Protecting Employees from Being Exploited

There are many attractive states in the USA, and fortunately they all have a slew of labor laws which apply to the workers living on that piece of land. First off, there are the various federal laws, displayed on the federal labor law posters which you can find hanging about at any workplace. Indeed, wherever you go within the United States of America, you will see that workplaces from all over the country put up the same notices in regards to federal laws. The topics which are covered by these laws include some very important ones such as child labor and anti-discrimination laws. Apart from these federal laws, you may also have noticed that there are the state labor law posters, which are basically there to inform you of additional regulations which apply to you based on the fact that you are within a certain state, and that every state has its own government which has a certain amount of power when it comes to enforcing laws. If you find that having all these posters hanging from the walls of an office is quite demanding from an employer, keep in mind that these laws are actually the only thing standing between you and unfair treatment from your employer (perhaps there is some decency involved as well, but one should not really have to count on that).

The first thing towards which many will look for on labor law posters is the minimum wage act, which actually changes from time to time seeing as how a person’s minimum wage depends on what type of financial case of affairs the state is currently in.

Another very important law to be followed regardless of your location in the United States is the one which talks about discrimination, especially on the basis of gender. Way too often are women making less than men for doing the exact same work, so you should know that in most cases it is now plainly illegal dabble in such practices.

Something which every employee looks for when getting their job is the type of compensation it offers in regards to injuries sustained at the workplace. In most cases, this actually falls under laws which are specific to your business, but most of the time the employer must provide you with enough money to ensure adequate medical treatment.

Finally, there are the health and safety regulations which are there to make sure that employees do indeed work in a safe environment and have the proper equipment for the job.

Federal Laws in Regards to Child Labor

Child labor is something which the labor laws were actually made to prevent in the first place in 1832. Today, the age at which a person can be employed starts at 14 in the United States of America, and even then there are actually rules in place which prevent the employers from overworking their minor employees, as well as restrictions on the places they can be employed at; for example, an underage worker cannot be legally employed by a mining company since they would be required to perform some physically gruelling and punishing work. It is actually a fairly common practice for companies which do not require complex work to be performed to hire employees under the age of 18 in order to fill up their part-time slots along with offering youngsters their first job opportunity. If you are the owner of a business and you are looking into giving some work to youngsters in your company then perhaps you should take a good look at the child labor law posters which you need to put up to make sure that you are in the clear. These laws exist to provide protection to children from being exploited and underpaid, meaning that you will have to comply with restrictions and make use of scheduling practices which comply with the state labor law posters and federal labor law posters.

While the laws differ from state to state, there are actually some federal laws in regards to child labor which are applicable anywhere. These laws include the following clauses: no child under the age of 14 may be employed legally, no person under the age of 16 can be asked to work either before 7.am or after 7pm while school is in session (also no more than three working hours during a school day are allowed). People who are under the age of 16 are also forbidden to work more than 18 hours during a school week, and they cannot work more than 40 hours a week and more than 8 hours a day during vacations. Also, needless to say there is a law which clearly states that a youth under the age of 16 is not allowed to work during regular school hours, which is more than understandable.

As you can see, the labor laws have a gone a long way since the days children were being exploited, working in mines and dying before they even reached adulthood; the laws make sure that the kids of today have a shot at some kind of future.

Common Labor Laws across the USA

As an employee, everyone should know that they have rights and that they are entitled to various compensations, especially if they are being treated unfairly by their employers. If you happen to be working in the United States of America, then perhaps you are already aware of the fact that not only there are various federal labor laws which apply to you, but depending on which state you work in, there is also a myriad of state labor laws which are there to make sure that workers are justly compensated for their efforts and do not suffer injustice that goes unpunished. If you ever want to get familiar with these regulations, then all you have to do as an employee is to check out the labor law posters which are hanging about somewhere in your workplace (they are usually put up in a visible place for everyone to see, mostly because that is what the law indicates).

Even though each state has its own set of labor laws, there are the ones which are found on federal labor law posters, and they apply to all workers within the US. For example, if a worker wants to take a medical leave then regardless of where they are working they are entitled to a period of 12 weeks off their jobs without having to worry about losing their position. This time off can be taken as part of a paternity/maternity program, or to mend an illness of some sort. However, it must be noted that during this time the employer is not required to give an employee their regular pay; they only have to keep their job for them until they come back.

Another very common labor law is in regards to the employee’s unemployment compensation. In most cases, this law actually varies from state to state, and as a result the state labor law posters should be the reference for how to deal with unemployment compensation. In most cases, in order to be eligible for some type of compensation the employee must have worked a certain amount of hours. On top of that, the amount of money the worker will receive will also depend on the amount of time they spent working within the company.

Finally, there are the always-important equal employment opportunity laws, which are basically there to ensure that employers will not discriminate against potential employees and will hire a person based on their professional qualifications and not on based any other factors.

As an employer, you must be aware that whichever state you choose to open your business in there will be various laws and regulations that you are going to have to follow. When it comes to employment, naturally the laws which should be concerning you are labor laws. Every state is subjected to various federal regulations which can be found on federal labor law posters, which you have most likely already encountered if you have been employed in the US. However, apart from these federal laws there is also a slew of state laws which you need to comply to, and if you are planning on opening your business in California, then you know that they have gained a reputation of having some labor laws which are not very friendly in regards to employers. Indeed, if a company is found to be not complying with the laws presented on the state labor law posters, then they are liable to become the target of various sanctions, usually coming in the forms of various fines which can reach sums of more than $20,000; absolute compliance with labor laws is not a choice.

The first thing you need to make sure of as a Californian employer is that you update your labor law posters regularly. As you probably know, the rights of workers are actually quite a recent “invention”, and there are still many laws which undergo regular revision and are subject to modifications. If you are to stay out of trouble in legal terms you must keep your posters up to date seeing as how failure to do so easily qualifies as an offense towards your employees, in the sense that you are officially misleading them in terms of their rights. Also, you must make sure that all of the employees in your company can read the posters; if for example you have an employee working under you who does not understand English, then it becomes your responsibility to translate these posters into a language they will understand. The number of posters that you are going to put up largely depends on the size of your business and the type of industry you are in, seeing as how every type of business has specific rules which apply only to it. Simply make sure to stay up to date with the various changes in the rules which may occur, including on topics such as wage and discrimination.

Arizona Labor Laws and Overtime

If you are wondering currently as to why exactly labor laws have become such an important part of the working culture, then you should remember that before they ever existed, workers would be reliant on the generosity of their employers in order to get some type of money for their work. However, as time passed by more and more regulations have seen the light of day and with time employees would no longer have to rely on their employers, seeing as how the law was now on their side. If you are curious to learn exactly what these laws are and what they entail, then perhaps you should check out the federal labor law posters as well as your state labor law posters, which as their names indicate, are posters containing all the labor laws applying to the state. One of the most important topics found on these labor law posters is the one about employee compensation for the work they have done. In many cases, employees worked overtime but were not compensated justly for their efforts, seeing as how they were working out of regular hours. However, as mentioned before things have changed today and employees that work overtime, which is basically qualified as working in excess of 40 hours a week or 8 hours a day, are entitled to a compensation which is actually above their regular hourly salary.

When it comes to when this wage must be paid, there are actually no labor laws in Arizona which cover that topic, meaning that you have to refer to federal labor laws in order to get your answers. In most situations, unless there was some special agreement in place, overtime wages are calculated at a 1.5x rate of the regular salary; this means that if a worker earns $12 per regular hour, they earn $18 per overtime hour.

When it comes however to working on holidays, nights or weekends, the employer is actually not required to offer additional compensation above the norm. However, you will find that there are many employers who offer bonuses to these employees seeing as how they need some incentive in order to work during their resting time.

Finally, there is only one situation in which an employer does not have to pay their employee for their overtime efforts, and that is when the job is classified as an exempt position, meaning that the worker is not entitled to overtime compensation.