2023 Download: Reviewing Key Legislation Impacting Employers

As we bid farewell to 2023, employers stand at the crossroads of an evolving employment landscape ... [+] defined by sweeping legislative reforms.

As the curtain draws on another year, 2023 has been pivotal for legislative reforms impacting hiring practices and workplace policies nationwide. Employers navigating the intricate landscape of background checks, drug testing, and equitable employment procedures have witnessed a transformational year marked by the emergence of laws concerning clean slate, fair chance hiring, ban-the-box initiatives, pay equity and transparency, and the ever-evolving landscape of marijuana legalization. For employers, staying informed and adapting to these shifting legal frameworks has become imperative.

Clean Slate Laws

In 2023, the landscape of clean slate legislation saw significant developments across various states and jurisdictions. These laws aim to provide opportunities for reintegration into society by expunging or sealing certain low-level or non-violent offenses from a person’s record after a prescribed period, assuming the individual has maintained a clean record.

Noteworthy 2023 Clean Slate Legislation

Leading the nation in criminal history reform, California extended automatic clean slate relief to felony-level offenses after a remarkably short period of four years. This law significantly broadens opportunities for most defendants with non-violent felony convictions to seek expungement, even those with serious felony offenses who can petition the court.

Despite its intention to provide broad automatic expungement for most non-violent felonies and misdemeanors, Connecticut faced challenges in accurately identifying and expunging eligible offenses. As of now, only cannabis-related offenses are automatically expunged, leaving other criminal records accessible in court systems and reported to employers.

Starting January 1, 2024, Idaho permits petition-based expungement of non-violent misdemeanors and felony possession after five years following sentence completion, focusing on relatively minor offenses for sealing.

Recently signed legislation in New York expands clean slate laws by automatically sealing eligible cases, eliminating the need for expungement applications. Misdemeanor offenses are sealed three years after sentence completion, while eligible felony convictions are sealed eight years after release, except for specific exclusions like Class A felonies.

Set to amend existing laws by July 1, 2025, Virginia will automatically seal marijuana offenses while allowing petition-based sealing for underage possession of alcohol and disclosure of records related to mistaken identity or unauthorized use of identifying information.

Arizona, Utah, and Washington, DC: These states operate petition-based processes for expungement, allowing eligible individuals to seek relief for various non-violent misdemeanors and felonies after specific waiting periods.

California Fair Chance Act Revisions

In December 2022, the California Civil Rights Department proposed substantial changes to the Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA) regulations, leading to the California Fair Chance Regulation set to become effective on October 1, 2023. This regulation impacts employers conducting criminal background checks, emphasizing a need for a thorough review of hiring practices to comply with the new mandates.

The California Fair Chance Act provides that employers are not legally obligated to check the criminal histories of job applicants or current employees, but if they choose to do so, they must adhere to the legal limitations specified. Employers mandated by law to conduct criminal background checks can do so before offering employment, while others can perform these checks after extending a conditional offer. However, all employers must conduct an individualized exam before making adverse employment decisions based on an applicant’s criminal conviction history. Revisions in 2023 to the Fair Chance Act broaden the scope of impacted workers and employers and require an enhanced individualized exam process.

The definition of “applicant” has been expanded to include existing employees seeking different positions within their current organization. Additionally, the term “employer” now covers not just direct employers but also entities acting as agents, staffing agencies, or those obtaining workers from availability lists. The regulation prohibits exclusionary statements in job ads or applications and mandates evaluation based on qualifications rather than biased judgments regarding criminal history.

Employers must conduct an enhanced individualized exam considering the offense’s nature, the time elapsed since the offense, and the job’s nature. The regulation offers guidance by introducing non-exhaustive considerations for each factor. While employers cannot demand specific evidence of rehabilitation, applicants can voluntarily provide evidence like their conduct during incarceration, employment history post-conviction, or participation in rehabilitative efforts. Applicants may disclose factors contributing to the offense, including trauma or disabilities, and employers must fairly evaluate this information to provide applicants a fair chance to demonstrate their qualifications.

Chicago Ban-the-box Amended

In April 2023, Chicago introduced an amended ban-the-box ordinance, imposing new restrictions on how employers use criminal records in job screening. The ordinance mandates that Chicago-based employers, regardless of size, provide pre-adverse and adverse action notices when utilizing criminal history for employment decisions. Employers must now conduct individualized exams considering factors such as the relationship between the offense and the job, the severity of the offense, rehabilitation efforts, and more. This more stringent approach applies even if employers already comply with Illinois’ Job Opportunities for Qualified Applicants Act. Notably, the amendment entails specific content requirements for adverse action notices and includes harsher penalties for violations, emphasizing the need for Chicago employers of all sizes to stay updated on these changes.

Pay Equity and Transparency

As employers conduct employment verifications as part of their pre-hire process, a fundamental shift in the landscape of hiring practices emerged in 2023 with the advent of stringent pay transparency laws across several jurisdictions. Pay equity measures champion the cause of equal pay for equal work, often prohibiting questions about a candidate’s former compensation until later in the hiring process. However, the crux of pay transparency laws demands open disclosure from employers regarding their compensation structure for various organizational roles. A pay analysis must be conducted to establish minimum and maximum salary ranges for each position and subsequently sharing this information in job postings or advertisements.

Notable 2023 Pay Equity and Transparency Legislation

California stands as one of the frontrunners in wage transparency laws. The state’s mandate requires employers to divulge minimum and maximum pay scales for all job postings within the state, affecting employers with fifteen or more employees. This comprehensive move aims to empower candidates and employees, promoting informed decision-making and closing wage gaps.

Colorado, under its Equal Pay for Equal Work Act effective January 1, 2024, mandates the announcement or posting of all job opportunities with specific details about pay range, benefits, and application deadlines. It delineates nuanced definitions like career development and progression while also focusing on post-selection notices to employees.

Hawaii passed a law effective January 1, 2024, compelling employers with 50 or more employees to disclose hourly rates or salary ranges in job listings, exempting certain positions and internal transfers. This law accentuates the importance of equal pay for similar work and prohibits discrimination based on protected categories.

Effective January 1, 2025, Illinois lays down stringent guidelines for employers with fifteen or more employees, requiring pay scale disclosure in job postings and announcing promotional opportunities within fourteen days of external job advertisements.

New Jersey’s Temporary Workers Bill of Rights is a pivotal step in ensuring fairness for temporary workers. It requires such workers to be paid similarly to employees performing substantially similar work at the client’s site, including the average cost of benefits, significantly impacting employers engaging temporary workers.

Rhode Island, Washington, New York, and Albany County in New York have each implemented their unique wage transparency laws, all revolving around the fundamental principle of disclosing salary ranges for job applicants and current employees. These laws emphasize prohibiting the use of a job applicant’s wage history information, promoting fairness, and discouraging pay discrimination.

Cannabis Legalization

As the legal landscape regarding marijuana continues to evolve, employers across various industries are facing new challenges in adapting their policies and practices. In 2023, significant legislation regarding the legalization of marijuana for either medical or recreational use has brought about considerable shifts, prompting employers to reassess their workplace policies and, in some cases, approaches to drug testing.

Notable 2023 Cannabis Legislation

California’s AB 2188 introduces critical protections for individuals engaging in off-duty cannabis use. Employers are barred from discriminating against employees based on non-psychoactive cannabis metabolites found in drug tests unless impairment at work is demonstrated. Exceptions exist for safety-sensitive positions and specific federal regulations. Notably, the law does not permit cannabis use or impairment on the job, emphasizing an employer’s obligation to maintain a drug-free workplace.

Similarly, Washington’s SB 5132 offers protections against adverse actions based solely on off-duty cannabis use that doesn’t affect job performance. Employers are cautioned against testing for non-psychoactive cannabis metabolites in pre-employment screenings, with exceptions for specific roles and safety-sensitive positions. The law emphasizes an employer’s right to maintain a drug-free workplace and adhere to federal regulations.

In light of restrictions on testing for non-psychoactive cannabis metabolites in California and Washington, employers may consider oral fluid testing as an alternative. This method detects recent drug use, including psychoactive cannabis metabolites, providing insights into impairment rather than historical usage. Oral fluid testing offers a detection window of a few hours to days post-consumption, aligning with identifying recent cannabis use and impairment more effectively.

Delaware’s recreational marijuana law took effect in the second quarter of 2023, offering no specific protections for recreational users. However, the state permits medical marijuana use and requires employers to reasonably accommodate such use. When faced with positive drug test results for marijuana in Delaware, employers need to discern if the individual is a recreational or medical marijuana user to take appropriate action.

Kentucky passed a medical marijuana law effective from January 1, 2025. Contrary to some other states, this law does not mandate employers to accommodate medical marijuana use. Employers retain the right to conduct drug tests for marijuana and take adverse employment actions against individuals testing positive, including prohibiting registered medical marijuana users from certain safety-sensitive roles. The law also allows employers to contractually prevent vendors from assigning workers who use medical marijuana.

This summer, Maryland joined the states legalizing recreational marijuana. Despite this change, both Maryland’s existing medical marijuana law and the newly enacted recreational law offer no explicit employment protections for cannabis users. Consequently, there is minimal impact on employers in terms of accommodating or altering drug testing policies for marijuana.

Washington, DC, implemented the Cannabis Employment Protections Act, effective July 13, 2023. This act prohibits adverse personnel actions against individuals for off-premises cannabis use during non-work hours. However, the law’s practical application remains limited due to funding constraints preventing enforcement by the DC Office of Human Rights. While employers are barred from penalizing individuals solely based on cannabis use or presence in a drug test absent symptoms of impairment, there are numerous exceptions, including safety-sensitive positions and workplace possession or impairment.

Parting Thoughts

As we bid farewell to 2023, employers stand at the crossroads of an evolving employment landscape defined by sweeping legislative reforms. With the continued momentum behind clean slate laws, fair chance hiring initiatives, ban-the-box reforms, pay equity, transparency mandates, and the ongoing evolution of marijuana legalization laws, employers find themselves refining their processes for conducting background checks and drug tests. Meeting the challenges posed by these reforms requires not just compliance but a concerted effort toward cultivating workplaces that prioritize fairness, equity, and inclusivity in the employment lifecycle.

Alcatel-Lucent Targets Large Enterprise

According to Hema Ganapathy, director of large enterprise solutions marketing at Alcatel-Lucent, the new and enhanced portfolio, called Corporate Communications Solutions for Large Enterprises, targets a number of network transitions such as globalization, virtualization and centralization and offers a way to converge the networks to integrate applications with business process to fulfill Alcatel-Lucent's "dynamic enterprise" vision by aligning networks, people, process and knowledge.

"This is part of our continued investment in the enterprise," Ganapathy said, adding that the new developments are mostly in response to customer requests.

Alcatel-Lucent's renewed enterprise focus has paid off. Ganapathy said in the last two years the Paris-based communications giant has brought on more than 5,000 new enterprise customers and the average deal size has grown 20 percent or more. In addition, services revenue is up both for partners and Alcatel-Lucent, increasing more than 30 percent over the last two years.

The new portfolio centers around four key areas: building IP networks for convergence, providing collaborative tools regardless of location, tying together unified communications and business process, and connecting knowledge through Web 2.0 applications and realtime communications.

The update includes the new OmniSwitch 9000E, which has been designed for high-capacity deployments, scalability and virtualization with multivirtual routing and forwarding to enable hardware consolidation and reduce power consumption. The 9000E brings switching to the data center and enables the partitioning of applications and users across the network. It can chop power consumption by making a single routing switch work as several routers that serve different applications or groups. The 9000E is available in 10- and 18-slot configurations.

Alcatel-Lucent also added the new OmniPCX Enterprise 9.0, its interactive communications solutions that combine traditional telephone functions with support for Internet telephony and multimedia, including a Web softphone, unified communications applications, messaging and personal assistant applications. The new release is designed for secure, scalable, centralized architecture capable of serving 100,000 users. The system includes a SIP controller and expanded SIP trunking to enable the addition of new applications and SIP device management.

For the branch office, Alcatel-Lucent unveiled the OmniAccess 5510 router, a unified services gateway integrating network services, voice calling, WAN connectivity, VPN and intrusion prevention and detection.

The company also updated its OmniTouch Unified Communication Solution with release 5.1 and the OmniTouch 8600 My Instant Communicator, its unified messaging and communications client, which now includes multisession collaboration, mobile device integration and support for third-party unified communications applications such as Microsoft Office Communicator and IBM Sametime and Lotus Notes.

For the contact center, Alcatel-Lucent unveiled OmniTouch Contact Center Premium and Standard Release 9.0, along with the latest Contact Center Teamer Applications, to add new flexibility and cost savings. The solutions let agents quickly access back-office expertise by adding functions such as text to speech and voice, fax and e-mail integration, Ganapathy said.

Ganapathy added that the solutions encourage knowledge sharing internally between customers, partners and suppliers by including open APIs and allowing third-party integration.

"We have had a very active development program around voice and data and will continue to innovate and invest in these areas going forward," Ganapathy said.

For channel partners, the new portfolio opens up the potential to integrate new products into existing environments and offers opportunities to provide installation and maintenance services.

"Partners can develop a fully streamlined architecture, Ganapathy said.

Craig Walker, head of Alcatel-Lucent's medium enterprise solutions unit, added that the new solutions also open the door for VARs to diversify their offerings.

"VARs are ready to do more than just IP, more than just security, more than just telephony," he said, adding that Alcatel-Lucent is launching new technology acquisition programs, pre- and post-sales training and professional services around the new solutions. "It opens up access to this technology, not just for traditional partners, but new types of partners. We have the ability to take these partners out of their comfort zone and leverage their expertise in new areas."

Best PDF editors 2024: Our top picks

It’s likely that you regularly come across or work with PDF files—they’re ubiquitous in our modern cross-platform world. Most of the time, when viewing a PDF, you can enjoy free software that allows you to read or comment on these files. But what if you need to edit them as well? That’s where a PDF editor comes in.

The best PDF editors allows you to edit, create, alter, and convert PDF files just like you would with any other text document. Adobe Acrobat is the most famous option for most people. But while it’s excellent both in features and utility, it’s also pretty expensive. Thankfully, in recent years a whole host of third-party PDF editors have sprung up in order to provide less expensive alternatives.

Here at PCWorld we’ve tested many of these top PDF editors and curated a list of the very best. With different use cases in mind, we’ve included picks for the best overall, best budget option, and even a recommendation for the best free PDF editor—because sometimes you just don’t want to pay for the basics. Check out our recommendations below to find the best PDF editor for you.

Update 12/18/2023: To include Foxit PDF Editor 13 as our new choice for best overall PDF editor runner-up. Read more about this excellent alternative to Acrobat in our summary below.

Adobe Acrobat Pro DC – Best overall

Pros

Cons

Price When Reviewed: $19.90/mo I $239.88/yr

Adobe Acrobat Pro DC remains the industry standard for good reason. Its rich combination of creation, editing, reviewing, and security features are mimicked by the best alternative options, but we feel Acrobat still does it best. Its recent interface redesign makes it much easier to navigate through its robust toolset than the nested menus of yore, and its cloud subscription option puts its advanced features within reach of more individuals and small businesses. (See how it compares to the Adobe Acrobat Standard DC.)

Though many of its features are available in other, cheaper PDF editors, Acrobat is still the editor against which all others are judged.

Foxit PDF Editor 13 – Best overall runner-up

Pros

Cons

Price When Reviewed: $179.99 (Standard version, perpetual license)

Foxit PDF Editor 13 hits all the right notes for a premium PDF editor and can even take on the formidable Adobe Acrobat. It’s packed with features that are sure to please power users—all the requisite content editing tools; review and markup features; form fill and signing support; and robust security options for sensitive documents, such as permissions, password protection, and data redaction. It supports tons of file formats, and adding hyperlinks, images, and files to a PDF is trouble-free.

Indeed, ease-of-use is one of Foxit’s great strengths. The program uses a Microsoft Office-style ribbon interface which groups tasks in a familiar and intuitive interface, making for a seamless integration with your workflow. It also provides ChatGPT integration so you can easily get help with your documents from an AI assistant. Yes, it’s priced on the higher side for a PDF editor, but with all it has going for it, Nitro PDF Pro more than earns its keep. Plus, you can try it out for free for seven days to see if you like it before making a commitment. If you’re looking for an Acrobat replacement, you won’t find many better.

EaseUS PDF editor – Best budget option

Pros

Cons

Price When Reviewed: Free I $29.95/mo I $49.95/yr I $79.95/lifetime

EaseUs might not have the name recognition of some of the other editors on this list, but it’s more than capable of holding its own in the crowded PDF editor market. It provides all of the essential tools for managing PDF files without any of the elaborate or hard-to-understand features. It allows users to jump right in to their toolset and get straight to editing with only what they need.

While EaseUS’s features are great, they are also pretty standard fare among PDF editors. What makes it stand out is its affordable price—it’s a great value for those who regularly edit PDFs and don’t want to pay out the nose. EaseUS also offers a fully functional free version (with embedded watermarks on your edited documents) so users can take it for a spin to see if it meets their needs before they commit to paying any money.

PDF Candy – Best free option

Pros

Cons

Price When Reviewed: Free

PDF Candy is the rare free PDF editor that offers a lot of the features you’d typically have to pay for. We’re talking scanning, multiple file-conversion options, and OCR functionality. All of this combines to make PDF Candy stand out among the multitude of lesser free PDF editors. It does have a bit of a wonky interface, but once you get the hang of it you’re off and running.

Unfortunately, while the free version has access to the expansive toolset of the paid version, you’re limited to one PDF task per hour. If you want unfettered access, you need to shell out $6 per month, or $48 per year.

PDF Expert – Best full-featured editor for Apple devices

Pros

Cons

Price When Reviewed: Free 7-day trial, then $79.99 annually

PDF Expert is an excellent editor that fits seamlessly into the Apple ecosystem, making it our pick for Macs, iPads, and iPhone users.

While macOS does include a PDF editor in its Preview app, iOS devices don’t have a native PDF editor and PDF Expert fills that gap nicely. It has a clean and intuitive interface and offers a plethora of easy-to-use editing options such as page management, converting scanned files into editable documents, and conversion to other file formats, among other things. The pricing plan is also considerably cheaper than most of the other top picks, meaning this is a no-brainer for Apple users.

Apple Preview PDF editor – Best free option for Mac users

Pros

Cons

Price When Reviewed: Built into macOS

Mac users needn’t look beyond the macOS for their PDF editing needs, since there is a full set of PDF markup tools already available at their disposal in Apple Preview. It has the chops to handle most personal and business PDF editing needs, including encryption, password protection, and permissions for files.

Apple Preview’s PDF features and capabilities are impressive and should be all you need for most common editing tasks. The drawback, of course, is that only Mac users can take advantage of them.

pdfFiller – Best web-based editor

Pros

Cons

Price When Reviewed: $8 per month (annual commitment) I $20 per month (cancel at any time)

pdfFiller is a browser-based PDF editor that allows you do to just about everything PDF-related—editing, securing, sharing, creating, and storing PDF files—all from its intuitive and simple web interface. Its design is similar to a desktop app, with the toolbar across the top, and document thumbnails along the side, so it’s very easy to select the page you want to work on and perform the desired function, be it adding, deleting, or copying/pasting text; changing font style, size, and color; and so on. A standard set of markup tools is also available. It has a surprisingly deep set of features for both personal and business use. For instance the Premium plan offers an impressive legal document library, as well as SignNow support.

While incredibly versatile, not all of pdfFiller’s advanced features will suit everyone. Fortunately, there are three subscription tiers, which gives users a way to meet their editing needs without paying extra for unnecessary features: Basic for $8/mo; Plus for $12/mo; Premium for $15/mo with an annual commitment. Month-to-month options are also available, but at a higher cost, of course.

Why spend a chunk of change on a desktop editor when free online PDF editors abound? The simple answer is because you get what you pay for. Generally, free online editors will let you add text and comments, merge and split documents, and convert files to and from PDF. With rare exception, however, they won’t let you edit existing text and many have file-size and page-volume restrictions. And a lot of them will watermark your edited document. For these reasons, web PDF editors are best reserved for simple, fast editing jobs. Call in these big dogs for anything more demanding.

PDF editors come in a variety of flavors, offering varying feature sets—from basic functionality to power-user tools. It’s important to know what features best match your workflow before you commit to a PDF editor.

The most fundamental function of a PDF editor is to make PDFs, either from scratch, scanned hard copies, or by converting digital documents. A good PDF editor should be able to transform a variety of file types—from Microsoft Office formats to images to HTML—and do so seamlessly, preserving the original formatting. It should also include OCR technology to make the PDF text searchable and editable. Likewise, a good PDF editor must be able to export PDFs into other editable formats such as Microsoft Word and PowerPoint, HTML, or plain text, maintaining the original files hyperlinks, images, and other elements.

Another bit of magic that PDF editors unlock is the ability to modify text; insert, resize, and move images; and reorganize pages in the PDF. A good one will perform these tasks as easily as in a text document or slide deck, allowing in-line editing, dragging-and dropping graphics, and adding or removing hyperlinks.

A good PDF editor should also let you or anyone else using it add comments and other annotations to PDF files during review. It should have tools to mark up both text documents and graphic-heavy files like webpages. Common options include sticky notes, callout boxes, highlighting, freehand drawing tools, and stamps with messages like “approved,” “revised,” and “confidential.”

All businesses deal with documents containing sensitive data. Look for a PDF editor that includes security features that allow access for authorized eyes only. Good options will usually offer several levels of security, including password protection, permissions setting, and content redaction, which “blacks out” selected text and images. Most PDF editors will also offer one or more ways to electronically sign documents.

While deep PDF editing is best done on a desktop, it’s nice to be able to review and annotate files when you’re out and about. While PDFs can typically be reviewed in any PDF reader or editor, regardless of which one they were created in, consider looking for an editor that has a dedicated mobile app, is optimized for mobile devices, or allows cloud access to features through a mobile browser.

One of the great things about a PDF is that it can be read and edited in any PDF program regardless of which one it was created in. So beyond the features outlined here, let your personal preferences guide you in making your decision.

While there are a number of different types of PDF file formats, they all fall under the umbrella term of PDF documents. A PDF form is a type of PDF document that has editable form fields a user can fill out. Typically, parts of the document are static and can’t be changed in a PDF form, such as questions in a survey or instructions about filling out the form. In a PDF form, the content fields a user fills out are open to editing and can offer a list of possible answer options or can be written in freely.

Yes. They are two entirely different document formats. While you can export from one file format to another, they are not the same. Word file formats are usually used for word processing, editing, and making changes to text. PDF documents on the other hand, are most often utilized for viewing, sharing, and printing. Additionally, Word files are read and write and contain some version of the “.doc” file format. Whereas PDF files are typically read-only and contain the “.pdf” file format.

Yes. If you have a PDF document that you don’t want anyone else to edit, you can protect the file. You can do this by opening the file in Acrobat, for instance, and clicking Tools > Protect. Then you have a few options as to whether you want to simply restrict editing with a password, or if you want to encrypt the file for further safety. Once you choose how you want to protect the PDF document, you can set a password and save.

As a matter of fact, many free PDF editors allow you to merge two or more PDFs into one document. Such is the case with our top free pick PDF Candy. Open up the PDF editor application or website in your browser and search for the Merge option. It will then ask you to add the files of all PDFs you wish to merge. Once the files have been added, arrange the page order and alignment before proceeding with the merge. Afterwards, all of your previously PDF files will be merged into one new PDF document.

Yes and no. Google doesn’t provide a designated free PDF editor itself, but there are third-party Chrome extensions that you can use to help get the job done. Alternatively, you can make use of Google Drive to edit a PDF document. Simply upload the document onto your Google Drive and then select the file and right-click and select Open with > Google Docs. The file will be opened as an editable Google Docs text document. Then just make your edits and when you’re finished click File > Download >PDF Document to revert it back to a PDF file.

This method is a quick and easy way to edit a simple PDF document, but be careful as Google Docs can run into formatting issues if your original document has complex visual formatting such as tables and graphs. In this case, it is best to use a designated free or premium PDF editor.