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United States labor law is a heterogeneous collection of state and federal laws. Federal law not only sets the standards that govern workers' rights to organize in the private sector, but overrides most state and local laws that attempt to regulate this area. Federal law also provides more limited rights for employees of the federal government. These federal laws do not, on the other hand, apply to employees of state and local governments, agricultural workers or domestic employees; any statutory protections those workers have derive from state law. This article is in need of attention. ...
The pattern is even more mixed in the area of wages and working conditions. Federal law establishes minimum wages and overtime rights for most workers in the private and public sectors; state and local laws may provide more expansive rights, Similarly, federal law provides minimum workplace safety standards, but allows the states to take over those responsibilities and to provide more stringent standards.
Finally, both federal and state laws protect workers from employment discrimination. In most areas these two bodies of law overlap; as an example, federal law permits state to enact their own statutes barring discrimination on the basis of race, gender, religion, national origin and age, so long as the state law does not provide less protections than federal law would. Federal law, on the other hand, preempts most state statutes that would bar employers from discriminating against employees to prevent them from obtaining pensions or other benefits or retaliating against them for asserting those rights.
Background
Employment law in the U.S. was traditionally governed by the common law rule of "at-will employment," meaning that an employment relationship could be terminated by either party at any time for any reason or without a reason. However, starting in 1941, a series of laws changed this. For the movie, see 1941 (film) 1941 (MCMXLI) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will take you to calendar). ...
In 1941, Executive Order 8802 (or the Fair Employment Act) became the first law to prohibit racial discrimination, although it only applied to the national defense industry. Later laws include Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (and amendments), Title I of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, the Family and Medical Leave Act 0f 1993, and numerous state laws with additional protections. The Fair Labor Standards Act regulates minimum wages and overtime pay for certain employees who work more than 40 hours in a work week. Executive Order 8802 (also known as the Fair Employment Act) was signed by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt on June 25, 1941 to prohibit racial discrimination in the national defense industry. ...
An African-American drinks out of a water fountain marked for colored in 1939 at a street car terminal in Oklahoma City. ...
President Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act of 1964. ...
The neutrality of this article is disputed. ...
This act provides employees with time off from work to care for a member of the family who becomes ill. ...
The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) of 1938 is federal legislation of the United States. ...
There is no special employment tribunal in the U.S. Employment law cases are heard in state or federal courts, depending upon the issue, the size of the employer (the Civil Rights Act of 1964, for example, applies only to employers with 15 or more employees), and the litigation strategy of the plaintiff.
Regulation of unions and organizing The National Labor Relations Act gives private sector workers the right to choose whether they wish to be represented by a union and establishes the National Labor Relations Board to hold elections for that purpose. As originally enacted in 1935, the NLRA, then also known as "the Wagner Act", makes it illegal for employers to discriminate against workers because of their union membership or retaliate against them for engaging in organizing campaigns or other "concerted activities", to form "company unions", or to refuse to engage in collective bargaining with the union that represented their employees. The National Labor Relations Act (or Wagner Act) is a 1935 United States federal law that protects the rights of most workers in the private sector to organize labor unions, to engage in collective bargaining, and to take part in strikes and other forms of concerted activity in support of...
In the United States the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) is a five-person appointed federal agency charged with conducting elections for labor union representation and with investigating and remedying unfair labor pratices. ...
1935 (MCMXXXV) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will take you to calendar). ...
Collective bargaining is the process of negotiation between representatives of a union and employers (represented by management) in respect of the terms and conditions of employment of employees, such as wages, hours of work, working conditions and grievance procedures, and about the rights and responsibilities of trade unions. ...
The Taft-Hartley Act, passed in 1947, loosened some of the restrictions on employers, changed NLRB election procedures, and added a number of new limitations on unions. The Act, among other things, prohibits jurisdictional strikes and secondary boycotts by unions, outlaws the "closed shop" and authorizes individual states to pass "right to work laws", regulates pension and other benefit plans established by unions and provides that federal courts have jurisdiction to enforce collective bargaining agreements. The Taft-Hartley Act severely restricted the activities and power of labor unions in the United States. ...
1947 (MCMXLVII) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will take you to calendar). ...
The National Labor Relations Board, an agency within the United States government, was created in 1935 as part of the National Labor Relations Act. ...
Secondary boycotts are a trade maneuver in which a party or alliance of parties refuse to deal with specific parties trading with a third party. ...
A closed shop is a business or industrial establishment whose employees are required to be union members or to agree to join the union within a specified time after being hired. ...
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The United States Congress subsequently tightened those restrictions on unions in the Labor Management Reporting and Disclosure Act of 1959, which also regulates the internal affairs of all private sector unions, providing for minimum standards for unions' internal disciplinary proceedings, federal oversight for unions' elections of their own officers, and fiduciary standards for union officers' use of union funds. Congress has since expanded the NLRB's jurisdiction to health care institutions, with unique rules governing organizing and strikes against those employers. Congress in Joint Session. ...
The Labour Management Reporting and Disclosure Act (LMRDA), also known as the Landrum-Griffin Act, is a United States labour law statute that regulates labour unions internal affairs and union officials relationships with employers. ...
In many common law jurisdictions, fiduciary is a legal term used to describe a relationship between a person who occupies a particular position of trust, power or responsibility with respect to the rights, property or interests of another. ...
The NLRA does not, on the other hand, cover governmental employees, with the exception of employees of the United States Postal Service, a quasi-public entity. The Federal Labor Relations Act provides for much more limited rights for employees of the federal government; Congress has, moreover, excluded a number of these workers in the United States Department of Homeland Security and elsewhere from even these limited protections. A USPS truck in San Francisco A smaller truck (a Long Life Vehicle or LLV) used in suburban areas This article describes the United States Postal Service. ...
The United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is a Cabinet department of the federal government of the United States that is concerned with protecting Americas people from harm and its property from damage. ...
Federal law does not provide employees of state and local governments with the right to organize or engage in union activities, except to the extent that the United States Constitution protects their rights to freedom of speech and freedom of association. The Constitution provides even less protection for governmental employees' right to engage in collective bargaining: while it bars public employers from retaliating against employees for forming a union, it does not require those employers to recognize that union, much less bargain with it. The Constitution of the United States is the supreme law of the United States of America. ...
Most states provide public employees with limited statutory protections; a few permit public employees to strike in support of their demands in some circumstances. Some states, however, particularly in the South, make it illegal for a governmental entity to enter into a collective bargaining agreement with a union.
The NLRA does not cover agricultural or domestic employees. A few states have enacted labor laws similar to the NLRA covering farm workers.
Finally, the NLRA does not cover employees in the railroad and airline industries. Those workers are covered by the Railway Labor Act, first passed in 1926, then amended in 1936 to cover airline employees. The RLA creates a wholly different structure for resolving labor disputes, requiring bargaining under indirect governmental supervision and permitting strikes only in limited circumstances. The Railway Labor Act governs labor relations in the railway and airline industries in the United States. ...
1926 (MCMXXVI) was a common year starting on Friday (link will take you to calendar). ...
1936 (MCMXXXVI) was a leap year starting on Wednesday (link will take you to calendar). ...
The Norris-LaGuardia Act of 1932 outlawed the issuance of injunctions in labor disputes by federal courts. While the Act does not prevent state courts from issuing injunctions, it ended what some observers called "government by injunction", in which the federal courts used injunctions to prevent unions from striking, organizing and, in some cases, even talking to workers or entering certain parts of a state. The Act also led, indirectly, to the end of the use of anti-trust law to outlaw strikes by unions. Roughly half the states have enacted their own version of the Norris-LaGuardia Act. The Norris-LaGuardia Act (Sen. ...
1932 (MCMXXXII) is a leap year starting on Friday. ...
An injunction is an equitable remedy in the form of a court order that either prohibits or compels (restrains or enjoins) a party from continuing a particular activity. ...
Antitrust is also the name for a movie, see Antitrust (movie) Antitrust or competition laws legislate against trade practices that undermine competitiveness or are considered to be unfair. ...
For the most part the NLRA and RLA displace state laws that attempt to regulate the right to organize, to strike and to engage in collective bargaining. The NLRB has exclusive jurisdiction to determine whether an employer has engaged in an unfair labor practice and to decide what remedies should be provided. States and local governments can, on the other hand, impose requirements when acting as market participants, such as requiring that all contractors sign a project labor agreement to avoid strikes when building a public works project, that they could not if they were attempting to regulate those employers' labor relations directly.
Regulation of wages, benefits and working conditions The Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 establishes minimum wage and overtime rights for most private sector workers, with a number of exemptions and exceptions. Congress amended the Act in 1974 to cover governmental employees, leading to a series of United States Supreme Court decisions in which the Court first held that the law was unconstitutional, then reversed itself to permit the FLSA to cover governmental employees. The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) of 1938 is federal legislation of the United States. ...
1974 (MCMLXXIV) is a common year starting on Tuesday (click on link for calendar). ...
The Supreme Court Building, Washington, D.C. The Supreme Court Building, Washington, D.C., (large image) The Supreme Court of the United States, located in Washington, D.C., is the highest court (see supreme court) in the United States; that is, it has ultimate judicial authority within the United States...
The FLSA does not preempt state and local governments from providing greater protections under their own laws. A number of states have enacted higher minimum wages and extended their laws to cover workers who are excluded under the FLSA or to provide rights that federal law ignores. Local governments have also adopted a number of "living wage" laws that require those employers that contract with them to pay higher minimum wages and benefits to their employees. The federal government, along with many state governments, likewise require employers to pay the prevailing wage, which typically reflects the standards established by unions' collective bargaining agreements in the area, to workers on public works projects.
The Employee Retirement Income Security Act establishes standards for the funding and operation of pension and health care plans provided by employers to their employees. ERISA preempts most state legislation that attempts to regulate how such plans are administered and, to a great extent, what types of health care coverage they provide. ERISA also preempts state law claims that an employer discriminated against employees in order to prevent them from obtaining the benefits they would have earned otherwise or to retaliate against them for asserting their rights. The Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974, commonly known as ERISA, is a U.S federal statute that sets minimum standards for pension plans, health care plans, and some apprenticeship and severance pay plans established by private sector employers in the United States. ...
The Family and Medical Leave Act, passed in 1993, requires employers to provide workers with twelve weeks of unpaid medical leave and continuing medical benefit coverage in order to attend to certain medical conditions of close relatives or themselves. Many states have comparable statutory provisions; some states have offered greater protections. The Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993 (Public Law 103-3, enacted February 5, 1993) was one of the first major new laws enacted by United States President Bill Clinton in his first term, fulfilling a campaign promise. ...
Cite error 4; Invalid call; no input specified 1993 (MCMXCIII) was a common year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar and marked the Beginning of the International Decade to Combat Racism and Racial Discrimination (1993-2003). ...
The Occupational Safety and Health Act, signed into law in 1970 by President Richard Nixon, creates specific standards for workplace safety. The Act has spawned years of litigation by industry groups that have challenged the standards limiting the amount of permitted exposure to chemicals such as benzene. The Act also provides for protection for "whistleblowers" who complain to governmental authorities about unsafe conditions while allowing workers the right to refuse to work under unsafe conditions in certain circumstances. The Occupational Safety and Health Act, known more generally as the OSH Act, was signed into US law by President Richard M. Nixon on December 29, 1970. ...
1970 (MCMLXX) was a common year starting on Thursday. ...
Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913 – April 22, 1994) was the 37th President of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. ...
Benzene, also known as C6H6, PhH, and benzol, is an organic chemical compound which is a colorless and flammable liquid with a pleasant, sweet smell. ...
The Act allows states to take over the administration of the OSHAct in their jurisdictions, so long as they adopt state laws at least as protective of workers' rights as under federal law. More than half of the states have done so.
Employment discrimination and whistleblowers While Congress passed laws barring racial discrimination by private employers in 1867, the Supreme Court's decision in the Civil Rights Cases made that Act a dead letter for nearly a century. Congress adopted limited prohibitions against racial discrimination by defense contractors during World War II, but no general prohibition against employment discrimination until it passed Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which bars employment discrimination on the basis of race, gender, national origin and religion. Congress amended that Act in 1972 to cover governmental employers, in 1981 to outlaw employment discrimination on the basis of pregnancy, and again in the Civil Rights Act of 1991 to overturn a number of decisions by the Supreme Court limiting employees' rights. 1867 was a common year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar). ...
The Civil Rights Cases, 109 U.S. 3 (1883) was an important United States Supreme Court decision that held that Congress lacked the constitutional authority under the enforcement provisions of the Fourteenth Amendment to outlaw racial discrimination by private individuals and organizations, rather than state and local governments. ...
Combatants Allied Powers Axis Powers Commanders {{{commander1}}} {{{commander2}}} Strength {{{strength1}}} {{{strength2}}} Casualties 17 million military deaths 7 million military deaths World War II, also known as the Second World War (sometimes WW2 or WWII), was a mid-20th century conflict that engulfed much of the globe and is accepted as...
President Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act of 1964. ...
1972 (MCMLXXII) was a leap year that started on a Saturday. ...
1981 (MCMLXXXI) is a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ...
The Civil Rights Act of 1991 is a United States statute that was passed in response to a series of United States Supreme Court decisions limiting the rights of employees who had sued their employers for discrimination. ...
Congress has also protected the rights of workers over forty years of age in the Age Discrimination in Employment Act, passed in 1967, and the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990. The Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 also provides narrow prohibitions against certain types of employment discrimination based on immigration status. PWNED!!! ...
1967 (MCMLXVII) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ...
The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 is the short title of United States Public Law 101-336, signed into law on July 26, 1990 by George H. W. Bush. ...
The Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA) of 1986 is an American law that was created in order to stop illegal immigration from Mexico, which was seen as a threat to the economy. ...
Title VII encourages states to pass their own anti-discrimination laws; most states outside the South have done so. A number of states and local governments have also enacted statutes that expand on the rights that federal law offers, either by offering greater remedies or broader protections, or have legislated in areas that federal law does not cover, such as discrimination based on sexual orientation or marital status. Sexual orientation refers to the sexual gender(s) to which a person is attracted and which form the focus of a persons amorous or erotic desires, fantasies, and spontaneous feelings, in other words the gender(s) toward which one is primarily oriented. The alternative terms sexual preference and sexual...
A persons marital status describes their relationship with a significant other. ...
The states and the federal government have also enacted a welter of laws to protect whistleblowers; these statutes vary widely in what conduct is protected, what procedures must be followed to enforce the law and what remedies are provided. Public sector employees are also protected from retaliation by their employers for some forms of whistleblowing activities by the First Amendment to the United States Constitution. The first ten Amendments to the U.S. Constitution make up the Bill of Rights. ...
Job security While most state and federal laws start from the presumption that workers who are not covered by a collective bargaining agreement or an individual employment agreement are "at will" employees who can be fired without notice and for no stated reason, state and federal laws prohibiting discrimination or protecting the right to organize or engage in whistleblowing activities modify that rule by providing that discharge or other forms of discrimination are illegal if undertaken on grounds specifically prohibited by law. In addition, a number of states have modified the general rule that employment is at will by holding that employees may, under that state's common law, have implied contract rights to fair treatment by their employers. US private-sector employees thus do not have the indefinite contracts (similar to US academic tenure) traditionally common in many European countries. This article concerns the common-law legal system, as contrasted with the civil law legal system; for other meanings of the term, within the field of law, see common law (disambiguation). ...
Job security is a workers sense of having stability of maintaining a job resulting from the possession of special skills, seniority, or a safeguard provided in a collective agreement against unanticipated technical changes. ...
Tenure commonly refers to academic tenure systems, in which professors (at the university level)—and in some jurisdictions schoolteachers (at primary or secondary school levels)—are granted the right not to be fired without cause after an initial probationary period. ...
Public employees in both federal and state government are also typically covered by civil service systems that protect them from unjust discharge. Public employees who have enough rights against unjustified discharge by their employers may also acquire a property right in their jobs, which entitles them in turn to additional protections under the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. The Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution is one of the post-Civil War amendments and includes the Due Process and Equal Protection Clauses. ...
The Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act, better known by its acronym as the WARN Act, requires private sector employers to give sixty days' notice of large-scale layoffs and plant closures; it allows a number of exceptions for unforeseen emergencies and other cases. Several states have adopted more stringent requirements of their own.
Labor Law in individual states
California - Main article: California Department of Fair Employment and Housing
In 1959, California added the Division of Fair Employment Practices to the Department of Industrial Relations. The Fair Employment and Housing Act of 1980 gave the division its own Department of Fair Employment and Housing, with the stated purpose of protecting citizens against harassment and employment discrimination on the basis of[1]: The California Department of Fair Employment and Housing (or DFEH) is a branch of the California government intended to protect civil rights. ...
1959 (MCMLIX) was a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ...
Official language(s) English Capital Sacramento Largest city Los Angeles Area - Total - Width - Length - % water - Latitude - Longitude Ranked 3rd 410,000 km² 402. ...
The California Department of Fair Employment and Housing (or DFEH) is a branch of the California government intended to protect civil rights. ...
Harassment refers to a wide spectrum of offensive behavior. ...
Employment discrimination refers to employment practices that are prohibited by law such as bias in hiring, promotion, job assignment, termination, compensation, and various types of harassment. ...
- Age
- Ancestry
- Color
- Creed
- Denial of Family and Medical Care Leave
- Disability (mental and physical) including HIV and AIDS
- Marital Status
- Medical Condition (cancer and genetic characteristics)
- National Origin
- Race
- Religion
- Sex (including transgendered people)
- Sexual Orientation
It should be noted that sexual orientation was not specifically included in the original law but has been established based on case law. In any case, protections outlined in the Fair Employment and Housing Act do not extend beyond the state of California. Human immunodeficiency virus, commonly known by the acronym HIV, is a retrovirus that primarily infects vital components of the human immune system such as CD4+ T cells, macrophages and dendritic cells. ...
The Red Ribbon is the global symbol for solidarity with HIV-positive people and those living with AIDS. AIDS, or Aids, is an acronym for acquired immunodeficiency syndrome or acquired immune deficiency syndrome and is defined as a collection of symptoms and infections resulting from the specific damage to the...
When normal cells are damaged beyond repair, they are eliminated by apoptosis. ...
It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with Validity of human races. ...
Transgender is generally used as a catch-all umbrella term for a variety of individuals, behaviors, and groups centered around the full or partial reversal of gender roles; however, compare other definitions below. ...
Sexual orientation refers to the sexual gender(s) to which a person is attracted and which form the focus of a persons amorous or erotic desires, fantasies, and spontaneous feelings, in other words the gender(s) toward which one is primarily oriented. The alternative terms sexual preference and sexual...
Case law (precedential law) is the body of judge-made law and legal decisions that interprets prior case law, statutes and other legal authority -- including doctrinal writings by legal scholars such as the Corpus Juris Secundum, Halsburys Laws of England or the doctinal writings found in the Recueil Dalloz...
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