Employment Law is a major area of law that falls under the broader civil law and encompasses all aspects of the employer-employee relationship. Employment Law is derived from many sources both at the federal and state level and falls into 3 main areas: employment discrimination, unemployment compensation, and retirement plans.
The area of employment discrimination largely focuses on preventing discrimination by employers in areas such as hiring, promotion, termination, and compensation based on protected classes such as race, sex, sexual orientation, religion, national origin, physical disability, and age. When looking at government jobs, the 5th and 14th Amendments both strictly prohibit state and federal governments from engaging in job discrimination based on the idea that no individual's due process rights should be violated. However, the Constitution does not address the private sector and much of the law concerning it has been established through federal and state statutes. For example at the federal level, congress has passed numerous federal statutes such as the Equal Pay Act, Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Age Discrimination in Employment Act, and the Americans with Disabilities Act (the list is not exhaustive). Firstly, The Equal Pay Act prevents employers, given that the work is of equal nature, from paying different wages based on sex. Another federal statute is Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 which concerns employers who engage in commerce across state lines with more than 15 employees, labor organizations, and employment agencies. Under this statute, these groups are not allowed to engage in discrimination on the basis of the aforementioned protected classes when concerning things like hiring, for example. Other important federal statutes are the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA), which prohibits discrimination on the basis of age, and the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), which prohibits discrimination on the basis of a disability/handicap (see also: Uniform Services Employment & Reemployment Rights Act (USERRA) and Family and Medical Leave Act).
The second main area of employment law, unemployment compensation, concerns giving workers who have lost their job due to reasons beyond their control money until they get a job again or for a set period of time with the intent of easing financial stress. The legal basis for unemployment compensation is derived from both the federal and state level, with the program being established by the Social Security Act (1935) and later implemented through the Federal Unemployment Tax Act. In essence, each state has its own unemployment program based on federal standards. This system is ultimately supported by the employers themselves through federal and state taxes which can be based on factors like how much wages the employer had paid and the number of employees compensated as a result of the fund. The fund, officially known as the Unemployment Trust Fund, is where the proceeds of unemployment taxes are stored which can be accessed for the purpose of providing relief.
The third main area of employment law is retirement plans, which are payments of money from one's employer when one chooses to retire. The legal basis surrounding pensions is derived primarily from federal statutory law, however, some states may choose to govern it. Pensions tend to fall into two main categories: a defined benefit plan and a defined contribution plan.
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Sources:
Legal Information Institute, Employment Discrimination, Wex https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/employment_discrimination.
Legal Information Institute, Employment, Wex https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/employment.
Legal Information Institute, Pension, Wex https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/pension.
Legal Information Institute, Unemployment compensation, Wex https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/unemployment_compensation.
Disclaimer: I am not a lawyer nor do I claim to be a lawyer. This article/website is purely for educational purposes only. The information presented on this website does not (and does not claim to) constitute legal advice or representation of a licensed attorney.
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