Employment law is a broad area encompassing all areas of the
employer/employee relationship except the negotiation process covered by labor
law and collective bargaining. See,
Labor Law &
Collective Bargaining and Arbitration. Employment law consists of thousands
of Federal and state statutes, administrative regulations, and judicial
decisions. Many employment laws (e.g., minimum wage regulations) were
enacted as protective labor legislation. Other employment laws take the form of
public insurance, such as unemployment compensation.
The Department of Labor enforces the
Fair Labor Standards
Act (FLSA), which sets basic minimum wage and overtime pay standards. These
standards are enforced by the Department's
Wage and Hour Division, a
program of the Employment
Standards Administration.
Workers who are covered by the FLSA are entitled to a
minimum wage of
not less than $5.15 an hour. Overtime pay at a rate of not less than one and
one-half times their regular rate of pay is required after 40 hours of work in a
workweek. Certain exemptions apply to specific types of businesses or specific
types of work.
In addition to the FLSA, the Wage and Hour Division
enforces other labor laws related to wage payment. Among these are:
the
Davis-Bacon and
Related Acts, which require payment of prevailing wage rates and fringe
benefits on federally-financed or assisted construction;
the
Service Contract Act,
which requires payment of prevailing wage rates and fringe benefits on
contracts to provide services to the federal government;
the
Contract Work
Hours and Safety Standards Act, which sets overtime standards for most
federal service contracts, federally funded construction contracts, and
federal supply contracts over $100,000; and
the
Walsh-Healey Public
Contracts Act, which requires payment of minimum wage rates and overtime
pay on federal contracts to manufacture or provide goods to the federal
government.
The
Family and Medical
Leave Act (FMLA) provides for up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave for certain
medical and family situations (e.g., adoption) for either the employee or a
member of the covered and eligible employee's immediate family; however, in many
instances paid leave may be substituted for unpaid FMLA leave.
