WASHINGTON — As employment law continues to evolve, small-business owners, including many dry cleaners, are facing an increasingly complex landscape of federal, state and local labor laws and requirements that can seem overwhelming.
During a recent National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) webinar, Tony Dalimonte, an employment attorney with Foster Swift Collins & Smith in Michigan, walked small-business owners through the employment law changes and risks they need to understand in 2026.
In Part 1, we explored how handbooks can either help or hurt employers and looked at common wage-and-hour pitfalls. In Part 2, we focused on discrimination claims that may land employers on the bad side of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC).
Today, we’ll finish the EEOC discussion and conclude with practical steps businesses can take immediately to reduce their legal risk.
The EEOC has identified national origin discrimination as an enforcement priority for 2026, Dalimonte says, with Chair Andrea Lucas issuing a statement vowing to protect American workers from what she termed “anti-American bias.”
The agency has found several forms of potential workplace discrimination it says it will scrutinize. These include discriminatory job advertisements indicating preferences for applicants from particular countries or visa statuses, along with unequal treatment of U.S. citizens.
“This essentially means that if you’re treating non-American...
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