labor lawAdivision of labor law center

It is especially important that employers update their 2008 Vermont labor law posters. Each year brings a number of changes to the state labor laws, and this year certainly had more than its share.

The updated list of 2008 Vermont labor law posters is:

• Unemployment Insurance
• Minimum Wage
• Clean Indoor Air Quality Act
• Employers’ Reinstatement Liability
• Workers’ Compensation
• OSHA - Health and Safety Protection
• Sexual Harassment
• Parental and Family Leave Act
• Child Labor

Employers are required to display each of these posters in a prominent location where they can be viewed by both employees and applicants.

In addition, all employers must display updated federal labor law posters including:

• USERRA - Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act
• Equal Employment Opportunity is the Law
• Federal Minimum Wage
• Employee Polygraph Protection Act
• Family and Medical Leave Act
• OSHA-Job Safety & Health Protection

Labor law poster serve as a handy reminder for supervisors and employees alike.

They provide important information on the minimum wage, worker safety, medical leave and child labor laws.

Under both federal and state law, these posters must be updated each time there is a change in legislation.

A change in the federal minimum wage on July 24, 2007 required that the Federal Minimum Wage posters be updated. On that date, the federal minimum wage increased for the first time in more than a decade. The rate went from $5.15 per hour to $5.85 per hour, an increase of 70 cents. 

From state to state, there is a wide range of overtime laws and rules governing the minimum wage for employees who receive tips. That’s why each state requires a different set of labor law posters.

Federal law requires an overtime rate of 1.5 times the usual hourly rate for each hour over 40 (called “time-and-a-half”). Some states have no overtime provision of their own so they follow the federal law – Delaware, Arizona, Idaho, Georgia, and Florida among them. Nebraska mirrors the federal regulations but extends them to all businesses with 4 or more workers. Illinois, Michigan, Massachusetts and Nebraska also begin overtime after a 40-hour week. Kansas starts it at 46 hours and Minnesota at 48.

In California, workers are entitled to overtime after working 8 hours in a single day and 40 hours in a week.

The minimum wage for tipped employees varies broadly from one state to the next. So do the overtime laws. These are just some of the items that are covered on each state’s respective labor law posters. Here are a few outstanding examples.

Minimum wage laws for tipped workers like servers often simply follow the federal rate of $2.13 an hour. The idea is that employers need not pay the usual minimum wage because the workers are making up the difference in tips. This is the “tip credit” for employers.

Kentucky, Indiana, Nebraska, and other states follow the federal rate.

Some states offer just a little more than the federal rate:

• North Carolina, $2.43
• Wisconsin, $2.33
• Massachusetts, $2.63
• Michigan, $2.65

The minimum wage for tipped employees in Kansas is only $1.59.

At the opposite extreme, some states offer little or no tip credit. In these states, employees are paid the same minimum wage, or nearly the same minimum wage, as other workers. They include:

• Washington, none ($8.07 per hour wage starting January 1)
• Colorado, wage for tipped workers $8.07 per hour in 2008
• Hawaii, 25-cent tip credit, wage $7 per hour compared to usual $7.25

Some states allow employers very little tip credit. In other words, tipped workers get larger minimum wages – sometimes very close to the wages of workers who do not receive tips.

Recently released statistics on accidents in the workplace from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics are sobering. The year 2005 is the last year with complete statistics. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) is in charge of monitoring those millions of yearly injuries in Vermont and nationwide.

The statistics on Vermont worker safety are sobering. More than a half-million employees suffered sprains, tears, or strains in 2005. The numbers also show 270,890 experienced painful back injuries. And 255,750 workers fell while on the job.

But Vermont statistics are just one part of the chilling picture. Nationwide, 4,214,200 work-related accidents were reported in 2005. They resulted in 1,234,700 lost workdays. Most shocking of all are the figures for workplace fatalities, which show that 5,702 workers died on the job that year.

The figures themselves are dramatic. But they only reflect figures for the private sector. They do not include public, high risk jobs like law enforcement, firefighting, and paramedical service, or employees in the non-profit sector.

As the statistics show, falls are a common cause of accidents. Slips, trips, and falls generally are thought of as more of an annoyance than a danger. But they rank second highest among the causes of workplace deaths. For example, 732 people died after workplace falls in 2005. Driving, the first most serious cause of deaths on the job, took 1,258 lives.

According to OSHA, workers should be reminded of how important safety measures are, and should be taught the right safety precautions to take. It has developed something to make that job easier. It’s called the OSHA Workplace Safety Pack, and includes three posters and The Workplace Ergonomics. The information is presented in a readily understandable manner.

According to OSHA, education is key to a workplace safety plan. The program should remind employees of the need for safety and show them how to apply the right safety measures.  

I try to research the employment labor laws often to look for changes, and report those changes to you here in this blog. In researching the Vermont (VT) Employment Labor Poster requirements, I noticed that there was a change in March 2006. The change was on the Unemployment Insurance poster. It now gives telephone numbers that employees can call if they become unemployed, or even if the amount of their work hours are reduced. When employees call these numbers, they are told how they can go about filing for unemployment benefits.

There are several other Vermont (VT) Employment Labor Posters that must be posted in every business in the state. These are: Minimum Wage Law, Clean Indoor Air Quality Act, Employers’ Reinstatement Liability, Workers’ Compensation, OSHA - Health and Safety Protection, Sexual Harassment, Parental and Family Leave Act, and the Child Labor Law.

There are also Federal labor law posters that are required to be placed in view of all employees. They are: Equal Employment Opportunity is the Law, OSHA - Job Safety and Health Protection, Employee Polygraph Protection Act, Federal Minimum Wage, Family and Medical Leave Act, and the new USERRA - Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Act.

The Vermont Department of Labor, as well as the Federal Department of Labor both work to ensure that there are regulations and safety measures in place in every business. That’s why these laws are in place, and why the posters are mandated to be on display.

Are your posters up to date? The employment labor posters have to be changed every time there is a change to the laws. That is totally the responsibility of the employer. Are your posters visible to everyone who works at your business? Are any of them missing or torn? These are all questions you, or someone who works for you, will need to look into on a regular basis.

The labor law posters for Vermont need to be displayed in businesses throughout Vermont. The posters let employees know about their rights and protections under both federal and state law. It’s the employer’s job to display the labor law posters for Vermont in the correct spot in the workplace.

The labor law posters for Vermont need to be displayed where all employees can easily see them. This is so employees will know about the laws and regulations that protect them in the workplace. The labor law posters for Vermont should be in a well-lit area where employees are known to gather. Often employers place these posters in break rooms or beside a time clock.

The state requirements for the labor law posters for Vermont are: Unemployment Insurance, Clean Indoor Air Quality Act, Minimum Wage, Workers’ Compensation, OSHA – Health and Safety Protection, Sexual Harassment, Child Labor, and Parental and Family Leave Act. The federal requirements for the labor law posters for Vermont are the same as the requirements for the other states in the United States.

Not all of the labor law posters for Vermont are required to be in every workplace. The required postings in each workplace depend of the size and type of the business. Employers need to know which posters they are supposed to display.

The laws and regulations on the labor law posters for Vermont change once in a while. When this happens, the employer needs to update the affected posters. All the labor law posters for Vermont need to be kept up-to-date at all times.

Employers’ need to make sure they follow the law when it comes to displaying the labor law posters for Vermont. The laws are designed to protect employees in the workplace. The labor law posters for Vermont help employees know about the laws.

With the minimum wage increase more than 6 months in the past, employers who have not updated their posters since the recent increase in the minimum wage, now is the perfect time to update all your employment posters through a service that provides labor law posters for Vermont. Employers with outdated posters face citations and possible fines. The new state minimum wage of $7.25 per hour went into effect on January 1, 2006. The rate increased by 25 cents per hour, from $7.00. This was the third and final step in a three-phase plan to raise the minimum wage over three years. The minimum wage for tipped employees is unchanged at $3.65 per hour.

Why not take this opportunity to make sure that all your posters are updated and accurate through a simple system such as a service that provides labor law posters for Vermont? Under the new legislation, tipped employees who do not earn an average of $3.60 in tips per hour in any given week must be compensated by the employer to bring their pay rate up to $7.25 per hour.

Now that the new law is in effect, it becomes even more important for employers to update their posters. These great services provides accurate, newly updated posters on each of the topics mandated by the State of Vermont. Posters requited by the State of Vermont include:

• Unemployment Insurance
• Minimum Wage
• Clean Indoor Air Quality Act
• Employers’ Reinstatement Liability
• Workers’ Compensation
• OSHA - Health and Safety Protection
• Sexual Harassment
• Parental and Family Leave Act
• Child Labor

The Vermont Complete Labor Law Poster also provides the labor posters required by the Federal government, including the USERRA – Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act, Equal Employment Opportunity is the Law, Federal Minimum Wage, Employee Polygraph Protection Act, Family and Medical Leave Act, and OSHA – Job Safety and Health Protection Posters.