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The Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) issued new guidance for companies seeking for the first time to comply with Regulation S-K of the Dodd-Frank Act. Under the regulation, companies must begin to report executive pay ratios for the fiscal year beginning on or after January 1, 2017.

Australian lawmakers released in September a draft bill which would provide the most significant update to the country’s competition policies in many years. The new bill is a response to finding in the Harper Competition Policy Review, which suggested that the country’s legal framework was no longer adequate in preventing and addressing anti-competitive conduct.

The Department of Labor has finalized rules mandating that all employees working on federal contracts have access to paid sick leave, enforcing Executive Order 13706 issued last year by President Obama. The President issued the order for all companies contracting with the federal government, which should affect—at minimum—1.15 million workers.

On November 6, 2018, San Francisco voted to approve Proposition C, which is a business tax to pay for the expansion of homelessness programs. This new legislation is projected to generate approximately $250 to $300 million per year, which would be spent on permanent housing, mental health services, homelessness prevention and short-term shelters

In three states, voters passed ballot initiatives to adopt the Affordable Care Act's expansion of the Medicaid program. In Idaho, the expansion was approved with 60 percent of the vote, while in Nebraska and Utah it was approved with 54 percent and 53 percent, respectively. More than 300,000 residents across Nebraska, Idaho, and Utah are likely to gain access to health care coverage as a result of the approval measures. The number of states with Medicaid expansion now totals 37 states, including the District of Columbia.

Voters in both Arkansas and Missouri voted to approve substantial increases to their state minimum wages. Arkansas voted to increase the state’s current minimum wage of $8.50 an hour to $11 an hour by Jan. 1, 2021. The minimum wage will result in 25 percent of the state’s workers getting a raise.

The U.K. government introduced new legislation in October that gives law enforcement authorities greater power to reduce corruption and money laundering by seizing property tied to illegal activity.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) announced final rules to regulate the rapidly growing market for prepaid cards and other forms of electronic payments.

The National People’s Congress has passed a Cyber Security Law that codifies many of the measures the government has long taken to exert control over internet users within the country and over foreign companies doing business there.

The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) published a first-of-its-kind international standard to help organizations in creating anti-bribery management systems.

The Environmental Protection Agency published its final rules for updating the hazardous waste generation program found in the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA).

U.S. petroleum refiners and importers will face a new set of biofuel mandates after the Environmental Protection Agency updated its targets for the Renewable Fuel Standard program.