By Charlotte Hodde & Amy Angel Barran Liebman Oregon Law Firm The Governor has signed into law two new employment laws protecting working mothers. The first requires reasonable accommodations for pregnancy and childbirth and the second expands on existing requirements to provide breaks for nursing mothers to express breast milk. […]

U.S. Chamber of Commerce U.S. Chamber of Commerce Executive Vice President and Chief Policy Officer Neil Bradley issued the following statement after the House of Representatives passed H.R. 6, the American Dream and Promise Act of 2019. The Chamber issued a key vote in support of passage of the bill. […]

Timothy A. Duy Director, Oregon Economic Forum Department of Economics, University of Oregon The Oregon Measure of Economic Activity fell to 0.41 in April, down from an upwardly-revised 0.74 in March. Highlights of this month’s report include: – The moving average measure, which smooths out the volatility, slid to 0.55, […]

Josh Lehner Oregon Office of Economic Analysis Here is a quick, updated look at estate taxes in Oregon. This is a follow-up, as promised, to our recent work looking at the income distribution and wealth. Recent years have brought record-breaking estate tax collections that have been significantly stronger than our […]

U.S. Sens. Ron Wyden U.S. Sens. Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley  demanded Union Pacific Railroad (UPRR) answer questions about its proposed layoffs of nearly 200 people in Hermiston and the damage those job cuts would do to worker safety, transportation and the regional economy. “These UPRR decisions to reduce jobs […]

US Attorney Oregon District Release, U.S. Attorney Billy J. Williams announced that two Nigerian nationals have been charged in a 13-count indictment alleging they engaged in an online scheme to defraud victims of bitcoin virtual currency. In an indictment filed on April 18, 2019, Onwuemerie Ogor Gift, 24, and Kelvin […]

By Oregon Small Business Association, According to the U.S. Census Bureau Census Bureau, fourth quarter 2018 rental vacancy rate for the Portland/ Vancouver/ Hillsboro metro area was 2.4%, a decrease of 0.2% from a year earlier. The Portland Metro area ties with New Haven-Milford for the third lowest rental vacancy […]

By Sarah Hale Barran Liebman Oregon Law Firm Washington’s pay equity law has been amended to generally prohibit employers from inquiring about a job applicant’s wage or salary history and to impose new disclosure requirements on salary ranges. The amendments to the Equal Pay and Opportunities Act (“EPOA”) take effect […]

By Oregon Employment Department, Oregon’s 2018 Natural Population Increase Was the Lowest on Record In 2018, Oregon’s population increased by 54,200 to 4,195,300. This marked growth of 1.3 percent over the year, and growth of 9.5 percent since the 2010 Census. Portland State University’s Population Research Center recently released more […]

By Richard Hunt Barran Liebman Oregon Law Firm Although the Oregon legislature, like many other states, has constrained employers’ ability to enforce non‑competition agreements, employers continue to have the ability to protect themselves by adopting and enforcing confidentiality/non‑disclosure agreements and non‑solicitation restrictions.