State And Federal Systems Paper

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 company's 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. citizen's 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 worker's 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 Alaska's 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

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