(Reuters) – State lawmakers in the coming year will consider how some of the most contentious issues facing the country, including recreational cannabis, abortion access and equal pay, will affect the workplace.

Here is a look at some of the key state-level issues employers will be tracking in 2023.

PAY TRANSPARENCY

Equal pay laws designed to address discriminatory wage gaps have been on the books for years, but many states and cities are now going a step further by requiring employers to post salary ranges in job listings. On Jan. 1, California and Washington will join Colorado, New York City and several other locales that have adopted so-called pay transparency laws, while a statewide law takes effect in New York in September.

Alaska, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania and South Carolina are among the states expected to take up similar proposals in 2023. Supporters say disclosing salary up front makes it less likely that employers will offer lower pay to women and minorities, and allows workers to see how their compensation compares to their colleagues.

Business groups have generally supported equal pay initiatives but some have expressed concerns about implementing pay transparency requirements for remote jobs, since pay for those positions can vary depending on where a worker is located.

ABORTION ACCESS

In Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health, the U.S. Supreme Court’s conservative majority said its landmark 1973 ruling in Roe v. Wade was wrongly decided and restored states’ ability to ban abortions. About half of U.S. states are expected to adopt new abortion restrictions or begin enforcing existing ones, but the status of those restrictions is uncertain as lawsuits wend their way through courts across the country.

In the meantime, some Democrat-led states including New Jersey are moving to require state-regulated employee health insurance plans to provide coverage for abortion services. Republican-led states, meanwhile, will likely move to limit insurance coverage for the procedure, at least in states where it is banned or restricted. That will create compliance headaches for some large, multistate employers who will be faced with a patchwork of different regulations.

Many companies have adopted policies to ensure that workers in states that ban abortion can travel elsewhere to terminate pregnancies, but there will likely be backlash from those states in the coming year. State lawmakers in Texas, for example, have threatened companies including Citigroup Inc, Lyft Inc and law firm Sidley Austin with legal repercussions over abortion access policies and have said they will introduce bills to bar companies from doing business in Texas or receiving tax subsidies if they facilitate abortion access.

MARIJUANA AT WORK

A growing number of U.S. states have legalized marijuana use, with Maryland and Missouri doing so most recently, and are now taking steps to protect workers’ off-duty medical or recreational marijuana use. Washington, D.C., and at least eight states including California, New York, and New Jersey have adopted laws barring employers from firing workers or refusing to hire applicants who use marijuana outside of work.

The specifics of the laws vary, which presents challenges for multistate employers in crafting uniform policies. Businesses may also face obstacles in proving that workers were impaired on the job because marijuana can be detectable in the body for weeks, so testing cannot establish when the drug was used.

As more states including Pennsylvania and Minnesota consider legalizing recreational marijuana in 2023, the patchwork of employment protections will likely only grow. Ongoing litigation will also ultimately determine the scope of those protections. On Dec. 1, for example, the Nevada Supreme Court settled an open question by ruling that workers can sue their employers for violating a state law that gives medical marijuana users a right to workplace accommodations.

PAID LEAVE

Employers have long grappled with a patchwork of state and local laws mandating paid leave, but newer legislation spurred by the COVID-19 pandemic has made the picture even more complicated. Currently, 16 states require paid sick leave and 11 states mandate paid leave to care for family members.

Laws will take effect in New York and California on Jan. 1 that expand paid family leave requirements to cover caring for siblings and even people who are not related by blood. Meanwhile, Colorado and Oregon will begin requiring contributions from employers and workers to cover laws requiring up to 12 weeks of paid leave per year, and New Hampshire and Vermont will launch voluntary paid leave programs.

Lawmakers in about a dozen states including Illinois, Pennsylvania, Arizona and North Carolina are poised to take up proposals to create or expand paid leave protections in 2023. The continually evolving legal landscape will present various administrative and compliance challenges for employers, particularly those who operate in multiple states and have a large remote workforce.

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