This is why I believe that many of these worker protection laws will wind up bringing more harm than good unless they can be implemented at the federal level. I cannot imagine how difficult it would be for a small or mid-size company to try and maintain compliance with a patchwork of 50 different state regulations.
Suppose Colorado has a law saying that all new roles must be presented to current employees as promotional opportunities and then Michigan (hypothetically) passes a law saying that all new roles must be presented to students graduating from Michigan State first? These laws could be in direct conflict, so which state does the company pick?
Do you spin up entire HR and Legal departments just to make sure you're not violating laws in states in which you don't even have employees yet? The easiest thing to do is just say "this law is too complicated for us to deal with right now, so we've decided not to hire here." Worse, this kind of law gives a huge advantage to FAANG-type companies who _can_ afford such intricacies.
Suppose Colorado has a law saying that all new roles must be presented to current employees as promotional opportunities and then Michigan (hypothetically) passes a law saying that all new roles must be presented to students graduating from Michigan State first? These laws could be in direct conflict, so which state does the company pick?
Do you spin up entire HR and Legal departments just to make sure you're not violating laws in states in which you don't even have employees yet? The easiest thing to do is just say "this law is too complicated for us to deal with right now, so we've decided not to hire here." Worse, this kind of law gives a huge advantage to FAANG-type companies who _can_ afford such intricacies.