MAPPING THE TRENDS: THE GLOBAL EMPLOYER UPDATE 2025

28 January 2025

Executive Summary

Successfully navigating the complex and dynamic international employment landscape is more challenging than ever in today’s global marketplace. The latest edition of our guide, “Mapping the Trends: The Global Employer Update 2025,” provides succinct updates on the key employment law developments across 87 jurisdictions to help our clients stay compliant, identify issues for their business and manage their global workforces. Our report is compiled from feedback from our colleagues and local employment law counsel network around the globe who know the latest legislative developments and spot the key issues and trends in their jurisdictions. After all, local realities impact global strategies.

Top 3 Global Trends for 2025

Raising the Bar on Workings Conditions and Employee Wellbeing

As we look out this year at what is in store, we see a myriad of new laws and proposals aimed at improving working conditions and employee wellbeing. This ranges from the traditional, with new health and safety laws coming into effect in Angola, Chile, Malaysia, the Netherlands, Serbia and Taiwan, to increased family friendly leaves and new protections related to women’s health in the Czech Republic, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Jordan, Mozambique and South Korea, to improved sick leave rights and protections in Canada, Estonia and France, and greater recognition in law for remote and agile working practices in Austria, Bulgaria, Ireland, Pakistan, Peru, Qatar, Singapore, and Turkey. We also see wider recognition of the right to disconnect in Australia, Kenya, Mauritius and Slovenia, and new proposals to reduce working hours in Brazil, Colombia, Mexico and Spain. There are new laws to tackle harassment and bullying in Australia, Chile, Israel, Poland and the UK, and various gender and race equality laws in Denmark, Italy and South Africa, and more reporting on compliance with disability quotas in a few jurisdictions. We see the EU take action by passing the Platform Workers Directive in November 2024 (it must be implemented by December 2026), and some non-EU governments debating new laws aimed at establishing minimum protections for platform workers. These efforts to raise the bar for all and improve employee wellbeing will be welcomed by many global employers. This trend may be a response to the post pandemic world and recognition of the fiscal and societal benefits of a healthier, productive and regulated working population for governments. However, we also see the influence of increasing global awareness and recognition of environmental, societal and governance issues, and reporting obligations on sustainability, equality, working conditions and human rights.

Pay Under Scrutiny

The thorny issue of pay is a continuation of one of the key trends from 2024, perhaps reflecting the on-going economic challenges that so many jurisdictions continue to face in 2025. Given the obvious correlation between an increase in wages, increased social security costs, and benefit and severance costs linked to salary, employers now face an even heavier burden. This year local counsel in 28 jurisdictions raised the increase in the national minimum wage as a key issue for 2025. A handful of these jurisdictions are EU member states caught by the EU Adequate Minimum Wage Directive which had to be transposed into national law by November 2024. However, the EU’s authority to legislate on minimum wage is uncertain at present, having been accused of ‘overreaching’ its authority by Denmark, and following the remarkable opinion of the Advocate General recommending that the Court of Justice of the European Union (the “CJEU”) annul the directive in full. Although the CJEU may not follow the opinion, it throws up some interesting issues around the authority of this titan of worker rights.

Not to be deterred though, the EU Pay Transparency Directive, which must be transposed into the national law of EU member states by June 2026, sees some EU member states drafting legislation to transpose the Directive in 2025. Aside from greater transparency around pay, it will require employers with 100 employees or more to consider the very technical “work of equal value” concept and publish any gender pay gap for all to see (the first reports, for those companies with 150 employees or more, will be due from June 2027).

Similar pay transparency initiatives have been seen in the United States with the introduction of new laws requiring employers in 14 states (including New York and California) to disclose pay scales or ranges and other benefits in both internal and external job advertisements. These laws also complement existing equal pay audit requirements in Canada, Finland, France, Iceland, Ireland, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland and transparency measures and proposals in Brazil, Canada, New Zealand and South Africa. Therefore, we will see increased pay scrutiny in 2025 on a global scale.

The Era of Widespread Adoption of AI

It would perhaps be more appropriate if we refer to AI as a mega trend, rather than a key trend for 2025, but whatever it is called, it cannot be ignored. This year, we will see more on the race for supremacy amongst jurisdictions such as the US and key stakeholders, such as the EU, to lead the world in responsible AI. Meanwhile, on 1 August 2024 the EU AI Act 2024 came into force for the 27 EU member states. It has extra-territorial effect in certain situations, plus hefty sanctions for breach of up to €35 million or 7% of annual worldwide turnover in cases of high-risk AI systems. Therefore, even non-EU businesses need to prepare themselves for when this comes into effect in August 2026. We also anticipate that the EU Act will do for AI, what GDPR did for the privacy laws around the globe. Just one of the impacts of AI on the workplace has been identified by local counsel in Canada, Cameroon, Ghana, and India in the use of AI in recruitment practices. However, we know that this is just the tip of the proverbial iceberg. AI is already impacting workforce planning, on-boarding, training, employee engagement, skill challenges and cybersecurity issues. In the UK, like so many jurisdictions, we now see various attempts by key stakeholders (including government and unions) to develop an appropriate strategy and legislative proposals around its use in the workplace. Our colleagues in the US also highlight the potential liability of AI vendors through their AI tools in their software and processes, and some products are being adopted globally. Therefore, as we see the era of widespread adoption of AI in the workplace, we also know that employers need to prepare for the potential legal challenges that will inevitably follow.

We encourage you to explore our guide to learn more about how the trends above are playing out across the 87 jurisdictions covered in this edition. We hope that this will also enable you to identify the action items relevant to your global workforce. To discuss any of these updates and how they may impact your company, please contact me or another member of our International Employment practice.

*All content is accurate at the date of writing.

Suzanne Horne, Partner
Editor

Chris Jones, Senior Associate
Assistant Editor

Hannah Mansfield
Assistant Editor