Spring is in the air, ushering in some new employment laws that warrant employers’ attention. Although this year’s state legislative session, which adjourned in March 2026, did not result in sweeping changes to Oregon employment laws (thanks, in part, to successful efforts by Oregon businesses to defeat or narrow earlier-proposed bills), some bills affecting employment made it through the session.

HB 4027: Establishes a New Assessment-Based Funding Mechanism for BOLI

• Beginning January 1, 2027, HB 4027 will impose a new shared tax obligation on employers and employees, creating a fund for BOLI operations to maintain current staffing levels. The Director of the Department of Consumer and Business Services will set the tax rate, which we expect to be set at 0.2 cents per hour worked.
• HB 4027 also increases the cap on the prevailing-wage public-agency fee from $7,500 to $12,500 and requires BOLI to submit biennial reports on whether that fee generates enough revenue to meet staffing needs.

HB 4111: Immigration-Related Employment Protections and Limits on Immigration-Status in Court

• Effective June 5, 2026, HB 4111 makes it an unlawful employment practice to discharge, retaliate, or discriminate against an employee because the employee updates or attempts to update their personal information based on a lawful change in their federal employment authorization documentation. As this new unlawful employment practice is contained in ORS chapter 659A, employees may assert a private right of action and recover damages and attorney fees.
• However, employers cannot be held responsible if a third party takes adverse employment action in response to a change in personal information or if they must act due to federal employment authorization requirements.
• This bill also makes evidence of a party’s immigration status inadmissible in a civil proceeding, unless it is necessary to prove an element of a cause of action, and adds immigration status to Oregon’s law-enforcement profiling statutes.

HB 4089: Criminal Penalties for Direct Construction Contractors and Subcontractors

• Effective January 1, 2027, HB 4089 modifies the crime of “theft of services” to include partial payments.
• HB 4089 also makes it a Class A misdemeanor for a direct contractor or subcontractor to knowingly enter into a contract with an unlicensed construction labor contractor. Subsequent violations become a Class C felony.
• Note that the introduced version of this bill would have imposed misdemeanor and felony criminal liability for run-of-the-mill wage claims under a little-used “theft of services” statute, for which there are already many civil and administrative remedies, including enormous civil penalties and the threat of one-sided, attorney fee-driven litigation. However, these provisions were all but removed before the bill was passed.

HB 4013: Preserves Oregon Authority to Maintain or Increase Protections for Working Minors

• Beginning January 1, 2027, HB 4013 ties Oregon’s rules on the hours minors may work to the federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) baseline, and allows the Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries (BOLI) to adopt stricter limits when needed to reflect later federal or state-law changes that increase protections for minors.

SB 1512: Expands State Workforce Program and Sets Rules for Funded Paid Work Experiences

• Beginning January 1, 2027, SB 1512 broadens Oregon’s Prosperity 10,000 Program and formalizes how local workforce development boards administer and distribute grant funds. The measure also establishes wage, training plan, and employee status rules for participants in paid work experiences funded by the program.

SB 1519: Revises Total Disability Benefit Calculations

• SB 1519 revises the formula for temporary and permanent total disability benefits under Oregon workers’ compensation law. Instead of the prior flat-rate calculation, the bill adopts a tiered approach. The changes apply to claims with injury dates on or after January 1, 2027.

SB 1518: Clarifies Oregon’s Home Care and Companionship-Services Exclusion under Wage-and-Hour Laws

• Effective January 1, 2027, SB 1518 clarifies when workers providing home care or companionship services are excluded from Oregon minimum wage, overtime, and certain domestic-worker protections. The bill ties the exclusion to the definition of companionship services under federal law (29 C.F.R. 552.6) as that regulation existed on January 1, 2016, and renders the exclusion unavailable when the worker is employed by a third-party business providing home care or companionship services.

 This article does not constitute legal advice. For legal advice regarding your situation, you should contact an attorney.