Discrimination In The Workplace

In recent years there has been a push back against employment law. Major employers have been working to try and reduce the protections given to workers, in the name of higher profits. Employment laws were put in place to protect workers from wrong-doing from their employers. Without it, workers would be vulnerable to a number of things.

Discrimination

Workers are currently protected against many forms of discrimination. These laws were put into place to stop employers from actively discriminating against certain classes of employees.

In the state of Texas, employees are protected against the following forms of discrimination: race, color, national origin, religion, sex, disability, being 40 or older, citizenship status, and genetic information.
During the Depression, many employers were paying wages that could not support a working man let alone his family. That is why the first federal minimum wage was set in 1938.

Today, the minimum wage in the U.S., and the state of Texas, is $7.25. Those employees who receive tips have a base rate of $2.13.

Workplace safety and health

At the national level, OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Administration) is the entity that regulates workplace safety in the United States at the federal level. OSHA came into being in 1970. Before OSHA, there were a myriad of local, state, and federal laws that regulated workplace safety and health issues. Regulation and enforcement were sporadic and uneven.

Workplace safety and health covers a number of areas including unsafe working conditions, machinery, noise levels, temperature extremes, electrical hazards, extreme vibrations, repetitive work injuries, biological hazards, chemical hazards, and long work hours.

Workers'
The rest were covered by workers' compensation insurance and regulation.

Child labor laws

Before the Great Depression, there were no laws in place to protect the use of children in hazardous jobs. In hard economic times, children as young as 5 or 6 were being used to perform very dangerous jobs that adults were unsuited to perform. Many were maimed and injured as a result.

In 1938, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Fair Labor Standards Act into law. Besides setting the national minimum wage, this Act set forward minimum working requirements for children in most industries outside of agriculture.
Without employment law protections, workers in the United States would be vulnerable to employer exploitation. If you have a grievance with your current or former employer, contact the Labor and Employment Group here at Brown & Fortunato, P. C. If you have any questions about our services, call us today at 806-345-6300. You can contact us by email through our Contact Us form. You are welcome to visit our offices at 905 S. Fillmore, Suite 400, in