
HRA Council: ALE ICHRA adoption up 34%, small employer up 52%, ~1M covered lives, $26,993 family premium strain — what 2026 means for defined contribution.
From Jan 1 2026, CCPA requires HR data risk assessments and new state privacy laws in IN, KY, RI take effect — what HR must map, disclose and minimize.
Washington ESHB 1155 bans all non-competes from June 30 2027 — including existing agreements — with Oct 1 2027 notice and $5,000 penalty. What remains enforceable.
The $58,656 threshold was vacated — $35,568 is the enforceable level — but salary is only a third of exemption; duties decide the rest, and reclassification lives or dies on time records and the regular rate.
Australia's Payday Super reform, effective 1 July 2026, requires employers to remit superannuation guarantee contributions within 7 business days of payday, replacing the old quarterly deadline and late-payment offset with a stacked penalty regime that adds GIC interest, up to a 60% administrative uplift, and fund-choice loading.
Contractor misclassification can cost over $100,000 per worker. Learn how the 2026 DOL rules tighten classification requirements and why industries from delivery services to healthcare tech are facing major reclassification lawsuits.
Kentucky's HB 185, in effect statewide since July 15, 2026, lets applicants with a conviction history request a binding predetermination from a licensing board before paying for training, and bars boards from treating any felony as automatically disqualifying — a change that directly affects the labor pool for small businesses hiring cosmetologists, HVAC techs, real estate agents, and other licensed trades.
On July 24, 2026 the First Circuit denied a stay of the Massachusetts district court's vacatur of the $100,000 H-1B supplemental fee, so the charge is not currently being collected while the government's appeal proceeds — but the ruling isn't final and could reverse.
Gusto's acquisition of compliance-automation platform Mosey signals that multi-state registration is becoming a payroll-provider feature. Small businesses under 50 employees spend about $14,700 per employee per year on regulatory compliance, and a first hire in a new state triggers foreign qualification, withholding and SUTA accounts, workers' comp, and new-hire reporting — each with its own agency, deadline, and penalties.
