Essay About Employment Law And Hours Of Work

State And Federal Systems Paper
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When describing employment law, there is a broad area that governs how
employers interact with the employees, former employees, and applicants for
employment. Labor and employment laws define US workers rights and protects
employees from employers retaliation for exercising our rights under the laws or
reporting violations to the proper authorities. In this paper I will describe how the federal
and state systems of government differ in their application of employment. I will also
provide an example of an employment protection that is provided by my state system, but
not by the federal system.
Employment law includes a wide variety of concerns like pension plans,
retirement, safety and health regulations, affirmative action, discrimination in the
workplace and sexual harassment. These labor laws were developed to level the
negotiating power of both the employers and labor unions. This ensures that both parties
keep from engaging in unfair labor practices and promote an accountability of both
parties to participate in good faith collective bargaining. Labor laws were mainly
developed to deal with relationships between employers and labor unions. There are
labor laws that grant employees the right to unionize and also allow employers and
employees to participate in certain activities for the purpose of fulfilling each of their
demands.
Employment Law covers a vast arena in the modern workplace. Only by a
thorough knowledge of the different areas employment law covers can managers be
effective in insulating their companys exposure to possible devastating lawsuits. In
addition to the many laws and regulations set forth by the federal government that affect
institutions across the United States, individual states and municipalities have enacted
their own sets of provisions to which managers must adhere while operating locally.
The United States Department of Labor is the controlling agency that deals with
matters of federal employment law. Posted on their website are many areas covered by
employment law statutes which may include recruitment, wages and hours of work,
safety and health standards, health benefits and retirement standards, working conditions,
and even non-U.S. citizens work authorization (United States Department of Labor,
nd.). As stated, there are many different areas of workplace law: here I will examine three
of them; recruitment, wages and hours of work, and safety and health standards.
One of the main functions of any company is to hire employees, and this is the
single source of the majority of discrimination actions faced by employers. The
regulations that cover recruitment are covered by a number of Federal and State statutes,
among them being Title VII of the Civil Rights Act 1964, the Age Discrimination in
Employment Act 1967, the Veterans Rehabilitation Act 1973, the Immigration Reform
and Control Act 1986, the Americans with Disabilities Act 1990, as well state laws that
encourage fair employment practices but are different from state to state (Bennett-
Alexander & Hartman, 2004).
The United States Fair Labor Standards Act 1938 established basic rules for the
payment of wages and the establishment for standards of overtime pay. Currently,
covered workers are required to receive a minimum wage of not less than $5.15 an hour
and overtime pay not less than one and one-half times the workers pay after 40 hours of
work in a workweek (U.S. Department of Labor, nd.) Again, states are free to expand
upon the basic statutes put forth by the federal standards. Florida mandates a minimum
wage of $6.40 per hour and Alaskas rate is $7.15 (United States Department of Labor,
2006). Regarding overtime, an employee is to be paid one and one-half times an
employees hourly wage after 40 hours in one week, Florida requires overtime to be paid
after an employee works 10 hours in one day, while in California, the hourly requirement
is after 8 hours daily.
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA, 1971) is the Federal
governing body for the safety and health standards for employers and employees in the
United States. The Administration covers a vast array of rules and regulations dependent
on the type of work performed (United States Department of Labor, 2004). States will
typically expand these regulations based upon specific safety requirements for their