Ringing in the New Year is always a blast. Parties, fireworks, the whole shebang – the festivities can only be raised to greater heights with a slew of new laws. This year, several state laws are being enacted, setting an interesting precedent for the nation in the coming months.

Eighteen states, including Colorado, will be seeing a minimum wage increase this year. Colorado’s hourly minimum is being raised to $10.20 from $9.30, a $2.95 difference from the national minimum of $7.25.

Other changes in the workplace involve paid sick leave, with Washington becoming the seventh state to require it of employers. Rhode Island is coming close behind with a similar law that will come into effect in July. Paid family leave, for up to 12 weeks, will be required in New York in the new year. These advances, centering around the intersection of one’s personal and work life, set a national example for changes in the coming years and display the small ways in which state governments play into their citizens’ lives.

Another example of a change in state laws is Tennessee’s enforcement of free speech rights on higher education campuses, a direct response to the vocal protests across the nation last year against speakers like Milo Yiannopoulos, who in aiming to get his message out to younger voters spoke at college campuses nationwide. The legislation aims to make protesting contentious speakers more challenging for students.

California is making a big transition with their laws on legal documents. ID documents will no longer be required to include male or female markers – a huge step for the LGBT+ community as a whole. Similarly, Illinois is allowing a change for gender markers on birth certificates, with the approval of a medical professional.

These are just some of several new laws coming into effect across the nation in 2018. Though the laws mentioned are being instituted at the state level, many have the potential to set a precedent on a nationwide scale for change that could impact all of our daily lives in one way or another.