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January 20, 2026
Several employment law changes became effective in Oregon on January 1, 2026. Read on to learn about three new laws. Also see our article here regarding Oregon’s protections, effective on January 1, 2026, for members of the Oregon National Guard.
Employee Rights to Pay Data
Oregon amended its wage laws to require employers to provide employees at the time of hire with a written explanation of earnings and deductions that will be itemized on their pay stubs. See 2025 Ore. SB 906. The required information includes:
The Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries (BOLI) has published a template (also available in Spanish) that employers may use to ensure compliance with the amended law.
Employers should make the earnings and deductions information available via email, an intranet, or a poster at a central location in the workplace. Employers should include such information in new hire packets and should update the information by January 1 each year.
Violators of the amended statute may face a civil penalty of $500.
Sick Leave Expands to Include Blood Donation
Oregon amended its sick leave law to add blood donation as a permissible use of sick time. See 2025 OR S.B. 1108. By way of background, Oregon employers with at least ten employees (or at least six employees in Portland) must provide sick leave, accruing at the rate of one hour for every 30 hours worked (which an employer may cap at 40 hours per year). Employees may use sick leave for a variety of reasons, including their own illness or the illness of a family member. Noting a critical blood shortage around the country, Oregon employees now may take sick leave to donate blood.
Workplace Violence Prevention for Healthcare Workers
Oregon amended its occupational safety and health law to require health care employers to implement a workplace violence prevention and protection program that includes procedures for investigating, collecting, and reporting incidents of workplace violence. See 2025 OR S.B. 537.
The prevention and protection program – first required in 2020 – must be based on security and safety assessments. Under the amended law, those assessments must now include a measure of the frequency of workplace violence or attempted workplace violence; an analysis of the root causes and consequences of workplace violence, including a plan for addressing the causes; and findings on security measures that were considered or implemented to mitigate risks of workplace violence.
The amended law also now requires policies and procedures for conducting internal investigations of incidents of workplace violence, including post-incident employee interviews; identifying employees involved in such incidents; and implementing post-incident response strategies that address first aid, medical care, or trauma counseling for affected employees.
Workplace violence prevention training now must be conducted annually (formerly on a “regular and ongoing” basis) and must cover many additional topics, including, but not limited to, emergency response guidelines; techniques to de-escalate violent situations; and procedures to document and report incidents.
Oregon Employers: If you have not already done so, review and update your hiring and payroll, leave of absence, and safety policies and procedures (in the healthcare setting) to comply with these new laws.
The author of this article, Patricia Tsipras, is a member of the Bar of Pennsylvania. This article is designed to provide one perspective regarding recent legal developments, and is not intended to serve as legal advice in Pennsylvania, Oregon, or any other jurisdiction, nor does it establish an attorney-client relationship with any reader of the article where one does not exist. Always consult an attorney with specific legal issues.
