SHRM's HR compliance webinar covers AI rules, wage-and-hour enforcement, leave laws, pay transparency and data privacy. See the agenda.
By Cosby Khosa · Published
- SHRM's webinar agenda covers AI regulation, wage-and-hour enforcement, leave laws, pay transparency and data privacy.
- It is led by an employment trial attorney and a SHRM knowledge director, and the listing shows no date.
- A companion webinar on 21 January 2026 covers federal changes and aligning handbooks.
- The listing gives the agenda, not the full guidance, so use it as a review checklist.
An HR compliance webinar from SHRM, the Society for Human Resource Management, promises tips, tricks and traps for 2026. The listing, on SHRM's Middle East and North Africa site, names five topics: AI regulation, updated wage-and-hour enforcement, evolving leave laws, pay transparency and data privacy. The date is not shown on the page.
The session is led by an employment trial attorney and a SHRM knowledge director. A companion SHRM webinar on 21 January 2026 covers federal changes and aligning handbooks.
This is an event listing, so what we know is the agenda, not the full guidance. This article uses the HR compliance webinar agenda as a frame to explain each topic, drawing on other published sources for evidence. It does not claim to report what the speakers said. It is general information on US-focused topics, not legal advice.
What the SHRM HR compliance webinar covers
The listing for the HR compliance webinar gives a clear agenda. Five topics define the session: AI regulation, updated wage-and-hour enforcement, evolving leave laws, pay transparency and data privacy.
The format also tells us something. Two presenters, an employment trial attorney and a SHRM knowledge director, bring different viewpoints. A trial attorney sees where disputes end up, and what goes wrong in court. A knowledge director sees how HR professionals ask questions and what they need.
The companion webinar on 21 January 2026 deals with federal changes and aligning handbooks. Handbooks are a practical focus, since policies must be updated whenever the law changes.
Because it is a listing, we do not know the exact content, the examples used or the advice given. Anyone who wants the guidance from the HR compliance webinar should register, view a recording if available or read SHRM's published material.
Still, the agenda is a useful checklist. If you cannot attend, you can use the five topics to review your own readiness. The rest of this article does just that.
AI regulation in the workplace
The first topic is AI regulation. Rules on AI in employment are spreading.
California's AI hiring rules took effect on 1 October 2025 and include bias testing, four-year records and human oversight. Illinois bars discrimination through AI employment tools. HR Acuity notes that employers face liability for biased AI hiring in Colorado, Illinois and California. ADP advises inventorying tools, keeping human oversight and testing for bias.
What does this mean in practice for HR?
- Know what AI you use.
- Ask vendors for evidence about bias testing and data use.
- Keep people involved in decisions.
- Keep records of how tools are used and what results they produce.
- Tell candidates and employees when AI is used, where required.
A trap to avoid is assuming that the vendor is responsible. In many cases, the employer is liable for discriminatory outcomes, even if a vendor built the tool. Contracts should address responsibilities, but they do not remove your duty.
Training matters too. HR staff and managers should understand what the tools do and what their limits are.
Updated wage-and-hour enforcement
The second topic is wage-and-hour enforcement. According to HR Morning, the Department of Labor recovered over $259 million in back wages for nearly 177,000 workers in fiscal 2025, the most since 2019.
Enforcement is not only a federal matter. States and private plaintiffs also bring claims. Class actions can be large, as the cases in the HR Morning guide show, including a $22.25 million verdict for unpaid changing and showering time and an $8.875 million settlement over supermarket managers classed as exempt.
Updated enforcement may also mean new guidance and rules. The federal exempt salary threshold is back at $684 a week after a court struck down the 2024 increase, and a new employee-versus-contractor test was proposed in February 2026.
For HR, the key is to get the basics right. Classify workers correctly, include bonuses in the regular rate, record all working time and review practices each year. The PAID self-audit programme gives a route to correct errors.
A trap is relying on job titles. A manager title does not make a person exempt. Duties and salary both matter.
Evolving leave laws
The third topic is leave laws. These are changing fast, and they vary widely between states.
HR Acuity reports that Delaware, Maine and Minnesota launched paid family leave in 2026, bringing the total to 16 states. ADP notes Connecticut's expansion of paid sick leave to employers with 11 or more staff, and Rhode Island's protection for organ and marrow donors.
Leave law is hard because rules overlap. An employee may be covered by federal family and medical leave, state paid family leave, state sick leave and employer policy at the same time. The rules on how these interact can be complex.
Practical steps include mapping the laws in each state, setting a clear policy and training managers. Use standard forms, keep records and respond to requests promptly.
A trap is informal handling. A manager who says "take a few days off" without recording the leave may fail to give required notices or to count the time properly. That can lead to claims later.
Review handbooks. The companion webinar on aligning handbooks reflects a common problem, which is that policies drift out of date.
Pay transparency
The fourth topic is pay transparency. States are requiring more employers to share pay information, especially in job ads.
ADP notes that Massachusetts requires pay ranges from employers with 25 or more staff. ClearCompany expects pay transparency in 16 states and Washington, DC by mid-2026, while UniLink counts 14 states. The counts differ, which is a reminder to check the law in your own states.
For HR, the work involves setting pay ranges, training recruiters, updating job ad templates and reviewing internal equity. Transparency can expose gaps between new hire pay and existing staff pay, which may lead to difficult conversations.
A trap is posting ranges that are too wide to be useful, or that do not reflect what you actually pay. Regulators and applicants may see that as evasion. Another trap is forgetting remote roles. If you recruit remote workers in a state with transparency rules, the rules may apply.
On the positive side, transparency can build trust and save time. Candidates who know the range can decide whether to apply, so fewer interviews end because of pay mismatch.
Data privacy in HR
The fifth topic is data privacy. HR holds a large amount of sensitive information, including identity numbers, bank details, health data, performance records and background checks.
Privacy laws are growing. Some US states have comprehensive privacy laws, and many have specific rules for employee data, biometrics and monitoring. AI tools raise new questions, since they often use large amounts of personal data.
The listing does not say which privacy rules the webinar addresses, so this article keeps to general good practice:
- Collect only the data you need.
- Store it securely and limit access.
- Keep it only as long as necessary.
- Tell people what you collect and why.
- Have a plan for breaches.
A trap is sharing data with vendors without checking their security and their use of the data. Another is keeping old records for years without a reason, which raises risk.
South African readers have their own law, the Protection of Personal Information Act (POPIA), which sets duties on handling personal data. While this HR compliance webinar is US-focused, the principles are similar, and HR teams anywhere can benefit from good privacy habits.
Who should attend an HR compliance webinar
Not everyone benefits equally from a session like this, so it helps to decide who should go.
- HR generalists and managers: they handle day-to-day questions on leave, pay and hiring, and need to know where the traps are.
- Payroll staff: sessions on wage-and-hour enforcement and the tax treatment of overtime and tips matter here, since payroll errors are a common source of claims.
- Recruiters and talent teams: they use screening tools and write job ads, so AI and pay transparency change their daily work.
- IT and data teams: security and retention