Übersicht
Employment law is a broad area encompassing all areas of the employer/employee relationship. Employment law consists of thousands of federal and state statutes, administrative regulations, and judicial decisions. Many employment laws (such as minimum wage regulations) were enacted as protective labor legislation. Other employment laws take the form of public benefits, such as unemployment compensation.
Some major areas of employment law include employment discrimination, unemployment compensation, and pensions.
Employment Discrimination
Employment discrimination laws seek to prevent discrimination by employers based on a number of characteristics including race, sex, sexual orientation, religion, national origin, physical disability, and age. Discriminatory practices include bias in hiring, promotion, job assignment, termination, compensation, retaliation, and various types of harassment.
Unemployment Compensation
Unemployment insurance provides workers, whose jobs have been terminated through no fault of their own, monetary payments for a given period of time or until they find a new job.
Pensions
Upon retirement many workers continue to receive monetary compensation from their employer in the form of a pension. There are two main types of pensions.
- defined benefit plan,
- The benefit that an employee receives is normally based on the length of a workers employment and the wages that were received. An employee typically need not make contributions to this plan.
- defined contribution plan
- The employer makes regular deposits into an account established for each employee. The employee is not guaranteed to receive a given amount during retirement but only the amount in the account.
Further Reading
For more on employment law, see this UCLA Law Review article, this University of Wisconsin Law Review article, and this St. John's Law Review article.
menu of sources
Federal Material
U.S. Constitution and Federal Statutes
- 29 U.S. Code - Labor.Representative chapters pertinent to employment:
- 42 U.S. Code - The Public Health and Welfare.Representative chapters pertinent to employment:
- Chapter 21. The Civil Rights Act
- §§ 2000e - 2000e-17 - Equal Employment Opportunity
- Chapter 21. The Civil Rights Act
- Chapter 126. - Equal Opportunity for Individuals with Disabilities
- CRS Annotated Constitution
Federal Agency Regulations
- Code of Federal Regulations: 29 C.F.R. - Labor For other federal agency regulations concerning employment law, see specific topical pages.
Federal Judicial Decisions
- U.S. Supreme Court:
- U.S. Circuit Courts of Appeals: Recent Decisions dealing with Employment
U.S. Constitution
- CRS Annotated Constitution:
- Article I: Federal Versus State Labor Laws
- First Amendment: Government as Employer: Free Expression Generally
- First Amendment: Employment Restrictions and Loyalty Oaths
State Material
State Statutes
- State laws concerning compensation, hours, and other conditions of work
- Other state statutes concerning:
State Judicial Decisions
- N.Y. Court of Appeals:
- Appellate Decisions from Other States
International Material
Conventions and Treaties
- Dealing with Human Rights (including those bearing on employment)
Other References
Key Internet Sources
- U.S. Department of Labor Home Page
- Employee Rights (Nolo)
- Internet Law Library (list of links)
- AHI's Employment Law Resource Center
- Summary of Federal Employment Law from the Matthies law firm
- Employment Law Information Network
- Human Resources Law (Nolo)
- National Employment Law Institute
- Cornell University's School of Industrial and Labor Relations
Useful Offnet (or Subscription - $) Sources
- Good Starting Point in Print: Mark A. Rothstein et al., Rothstein, Craver, Schroeder, Shoben, and Vander Velde's Hornbook on Employment Law, West Group (2004)