A man fired from a Trane plant in Hamilton, N.J., has been awarded $45,000 in lost wages and damages after he asked to leave work, then left, to retrieve his asthma inhaler. The state attorney general's office intervened to secure the payment and has ordered Trane to change its disability-discrimination policy to provide reasonable accommodations.

Chinese tech companies, including Alibaba, Baidu and Huawei, often discriminate against women by posting certain jobs that are offered only to men or that require women to be attractive, according to a report from Human Rights Watch. Spokespersons from Alibaba and Baidu responded that they will crack down on sexist job postings.

Walmart recently rolled out a new, more comprehensive parental leave policy, and other companies have made similar moves in the first few months of this year. Some Walmart employees pushed for the change, but Jackie Telfair, the company's senior vice president in charge of employee benefits, said the business had been studying the issue "for a long time but hadn't been able to fully commit until tax reform allowed us to make investments."

Data suggest a looming worker shortage in high-paying construction and other skilled trades over the next five years. Some states, such as Washington and California, are creating initiatives to increase more opportunities for students who may choose to learn job skills instead of going to college.

Business insurance for active-shooter incidents is relatively new and often includes employee training, risk mitigation and other offerings, lawyer Barry Fleishman says. "The event is just so unanticipated, you can't plan out where all of your expenses are going to come from," he says.