Since President Trump returned to the White House, this year has brought a wave of executive orders and policy edicts that directly target working people. The Trump administration has rolled back the minimum wage for federal contractors, implemented deep budget cuts to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration—the federal agency whose core mission is to keep workers safe on the job—and moved to undermine collective bargaining rights for all federal employees. Beyond these core workplace changes, the administration has also made dismantling diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs a key priority, targeting DEI initiatives both across the federal workforce and in corporate America.
Even so, there is reason for cautious optimism for U.S. workers: many state governments have taken the lead on advancing worker protections, already enshrining progressive policies like paid leave and pay transparency into law. Now, a growing number of states are turning their attention to the harm that stems from misuse of artificial intelligence (AI) in recruitment. Below, we break down key worker-focused laws and policies set to take effect across the U.S. in 2026—most of which continue to advance critical priorities for working people, despite the anti-worker agenda being pushed at the federal level.
Anti-DEI Measures
Rolling back DEI programs has been a central policy focus of the Trump administration, which opened this year with a series of executive orders mandating that all federal agencies terminate every existing DEI-related policy and program. The orders also eliminated a key requirement for federal contractors that had long served as a critical tool for diversifying the national workforce. As a result, heading into 2026, all federal DEI programs have been eliminated—but the push to restrict DEI has spread to the state level, with a number of states passing new bills that limit how DEI can be used in hiring and across public education.
For example, legislation passed in Ohio this year bans public colleges and universities from considering DEI factors when making hiring decisions. Similar laws in Kansas, Idaho, and Wyoming will scale back DEI hiring programs across all public higher education institutions in those states. Meanwhile, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission—the federal agency tasked with enforcing workplace anti-discrimination laws—has made it clear that corporate DEI programs will face heightened scrutiny heading into 2026.
Regulation of AI in Hiring
As companies have increasingly integrated AI into their hiring workflows, many human resources teams have come to rely heavily on automated resume screeners and other algorithmic AI tools to streamline recruitment. In 2026, three U.S. states will implement new laws that create clear regulatory guardrails for how AI can be used to make employment decisions, following in the footsteps of New York City and California, which have already adopted their own rules governing AI in hiring.
Colorado and Texas are rolling out broader AI governance frameworks that explicitly call for increased oversight of how the technology is used during the hiring process, to ensure AI tools do not produce discriminatory outcomes. In Illinois, the new policy is an amendment to the state’s existing Human Rights Act, and it regulates how AI use impacts workers across all types of employment decisions, not just initial hiring. At the federal level, a bipartisan bill introduced in Congress last month would require employers to disclose when layoffs are driven by AI automation, if the legislation is ultimately passed.
