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Employment Law

The following information is taken from the Legal Life Employment Law Handbook. This free information is meant to help you become familiar with the various issues associated with employment law. You can purchase the complete guide through the following link Employment Law Handbook.

What is the Fair Labor Standards Act?

The Fair Labor Standards Act is a federal statute setting minimum hourly wages, and maximum daily and weekly work hours after which overtime rates must be paid. The Act also has certain child labor prohibitions. Public employees were included in the Act in 1974..

The Fair Labor Standards Act's (FLSA) basic requirements are: Payment of the minimum wage, overtime pay for time worked over 40 hours in a work week, restrictions on the employment of children and recordkeeping..

In order for the FLSA to apply, there must be an employment relationship between an "employer" and an "employee." The FLSA also contains some exemptions from these basic rules. Some apply to specific types of businesses and others to specific kinds of work. Although some states may have laws governing the following issues, the FLSA does not require: .

Vacation, holiday, severance, or sick pay, meal or rest periods, holidays off, or vacations, premium pay for weekend or holiday work, pay raises or fringe benefits, a discharge notice, reason for discharge, or immediate payment of final wages to terminated employees and pay stubs or "W-2"s..

What is Minimum Wage Law?

In the areas of minimum wage and overtime there is dual regulation by states and by the federal government. If an employment situation falls within the jurisdiction of both state and federal law, then the employer must comply with the state or federal law that sets the higher standard. The federal minimum wage for covered, nonexempt employees is $5.15 per hour. The federal minimum wage provisions are contained in the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). .

Various minimum wage exceptions apply under specific circumstances to workers with disabilities, full-time students, youth under age 20 in their first 90 consecutive calendar days of employment, tipped employees and student-learners. The Department of Labor's Wage and Hour Division administers and enforces the federal minimum wage law..

What is The Family and Medical Leave Act?

The Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) is a federal law that requires covered employers to grant an eligible employee up to a total of 12 workweeks of unpaid leave during any 12-month period for one or more of the following reasons: for the birth and care of the newborn child of the employee, for placement with the employee of a son or daughter for adoption or foster care, to care for an immediate family member (spouse, child, or parent) with a serious health condition or to take medical leave when the employee is unable to work because of a serious health condition..

An employer covered by FMLA is any person engaged in commerce or in any industry or activity affecting commerce, who employs 50 or more employees for each working day during each of 20 or more calendar workweeks in the current or preceding calendar year. Employers covered by FMLA also include any person acting, directly or indirectly, in the interest of a covered employer to any of the employees of the employer, any successor in interest of a covered employer, and any public agency. Public agencies are covered employers without regard to the number of employees employed. Public as well as private elementary and secondary schools are also covered employers..

Generally, an employee's spouse, children (son or daughter), and parents are immediate family members for purposes of the FMLA. In-laws are not included as parents. And sons and daughters do not include individuals 18 or over unless they are "incapable of self-care" because of a mental or physical disability that limits one or more of the "major life activities" as those terms are defined in ADA-related regulations..

What is the Equal Pay Act?

The Equal Pay Act of 1963 requires that employers pay employees of different sexes at the same rate as long as the employees perform the same work that requires equal skill, effort, and responsibility, and the employees perform the work under similar working conditions..

What is Title VII?

Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits employment discrimination on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex, religion, age, disability, political beliefs, and marital or familial status. Added as an amendment to Title VII, it expands the protection of Title VII to public and private employers with 15 or more employees, both public and private labor organizations with at least 15 members, and employment agencies..

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