United States labor law

United States labor law is the body of law that mediates the rights and duties of workers, employers andlabor unions in the United States of America, including employment law and collective labor rights. Federal laws, such as the Fair Labor Standards Act, the National Labor Relations Act, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Occupational Safety and Health Act set the standards that govern workers' rights to organize in theprivate sector, and override most state and local laws. Usually there are more limited rights for employees of the federal government, but not state or local governments, where workers derive their rights from state law. Federal and state laws protect workers from employment discrimination, on grounds of race, gender, religion,national origin and age. Federal law preempts most state statutes that would bar employers from discriminating against employees to prevent them from obtaining pensions or other benefits or retaliating against them for asserting those rights.

History[edit]

Main articles: History of labor law in the United States and Labor history of the United States

A man building the frame of theEmpire State Building at the start of theGreat Depression in 1930.^[2]

• Indentured servant
• Commonwealth v. Pullis (1806), establishing that unions were criminal conspiracies in the Philadelphia Mayor's court
• Commonwealth v. Hunt (1842), disapproving Pullis in the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, and establishing that unions were not necessarily criminal
• Vegelahn v. Guntner, 167 Mass. 92 (1896)
• Sherman Antitrust Act 1890 (contrary to intent) led to prosecution of unions as illegal combinations, but Section 6 of the Clayton Antitrust Act (1914) ended this practice by stipulating that unions shall not be "construed to be illegal combinations or conspiracies in restraint of trade, under the antitrust laws." The National Labor Relations Act gave a general right to organize in a trade union and collectively bargain.
• Loewe v. Lawlor (1908) or The Danbury Hatters' case

• Lochner v. New York, 198 US (1905)
• Adair v. United States, 208 U.S. 161 (1908) upholding yellow dog contracts, banned by The Erdman Act of 1898 section 10 on the railroads, until reversed by the Norris-LaGuardia Act
• Commission on Industrial Relations (1915)
• Adkins v. Children's Hospital, 261 U.S.(1923) Supreme Court held a minimum wage for women and children in DC was unconstitutional
• West Coast Hotel Co v Parrish, 300 U.S. (1937)

In 1941, Executive Order 8802 (or the Fair Employment Act) became the first law to prohibit racial discrimination, although it only applied to the national defense industry. Later laws include of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (and amendments), Title I of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990,^[3] the Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993,^[4] and numerous state laws with additional protections. The Fair Labor Standards Act^[5] regulates minimum wages and overtime pay for certain employees who work more than 40 hours in a work week.

While working an employee must work a minimum of two hours in a day. Cases of employment discrimination in the United States are most often subject to the jurisdiction of theEqual Employment Opportunity Commission, the federal commission responsible for the enforcement of the anti-discrimination laws. Once a case has been filed with the EEOC or similar state agencies with concurrent jurisdiction, employees have a right to remove the case to the courts with the permission of the agency, or in some instances, after the expiration of a set time period. Employment law cases are heard in state or federal courts, depending upon the issue, the size of the employer (the Civil Rights Act of 1964,^[6] for example, applies only to employers with 15 or more employees), and the litigation strategy of the plaintiff.