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There’s no slowdown in the pay transparency laws that continue to expand across the country, and employers are increasingly being asked to rethink how compensation is communicated throughout the hiring process. What was once considered confidential HR information has become part of more open and “public facing” recruiting and employee engagement strategies. Maine has officially joined the growing list of states requiring greater compensation transparency.

For HR professionals working in federal contracting, compliance isn’t one single responsibility, it’s a collection of overlapping rules that touch hiring, pay, documentation, and reporting throughout the entire employee lifecycle. While each requirement on its own is manageable, the challenge is what happens when they all stack together. That’s when you have different agencies, different deadlines, different systems, and different definitions of what “compliance-ready” actually looks like.

What is the most common I-9 violation employers make? One of the most common issues is missing or incomplete information in Sections 1 or 2, such as failing to include dates, signatures, or required fields. With the March 2026 updates to violations, several of these omissions are now considered substantive violations. How long should I-9 forms be retained? Employers must retain Form I-9 for either three years after the date of hire or one year after employment ends—whichever is later.

Pay transparency laws continue to gain momentum across the country, and employers are quickly learning that compensation practices are no longer just an internal HR matter. States are increasingly requiring employers to disclose salary ranges, limit salary history inquiries, and provide employees with greater visibility into pay practices. Virginia is the latest state to be added to the growing list.

If you manage HR compliance involving a federal contract, then you’ve noticed that the rules keep changing and getting more complicated. Between changing expectations around federal regulations, ongoing veteran and disability reporting, and new certification requirements tied to executive orders, it’s easy for compliance work to turn into an unknown constant cycle of deadlines, data cleanup, and reporting scrambles. Most HR teams aren’t struggling because they don’t understand the requirements.

In June 2026, the National Partnership for Women & Families, Equal Rights Advocates, and The 75 Million Project released a brief urging Congress to restore and strengthen anti-discrimination protections for federal contractor workers after President Trump rescinded Executive Order 11246. For employers, the message is clear: compliance rules will keep shifting, so consistent data collection and analysis are now essential.

The middle of the year is one of the best opportunities for HR to strengthen compliance, yet it’s often overlooked. Many companies focus their efforts at the beginning and end of the year, but the reality is that regulations, risks, and internal processes shift throughout the year and need to be evaluated. A mid-year HR compliance check-in helps ensure your company stays aligned, focused, prepared, and protected.

When an employment discrimination charge is filed, an investigator may look at how candidates were eliminated from the running. Unfortunately, many HR teams unknowingly increase their legal exposure by allowing recruiters or hiring managers to select generic reasons like “Rejected.” Auditing your candidate dispositioning reasons and training your team is growing increasingly important.

Between changing rules, remote verification, multiple reviewers, and tight deadlines, it’s easy for even experienced HR teams to slip up and make errors when accepting documents for Section 2 for the Form I-9 process. Let’s walk through what you need to know to keep your process clean, consistent, and audit ready.

Choosing an I-9 vendor requires more than a checklist of features. The best vendors pair strong technology with reliable compliance support so your team can move faster while reducing audit exposure. The following breaks down eight key Form I-9 features you should be asking about when you are evaluating I-9 vendor partners.