The Current Landscape of Tech and Work Policy in the U.S.: A Guide to Key Laws, Bills, and Concepts

Automation and Job Loss

Automation has been the focus of many bills introduced in 2024 and 2025. The bills differ, however, in their approach. We have grouped them into three broad categories:

1. Protecting workers from automation and job loss

Several laws have already been enacted in this category. In 2025, Illinois passed laws prohibiting the use of AI in place of mental health professionals or community college faculty, while Oregon passed a law prohibiting businesses from advertising their AI products using terms reserved for licensed nursing professionals. Similar bills have been introduced in 2025 for healthcare in California and mental health in New Jersey. Another 2024 law in California defines community college faculty as humans, not artificial intelligence (a federal bill does this for musicians).

Important examples from introduced bills include: prohibiting AI from replacing media workers (a 2025 New York bill), teachers (2025 bills in Texas and Connecticut), court reporters (a 2025 California bill), core job functions of call center workers (a 2024 California bill), or care functions in health care settings (a 2025 Maine bill). Other bills place limits on automated checkout counters in retail stores (a 2025 California bill) and mandate the presence of a human driver in commercial vehicles (e.g., 2025 bills in Colorado and Massachusetts).

Another policy strategy is to change the incentives surrounding automation. For example, several bills were reintroduced in New York in 2025 that would tax or withhold subsidies from companies that use technology to displace workers. Similarly, two bills introduced in New Jersey would offer tax credits to companies that either hire displaced workers (2024) or participate in technology-related apprenticeship programs (2025) for workers displaced due to automation.

Finally, in 2025 New York state updated its Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notice (WARN) laws requiring companies to disclose if layoffs are due to technological innovation or automation.

2. Protecting workers from being forced to train their AI replacement

A related policy model is to ensure that workers have control over their work product and are not forced to train AI systems with their data. Most bills in this category focus on creative workers such as artists, actors, musicians, and journalists. In 2024 several states passed laws in this area, strictly regulating contracts governing digital replicas (see laws in California, Illinois and New York). Other proposed legislation that would require written authorization for the use of a worker’s digital replica include the federal No Fakes Act and a bill in Massachusetts, both introduced in 2025. A 2024 Washington bill similarly creates consent requirements when employers want to use a worker’s digital likeness in the workplace context.

Other bills expand their focus beyond digital replicas. The journalism bill in New York mentioned above would prohibit employers from using media workers’ creative output to train a generative AI system without notice, consent, or the opportunity to bargain. Other examples include the federal COPIED Act, introduced in 2024, which would prohibit developers from using a worker’s digital product (text, image, audio, or video) that has provenance information attached to it without consent.

3. Education and training for the 21st century economy

Providing workers with the education and training they need to navigate rapid technological change is a key area requiring policy innovation. One important model is the comprehensive federal Workers’ Right to Training Act, which was introduced in 2019. This bill would establish strong requirements for employers to provide on-the-job retraining and offer alternative employment to workers whose jobs are in danger of being changed (in their pay, working conditions, or skill requirements) or replaced due to new technologies. A more recent New Jersey bill (2024) would require employers to provide notice, retraining, and severance pay to workers who experience technology-related job loss. Other bills direct government agencies rather than employers to offer retraining to workers in industries impacted by technological change; two such bills introduced at the federal level are Investing in Tomorrow’s Workforce Act of 2023 and the Workforce of the Future Act of 2024. Two 2025 New Jersey bills direct public funds to nonprofits or to public-private partnerships to provide AI training to workers.

Key concepts appearing in one or more policies:

• Employers should be prohibited from using digital technologies to automate jobs, eliminate core job functions, or reduce work hours.
• Employers must conduct an impact assessment prior to deploying any digital technologies that have the potential to automate, eliminate, or change core job functions.
• Employers must give notice, retraining, and compensation to workers when deploying digital technologies that will change jobs or displace workers, and give priority to current workers when filling new positions.
• Employers must consult workers when implementing consequential workplace technology and share the results of impact assessments with workers.
• Businesses are prohibited from claiming that AI systems have professional expertise reserved for licensed professionals.
• Businesses cannot train an AI model with a worker’s work product (e.g., digital likeness, expertise, voice, writing, art, music), or use a worker’s digital replica without receiving express and informed consent and potentially giving the creator credit and compensation.
• Employers cannot retaliate against a worker for refusing to give consent to have their work product be used to train a Generative AI system.
• Workers must have additional protections when entering into contracts allowing companies to use their digital replicas, such as having union or legal representation present, or ensuring that the contract language is specific to the intended use.
• Government taxation and economic development policies should be leveraged to disincentivize job automation.
• Government agencies should invest in retraining initiatives for workers in industries undergoing technological change.