2026 Employment Law Changes: A Practical Guide for Oregon Employers

A large number of revisions to substantive laws will impact Pacific Northwest employers in 2026. These new laws may necessitate changes to Oregon employers’ policies and procedures.

What You Need to Know:

• New Disclosure Obligations: At the time of hire, and annually, employers must provide employees with more detailed information regarding pay rates, deductions, benefits, and payroll codes.

• New Rules for Breaks and Leave: Employers must pay non-exempt employees for a full 30-minute meal period if the break is cut short, regardless of its actual length. Additionally, the permissible uses for paid sick time have been expanded to include blood donation.

• Stricter Workplace Safety Requirements, Broader Liability Affecting Specific Sectors: Workplace violence prevention plan requirements have been extended to home health agencies and home hospice programs, with new substantive obligations for all covered health care employers. Property owners and direct contractors now face joint liability for wage theft on certain construction projects.

This Insight highlights the most significant new legal obligations for employers in Oregon, affecting a variety of stages of the employment relationship. Unless indicated otherwise, the laws discussed below took effect on January 1, 2026. For a complete picture of the many changes affecting employers in the Pacific Northwest, please also see our companion piece covering new laws in Washington.

Hiring

Changes to Mandatory Disclosures Affect Onboarding

SB 906 amends ORS 652.610 to require employers to disclose to employees at the time of hire more information about their pay terms and deductions by providing notice of:

• the employer’s regular pay period;
• a comprehensive list of all types of pay rates that employees may be eligible for (e.g., salary, hourly wage, overtime, commissions);
• all benefit deductions and contributions;
• every type of deduction that may apply, and the purposes of each deduction;
• allowances, if any, claimed as part of minimum wage; and
• all payroll codes used for pay rates and deductions, with detailed descriptions/definitions.

Employers can provide disclosures in various ways, including via email, a link to a website, a physical posting, or a hard copy. Disclosures must be reviewed and updated every year by January 1.

Note that Oregon also recently amended its laws regarding hiring discrimination. HB 3187 took effect on September 26, 2025, generally prohibiting employers from inquiring about an applicant’s age, date of birth, or years of attendance or graduation from an educational institution, with limited exceptions, prior to an initial interview or conditional offer of employment.

Labor/Union Updates

Extended Unemployment Benefits Related to Strikes

SB 916 amends the law on unemployment insurance to permit immediate benefits for individuals unemployed due to an active “lockout,” defined as a refusal by an employer to permit employees to work due to a labor dispute. The bill also provides benefits for individuals who are unemployed due to a strike where there is no lockout, but only after the expiration of a specified week-long disqualification period. Benefits are capped at a maximum of 10 weeks and must be repaid if the recipient receives back pay from an employer to resolve the strike.

Time Off/Leave/Accommodations

Use of Paid Sick Time for Blood Donations

SB 1108 expands the uses for paid sick time. Employers must provide paid sick time for blood donation made in connection with a voluntary program approved or accredited by the American Association of Blood Banks or the American Red Cross. As a reminder, employers may ask for documentation verifying the need for paid sick leave only when the employee is off work for more than three consecutive workdays.

Workplace Violence/Safety

Changes to Workplace Violence Prevention Plans

SB 537 expands workplace violence prevention plan requirements currently in place for hospitals and home health care services, extending them to home health agencies and home hospice programs and imposing new obligations for covered employers. The law’s coverage now extends to:

• Home health agencies—defined by the law as “a public or private agency providing coordinated home health services on a home visiting basis.”
• Home hospice programs—defined as “a coordinated program of home care, available 24 hours a day, that utilizes an interdisciplinary team of personnel trained to provide palliative and supportive services to a patient-family unit experiencing a life-threatening disease with a limited prognosis.”

In addition to modifying the existing law’s language and coverage, the bill adds new substantive requirements, such as the use of flagging systems to alert providers and staff of potential threats, installation of bullet-proof glass in emergency rooms, and screening new home health care clients to identify potential risks, as explained in detail here.

Wage and Hour

Heightened Wage Theft Liability for Property Owners and Contractors

Part of a larger initiative to ensure fair treatment of construction workers, SB 426 imposes joint and several liability on property owners and direct contractors for unpaid wages owed to employees who are not covered by a collective bargaining agreement. The Oregon Attorney General is also authorized to accept an assignment of claims from workers and bring civil actions. There is a two-year statute of limitations for such actions, and the act creates a rebuttable presumption that a person performing labor within the scope of a construction contract is an employee of the direct contractor or subcontractor, and not an independent contractor.

The bill excludes (1) work on an owner’s principal residence and (2) projects involving five or fewer residential or commercial units on a single tract of land.

Ruling Regarding Shortened Meal Periods

Employers should be cognizant of the ruling in Athena v. Pelican Brewing Co., which has critical implications regarding meal breaks. Although not a product of the legislative process, this ruling’s broad-ranging implications merit attention for all employers subject to Oregon’s wage and hour laws, i.e., ORS 653.055.

In the decision, issued on November 26, 2025, the Oregon Court of Appeals found that non-exempt employees who receive less than a full 30-minute meal break are entitled to recover a payment of 30 minutes of worktime regardless of the actual length of the underlying meal period at issue. This creates a de facto penalty for short meal breaks. Additionally, the court held that claims alleging short meal periods are subject to a six-year statute of limitations as a wage claim. Lastly, because the payment is considered a wage, it is subject to waiting-time penalties for failure to pay all wages owed at the time of termination.

What Oregon Employers Should Do Now

• Review payroll policies and practices.
• Review applicable statewide deductions.
• Ensure disclosures at the time of hire are aligned with new requirements.
• If the workplace is organized, make managers aware of the new availability of benefits as a consequence of lockouts, as well as during strikes.
• Revise paid sick time/PTO policies to include the new permitted reason of blood donation to an approved organization.
• For newly covered employers, along with other health care employers already covered by Oregon’s workplace violence prevention law, take all necessary steps to comply with all requirements, including:
  • forming a workplace safety committee;
  • conducting security and safety assessments to identify threats of workplace violence;
  • developing and implementing a workplace violence prevention and protection program (WVPPP) that incorporates and implements a workplace violence prevention and response plan;
  • implementing post-incident response strategies;
  • adopting flagging systems and protocols to identify and communicate potential threats to employees and others;
  • providing annual workplace violence prevention and protection training;
  • scheduling annual reviews of your workplace violence prevention and protection program in coordination with the workplace safety committee;
  • supplying all employees (and labor representatives, if applicable) with a written copy of the WVPPP that includes a statement regarding the law’s prohibition on retaliation against an employee who reports an incident of workplace violence; and
  • providing a copy of the WVPPP to all new employees within 30 days of hiring.

• Review meal break policies and conduct compliance checks to avoid costly litigation.
• For property owners, ensure that your contractors are compliant with laws preventing wage theft.

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For additional information about the issues discussed in this Insight, please contact the attorney(s) listed on this page or the Epstein Becker Green Employment, Labor & Workforce Management attorney who regularly handles your legal matters.

Staff Attorney Elizabeth A. Ledkovsky also contributed to the preparation of this Insight.