President Trump’s executive order entitled Removing Barriers to American Leadership in Artificial Intelligence (the “Trump AI Order”) seeks to create “a path for the United States to act decisively to retain global leadership in artificial intelligence.”  The Trump AI Order purports to “revoke[] certain existing AI policies and directives that act as barriers to AI innovation,” although it does not shed light on any specific policies and directives that are revoked by virtue of the order.  The Trump AI Order also comes in the wake of President Trump’s earlier Executive Order revoking several Biden-era orders, most notably including President Biden’s Executive Order on the Safe, Secure, and Trustworthy Development and Use of Artificial Intelligence (the “Biden AI Order”), which had directed federal agencies to undertake various initiatives and studies regarding the uses, benefits, and potential pitfalls of AI.  While the Trump AI Order broadly impacts AI-policy on multiple levels, this advisory focuses on its impact on the U.S. workforce.    

The United States and Canada are each other’s largest trade partners with nearly C$3.6 billion/US$2.7 billion worth of goods and services crossing the border each day in 2023.  The United States is the single greatest investor in Canada and Canada was the largest source of foreign direct investment in the United States at the end of 2022.[1]  As commerce in general and employee mobility in particular increases, employers with operations in the United States and Canada may consider a “one-size-fits all” approach to employment, benefits and compensation arrangements. However, despite many similarities, employers should take heed of possible discrepancies across the two countries’ employment landscapes. In this Part II of our series on cross-border hiring, we discuss health benefits and retirement benefits.

Interest in cryptocurrency investments has been increasing at a rapid pace and employers don't want to be left behind. In this webinar, team members from Mintz’s Employee Benefits & Executive Compensation Practice break down key considerations employers face towards designing compensation programs to pay employees in the form of cryptocurrencies.

In recently issued Compliance Assistance Release No. 2022-01 (the “Release”), the Department of Labor addressed cryptocurrencies as 401(k) plan investments.  To the surprise of some and the delight of others, the Department did not shut the door on these investments.  It did, however, counsel extreme caution.