Finally, today is Election Day.  

And while the pundits tonight will all look forward to what the next four years might bring, it’s worth taking a quick peek back at Obama’s (first?) four years with a review of some of the posts from 2008-9.

Before his term, there were predictions that he would be good for employers, or bad for employers.   But I think that its fair to say that, with the notable exception of the NLRB, there really haven’t been a lot of changes to employment laws for the last four years.

You can chalk it up to a variety of reasons — bad economy, Washington gridlock, to name a few — but compared with the prior four years, in my view, employers haven’t had to worry about a lot of federal legislative developments.  (The rise in social media’s impact on employment, I would argue, has been much more significant.)

In 2008 alone, you had the Americans with Disabilities Amendment Act and the expansion of FMLA for military leave.  You also had new regulations for the Family Medical Leave Act.   

Remember what Obama pledged to get done?  A look at what happened showed a stalling out on a variety of issues.  Here are a few examples:

•Obama and Biden will strengthen the ability of workers to organize unions. He will fight for passage of the Employee Free Choice Act. (NLRB strengthened though impact lessoned as various proposals have been tied up in courts; EFCA never passed and has no reasonable likelihood of doing so)

•Obama and Biden will raise the minimum wage and index it to inflation. (While the minimum wage did increase in July 2009 to $7.25, that was as a result of a 2007 compromise bill. No further changes to minimum wage have been made since.)

•Obama and Biden will expand FMLA to cover businesses with 25 or more employees. They will expand the FMLA to cover more purposes as well, including allowing workers to take leave for elder care needs; allowing parents up to 24 hours of leave each year to participate in their children’s academic activities; and expanding FMLA to cover leave for employees to address domestic violence. (No substantive changes to FMLA have been made.)

• As president, Obama will initiate a strategy to encourage all 50 states to adopt paid-leave systems. (Connecticut did pass paid sick leave, but no strong federal support was seen.)

Other bills that have not yet passed include the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, which would prohibit employers from discriminating against employees because of their sexual orientation. 

So what did occur? Among other things: Passage of The Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act (though query whether this has had much impact in the workplace).  And nursing mothers received additional federal protections under “Obamacare”.  The EEOC also released new guidance on the use of criminal records and credit reports.   But overall, the impacts on employers have probably been far less than forecasted.

What do the next four years hold? For that, we’ll just have to wait until tonight.