HR Brew // Morning Brew // Update

January 08, 2026

Hey there, HR pros. We recently learned dating app users are increasingly using platforms like Tinder and Hinge to make connections for their careers, as well as their love lives. A ResumeBuilder survey even found a whopping 73% of Tinder users swipe right for career or networking opportunities.

Hey, if you can’t find love in a hopeless place, a steady job will do.

In today’s edition:

🫥 Disappearing DEI

No hire, no fire

Legislative lowdown

—Kristen Parisi, Paige McGlauflin, Courtney Vinopal

DEI

Changing tIDEs

Graphic of a DEI sign being painted over

Francis Scialabba

DEI has faced immense pressure since the 2024 election cycle, largely from the second iteration of the Trump administration. Executive orders and directives from the Departments of Labor and Justice and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) aimed to deter employers from pursuing diversity practices, HR Brew previously reported.

The political fear campaign appears to have at least partially worked: Roughly 63 Fortune 100 companies have rebranded or eliminated the DEI messaging that appeared on their websites since the summer of 2024, an HR Brew analysis found. Of those companies, 54 made their changes following the 2024 presidential election.

“The Trump administration did a very good job of putting out a narrative of fear and of misinformation that became very hard to combat, quite frankly, as practitioners,” Evelyn Carter, a DEI expert and author of the forthcoming book, Was That Racist? In some cases, she said, businesses seem to have continued the work internally, without publicizing it externally.

“It [the data] implies to us that these rollbacks weren’t ideological. They’re fear-based. They’re shortcut-based,” Jarvis Sam, founder and CEO of the Rainbow Disruption, a DEI consultancy, told HR Brew. “What I listen for is, show me the system that makes merit real, and a lot of what they underpin it with is some of the exact same approaches that are the foundation of how we define and talk about DEI.”

For more on this trend, and what might be next for DEI, keep reading here.—KP

Presented By Culture Amp

Six HR trends for 2026

2026 is here ! And so are some predictions, right on schedule.

Culture Amp, an AI-forward leader in the enterprise HR space, crunched the data to predict six key trends for work in 2026, from AI to the leadership recession and beyond.

Register to peep the predictions for 2026, along with actionable strategies to transform disengagement into motivation, stagnation into growth, and “just going through the motions” into real impact.

One sneak peek: As AI increasingly steps in to help with HR admin work, leaders must balance a workplace that is both humane and digital.

It’s all going down on Jan. 22 at 1pm EST. Register here to catch the timely insights.

RECRUITMENT & RETENTION

Slow down

Andrii Yalanskyi/Getty Images

Want to leave 2025 in the past? Too bad, we’re looking at November labor turnover data today.

The labor market in November churned about as smoothly as bread dough that’s been kneaded for too long—that is to say, not much at all. Job openings and hires declined again, while total separations remained largely unchanged, per the latest JOLTS data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. For HR leaders, it’s yet another sign that they will have to get creative with their talent strategies in 2026 amid a changing labor market.

For more on the data, and what it means for talent strategy, keep reading here.—PM

COMPLIANCE

New year, new wages

Legislative Lowdown recurring feature illustration

Francis Scialabba

A new year means new wages for millions of workers across the country.

As of Jan. 1, 2026, the minimum wage rate increased in 19 states, as well as 47 different cities and counties. The state-level minimum wage increases are expected to affect earnings for more than 8.3 million workers, according to an estimate from the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute.

Hawaiians saw the biggest hourly minimum wage boost at the start of this year, as the rate increased by $2, from $14 to $16. Workers in Missouri and Nebraska also saw substantial increases—the hourly minimum wage rose by $1.25 and $1.50 in these states, respectively.

These wage increases come at a time when compensation and benefits are barely outpacing inflation, according to recent federal data. The amount that employers spent on wages and benefits rose 3.5% in September, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, but this uptick was the lowest level since 2021, and just slightly higher than the inflation rate.

For more on what HR needs to know about the recent minimum wage increases, keep reading here.—CV

WORK PERKS

A desktop computer plugged into a green couch.

Francis Scialabba

Today’s top HR reads.

Stat: 64. That’s the average age when US men retire, about three years older than the average man was when he stopped working in the mid-1990s. (the New York Times)

Quote: “I don’t really know what it is that these conversations can’t happen at lunch or any other setting, but it allows you to connect with your peers on a much more human level.”—Kobby Adu-Diawuo, an investor, on how happy hours help foster workplace relationships (the Wall Street Journals)

Read: State laws concerning pay transparency, paid leave, and the use of AI in the workplace are all set to influence the employer-employee relationship in 2026. (Fast Company)

HR 2026: From AI at work to employee side hustles, don’t miss Culture Amp’s six workplace predictions for 2026 in this webinar. Register to catch all the insights.*

^{*A message from our sponsor.}

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Written by Kristen Parisi, Paige McGlauflin, and Courtney Vinopal

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☕️ That’s unfortunate