New England's states are ringing in the new year with laws that will go into effect throughout 2025, affecting family leave, rideshare drivers, cannabis, wages and much more.
Here's what you should expect in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Vermont and Maine starting in January.
WATCH ANYTIME FOR FREE
 |
>Stream NBC10 Boston news for free, 24/7, wherever you are. |
MASSACHUSETTS
Uber and Lyft drivers will receive new benefits in Massachusetts starting January 2025. Following a lawsuit by the Massachusetts Attorney General's Office, if you made trips as a driver through the Uber or Lyft app between July 14, 2020, and July 2, 2024, you may qualify for compensation that will begin to be reimbursed on June 1, 2025.
Get updates on what's happening in Boston to your inbox. Sign up for our >News Headlines newsletter.
Other changes coming due to this lawsuit are a driver's earnings cap that will increase annually by 3% or the rate of inflation, starting Jan. 15, 2025, as well as sick pay that will equal one hour of sick pay for every 30 hours of contracted time.
Starting Jan. 30, 2025, Lyft and Uber will also be required to pay half of the paid family medical leave rate for independent contractors (0.44% of earnings, not including tips) to each driver.
Politics
The Salary Range Transparency Act goes into effect in October 2025, requiring Massachusetts employers with 25 or more employees to disclose salary ranges and protecting employees' right to request them. The legislation also requires public and private employers with 100 or more employees to submit salary data reports to the state, which will then be published through aggregated salary reports by the Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development.
Going into effect on Jan. 1 is the "Patient First" Act, which changes the state's health care laws by requiring health care providers to inform patients how much they'll pay for planned hospital stays, medical procedures, health care services and referrals based on the patient's insurance plan. It also authorizes lets the state's Department of Public Health fine non-compliant providers up to $2,500 for each infraction.
Changes to the maximum weekly benefit amount and employee contribution rates in Massachusetts are also coming. Beginning Jan. 1, the maximum weekly benefit amount you can receive per week under Massachusetts Paid Family and Medical Leave benefits will be $1,170.64.
Find all the laws that will go into effect in Massachusetts on Jan. 1, 2025 here.
NEW HAMPSHIRE
Starting July 1, all New Hampshire employers with six or more employees will be required to provide breastfeeding employees with unpaid breastfeeding breaks of 30 minutes for every three hours of work. The new law will also require employers to provide women with adequate space in the workplace for breastfeeding.
This new state law follows the federal PUMP Act of 2022, which also requires employees nationwide to provide reasonable break time and private space for breastfeeding employees during the first year of a baby's life.
Beginning Jan. 1, the New Hampshire Data Privacy Act will create a substantial new set of consumer rights for Granite State residents whose personal data is controlled and processed by businesses that engage in commerce in New Hampshire.
Under the law, New Hampshire consumers will have the right to the following, with covered businesses that fail to comply with the rights facing penalties of up to $100,000:
- Confirm whether a company controls or processes their personal data;
- Correct any inaccuracies in their personal data that is being processed by the companies;
- Demand the deletion of personal data obtained from or about them;
- Obtain a copy of their personal data that is being controlled or processed by the company in a portable and readable format;
- Opt out of future processing of their personal data for the purposes of targeted advertising, personal data sales, or profiling
New Hampshire lawmakers amended the law for determining child support in certain cases, creating new and modified definitions of child care costs, income and parenting time and schedules.
House Bill 1564, by amending RSA 458-C-5, also increased the self-support set-aside and revised guidelines for child support based on parents' income and parenting time.
Among other points, the new regulations state that:
- Approximately equal parenting time is defined as a parenting schedule in which “each parent has parenting time for more than 40% of the annual parenting schedule.”
- Substantially shared parenting time is defined as a schedule in which “each parent has parenting time for more than 35% of the annual parenting schedule.”
These changes take effect on Jan. 1.
People selling homes in New Hampshire will be required to notify buyers about the potential for PFAS chemical contamination in their water.
Perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are a group of highly resistant synthetic chemicals used in many industries, including textiles, automotive, electronics, construction, food processing and firefighting. They have been linked to adverse health effects, including certain types of cancer. In 2025, they will be added to other mandatory notifications that real estate agents must provide to home buyers: radon, lead and arsenic.
PFAS contamination has been found throughout New Hampshire, especially near a closed Saint-Gobain manufacturing plant in Merrimack and at the former Pease Air Force Base in Portsmouth.
RHODE ISLAND
The minimum wage for employees will continue to tick up in Rhode Island. Under RI General Law §28-12, the amount increased from $13 to $14 at the start of 2024, and in 2025 it rises to $15 per hour.
An amendment to the law to expand maternity leave and elder care in Rhode Island was also passed in July 2024. The law, sponsored by Senate Majority Leader Valarie Lawson and Rep. Joshua J. Giraldo expands Rhode Island's Temporary Caregiver Insurance (TCI) program from six to eight weeks, which will allow new parents more time for parental leave and caregivers more time to care for a seriously ill family member.
Also taking effect on Jan. 1 is a veterans benefits law that requires state employers with more than 50 employees to display a poster containing basic information about veterans benefits and services, which would be created and distributed by the Department of Labor and Training in consultation with the Office of Veterans Services.
A ban on the sale or “possession with intent to sell” of flavored vaping products and a new tax on e-cigarettes also took effect in Rhode Island. Single-use vaping products will be taxed at 50 cents per milliliter of liquid. There will also be a 10% tax on the wholesale price of refillable e-cigarettes.
CONNECTICUT
There are also changes to paid sick days in Connecticut. Gov. Ned Lamont signed a law in May that expands Connecticut's paid sick day laws to include more workers.
Current law in Connecticut requires employers with more than 50 employees who mostly work in specific retail and service occupations (such as food service and health care workers) to provide their employees with up to 40 hours of paid sick leave per year. This new legislation expands this coverage to workers in nearly all occupations, not just those in retail and service jobs.
There will also be changes to cannabis regulation laws. Beginning Jan. 1, the new law will require hemp products with moderate THC content to be sold at licensed cannabis businesses or to individuals licensed by the Department of Consumer Protection.
For victims of domestic violence, the Forced Debt Act sets new obligations for collection agencies over excessive credit card charges that some abusers impose on their ex-spouses or partners, with the suspending actions for 60 days while the details of the cases are reviewed.
If you or someone you know is experiencing domestic violence, contact the National Domestic Violence Hotline by calling 1-800-799-SAFE (7233), visiting www.thehotline.org or texting LOVEIS to 22522.
The minimum wage will also increase in Connecticut beginning Jan. 1, to $16.35 an hour. The change is required by a state law that Lamont signed in 2019 linking the state's minimum wage to the percentage change in the federal employment cost index. Under that law, the minimum wage must be adjusted each year based on the U.S. Department of Labor's calculation of the employment cost index.
Learn more about the new laws going into effect in Connecticut here.
MAINE
In Maine, too, the minimum wage is going up. It will increase from $14.15 to $14.65 per hour beginning Jan. 1, while service employees' minimum wage will be $7.33 per hour.
Maine law, amended by citizen referendum in 2016, requires annual adjustments to the minimum wage based on the cost of living index (CPI-W) for the Northeast. Between August 2023 and August 2024, there was a 3.6% increase in the CPI-W.
For tipped service workers, employers must be able to show that relevant employees receive at least the minimum wage of $14.65 per hour when direct wages and tips are combined at the end of the week. The amount of tips required to qualify as a service employee will increase from $179 per month to $185 per month.
Payroll contributions for the Paid Family and Medical Leave (MPFML) program will begin on Jan. 1, giving eligible employees up to 12 weeks of paid leave per year for medical, family or safety reasons. Employers and employees will each contribute 0.5% of their wages to fund the program. But benefits won't be available until May 1, 2026.
The delay gives the program time to accumulate sufficient funds to pay for benefits and program operations. Anyone with questions about the law can click here.
VERMONT
Vermont, too, will see an increase in the minimum wage for 2025 — a 2.5% bump from $13.67 to $14.01 per hour, the Vermont Department of Labor announced.
This annual adjustment also affects the minimum wage for tipped employees, which, beginning Jan. 1, will increase from $6.84 to $7.01 per hour. In cases where the employee does not receive enough in tips during a workweek to equal the standard hourly minimum wage, the employer is required to pay the difference to ensure that the tipped employee is compensated at the non-tipped minimum wage amount.
Employers with five or more employees will be required to include the pay or pay range (meaning the minimum and maximum annual wage or hourly wage for a job opening that the employer expects, in good faith, to pay for the job) in any job opening announcement in Vermont.
Advertisements for tipped jobs must disclose the base wage (the hourly wage an employer pays a tipped employee, not including the worker’s tips) or base wage range.
Beginning in 2025, it will be easier to get colorectal cancer screening covered by insurance in Vermont.
Through 2024, state law only requires health insurance to cover screening for people age 50 or older who are considered at high risk for the disease because of a family history or because they have had colorectal cancer or related symptoms in the past. But starting Jan. 1, Vermont will require health insurance coverage to align with the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force’s most recent colorectal cancer screening guidelines, which recommend screening for adults age 45 and older who are at average risk.
