Most US lawmakers have adjourned until the New Year, but part of their work is being felt right now in a series of new laws and regulations due to go into effect January 1st.
These new rules affect many areas of life, from distracted driving to marijuana to paid sick leave. Here is a selection of changes that will affect the workplace, business and financial markets in 2021.
Marijuana is becoming legal in New Jersey and Montana
Five government marijuana initiatives were passed in November. Starting January 1, the recreational herb will be legalized in New Jersey and Montana. Marijuana is slated to be fully legal in Montana this weekend, but won’t be legally commercially available until 2022.
However, New Jersey could find itself in a legal gray area as state lawmakers are still negotiating laws to accompany the constitutional amendment to legalize recreational marijuana.
“There are some important, I want to say, technical, but important things that we want to work out,” New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy told a local television station this week.
A woman walks with a sign promoting marijuana legalization in Philadelphia. (Spencer Platt / Getty Images)
Voters in Arizona, Mississippi, and South Dakota also approved legalized weeds in November. The Arizona Marijuana Recovery Act went into effect back in November. South Dakota voted to legalize recreational and medicinal marijuana at the same time, but the state governor has filed a lawsuit to block the measure. For their part, Mississippi citizens only voted to legalize medical marijuana, leaving recreational marijuana illegal.
The changes are likely to help the U.S. cannabis sector grow an additional $ 9 billion in sales between 2022 and 2025, according to an industry tracker.
Changes in paid vacation regulations
Paid vacation at work is another area that will see changes in the New Year, both up and down.
During the initial response to the pandemic, the Family First Coronavirus Response Act expanded the Family and Medical Leave Act to include new paid options for employees of some companies. However, these provisions expire at the end of the year and will not be extended by the latest economic agreement.
The story goes on
Some states have announced new safeguards for paid vacation. In New York, Governor Andrew M. Cuomo recently announced that starting January 1, 2021, New Yorkers will be able to receive new sickness benefits that give workers one hour of paid sick leave for every 30 hours they work.
“Now that we continue to fight back COVID and build a stronger New York, we are extending that fundamental right to all New Yorkers,” Cuomo said in a statement.
Additionally, in November Colorado approved an election initiative to create a paid family and sick leave insurance program in the state. The program will create a government-funded program that offers 12 weeks of paid time off but will not come into effect until 2024.
20 states raise their minimum wages
Minimum wage workers in 20 US states will increase at the beginning of the new year. Four other states, plus Washington, DC, will raise their minimum wages later in 2021.
Florida’s workers will receive one of the biggest hikes after voters overwhelmingly voted in November for an election measure to gradually raise the minimum wage to $ 15 by 2026.
Protesters for a $ 15 minimum wage in NYC in July. (Tayfun Coskun / Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
The other states had incremental wage increases in the works. Florida joins a number of other states – California, Connecticut, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and New York – all of which are in the process of gradually increasing their minimum wage to $ 15 in the coming years.
Some groups have long spoken out against minimum wage increases, arguing that they will cost jobs.
Others disagree when they argue that higher wages will help give more people more purchasing power, which ultimately benefits everyone. Scott Fuhrman, CEO of Lakewood Organic Juice, based in Florida, joined Yahoo Finance earlier this week and noted, “I can only sell that much juice at 1%, so let’s try and expand the middle class, and one way to do that to do is that of. ” Increase in the minimum wage. “
New distracted driving laws
Several states are enacting distracted driving laws starting in 2021, including a Virginia measure that goes into effect Jan. 1 that makes using a cell phone illegal for any reason while driving.
“Distracted driving is a serious problem and we need everyone to work together,” Governor Ralph Northam reportedly said during a press conference highlighting the law earlier this month.
Arizona also has a distracted driving law that makes it illegal to hold or support a device with your body while driving. California has several new traffic laws in 2021, including increased penalties for “handheld use of a cell phone while driving”.
A deadline for the “Volcker rule”
In October 2019, five federal financial regulators announced “final revisions to simplify compliance requirements related to the” Volcker Rule “.”
The rule, named after the late Federal Reserve chairman Paul Volcker, aims to limit how much banking firms can gamble with their customers’ money and was a core part of the post-crisis Dodd-Frank financial oversight framework.
The former chairman of the US Federal Reserve, Paul Volcker, moderated a panel discussion in 2014. (REUTERS / Jonathan Ernst)
January 1st is the deadline for banks to comply with these changes. Companies that do not have substantial trading activities will now have an easier time with simplified compliance requirements.
The opposite is true for companies with significant trading activity, as they will now have stricter compliance requirements.
Ben Werschkul is a Washington, DC-based writer and producer for Yahoo Finance.
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