2008 West Virginia Labor Law Posters

January 3rd, 2008 Posted by Amelia

Every West Virginia employer should update their labor law posters before the first day of the new year.

The 2008 West Virginia labor law posters contain some important changes.

In 2008, by state law, every West Virginia employer is required to display the following posters:

  • Workers’ Compensation 
  • Unemployment Insurance 
  • Wage Payment and Collection 
  • Discrimination Notice 
  • Minimum Wage

Popular locations for posters include break rooms, beside the employee time clock or in other employees-only areas.

In addition, West Virginia employers are required to display a number of 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

Many of the labor law changes in 2007 concerned the minimum wage. For the past two years, the Oregon minimum wage has been the second highest in the nation. In 2008, it will go to the fourth highest, when California and Massachusetts increase their state rates from $7.50 per hour to $8.00 per hour. This is just one of the changes that will be reflected in the new labor law posters for the year.

Oregon labor law posters serve as a handy reference on a wide range of topics, from unemployment benefits to child labor laws.

Labor law posters provide important information for employees and supervisors alike. For example, from state to state, the laws controlling minimum wage for tipped workers and overtime pay show a wide variation. Complete updates are available on each state’s labor law posters.

States either have no overtime law, in which case they follow the federal law, or they pass laws building on or mirroring the federal law.

Federal overtime laws require an overtime premium of 1.5 times the normal hourly rate for every hour over 40. Some states rely on federal law – Florida, Delaware, Georgia, Idaho, and Arizona among them. The federal overtime law covers most, but not all, workers.

Nebraska extends both the federal minimum wage and overtime laws to all businesses with 4 or more workers. Kansas requires overtime after a 46-hour week and Minnesota after a 48-hour week.

California offers overtime after working 8 hours in a single day or 40 hours in a week. Employees who must work 7 days consecutively get overtime on the 7th day, and those working 12 or more hours in a day receive “double time.” Double-time is also offered after 8 hours on the 7th consecutive working day.

In Kentucky, workers get overtime either after 40 hours, or on the 7th consecutive day of work regardless of the number of hours they have put in. Colorado workers get overtime after 12 hours a day or 40 hours in a week. In Connecticut, only restaurant and hotel workers get overtime on the 7th day.

When it comes to minimum wage rates for tipped workers, some states don’t have their own laws, so they are automatically covered by the federal law. Some are slightly more generous, while others equal or are nearly equal to the states’ own minimum wages. Kansas, on the other hand, at $1.59 an hour, is the lowest.

The federal rate is $2.13 an hour. Nebraska, Kentucky, and Indiana follow the federal rate. Michigan’s on the other hand is $2.65. Massachusetts is $2.63, Wisconsin is $2.33, and North Carolina is $2.43.

But there is no “tip credit” for employers in Washington State. In other words, tipped workers’ minimum wage is the same as for other workers. It will be $8.07 an hour starting January 1. In Hawaii, it’s just 25 cents an hour below the usual minimum wage. Tipped workers get $7 an hour, while other workers get $7.25. Colorado’s rate in 2008 will be $4.02 an hour.

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West Virginia USERRA Poster

June 8th, 2007 Posted by Amelia

Veterans returning from military service to the work world have a series of protections that guarantee their old jobs back, with all of the seniority, pay increases, and other benefits they would have received if they had never left.

All of the guarantees fall under USERRA, short for the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act of 1994.

West Virginia USERRA posters should be updated at all workplaces to reflect the final USERRA regulations, issued by the U.S. Department of Labor, whether or not those workplaces employ service personnel. The latest regulations involve pension plan rights for returning veterans. USERRA in general is meant to protect the returning veteran and guarantee enforcement. It applies to National Guard and Reserve members as well.

All of the rights can be described under what is called the “escalator principle,” which essentially says that employees returning from military service are entitled to be reemployed with all the seniority, status and pay increases that would have come to them had they never left.

To understand the principle, imagine an escalator. An employee’s job position, with its continuing increases in pay, seniority, and other benefits, is like a step on the escalator. If that employee must leave the escalator to serve in the military, he or she is entitled to return to the same step – even though that step has advanced upward during the period of absence.

These rights are guaranteed for veterans returning after absences of up to 5 years. Some injured veterans are covered for another 2 years.

A military leave is treated under this law like other leaves of absence. The worker serving in the military is guaranteed the same benefits awarded to those, for example, who are on temporary disability or maternity leave.

Rights to retraining are guaranteed. Often, during a long military absence, the skills of a job evolve in a changing marketplace. According to the USERRA, employers must retrain returning veterans so that their skills qualify them for reemployment. If that is not possible, the employee is entitled to reemployment in another position.

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West Virginia (WV) Compliance Posting Requirements for Businesses

September 17th, 2006 Posted by Lindsay

I know there are many employers who are already aware that in the state of West Virginia, there are several employment labor posters that are required by law. Nonetheless, I will just go over them here briefly, then we can discuss some important changes that have been made to the laws, that subsequently affect the West Virginia (WV) Employment Labor Posters. The posters that are required to be placed in your work environment in a visible spot are: the Workers’ Compensation Notice, Unemployment Insurance, Wage Payment and Collection Act, Discrimination Notice, and the Minimum Wage 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 Law, the Family and Medical Leave Act, and

USERRA – Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Act.

Now, as I mentioned there have been some important changes. The first one affects the minimum wage rate, and that just happened in July 2006 so if you haven’t updated your poster you need to do it now. The new minimum wage rate in West Virginia went up to $5.85 per hour. It will increase again in 2007 and yet again in 2008, so be sure you stay compliant by keeping your business place information up to date.

The second poster that changed was also in July 2006, and that is the Unemployment insurance poster. There have been some new wage “classes” added.

The other poster that has changed this year is the Worker’s Compensation notice. BrickStreet is the worker’s comp insurance carrier for all employers in the state of West Virginia, so that needs to be reflected in your updated West Virginia (WV) Employment Labor Posters.

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Required Labor Law Postings in the State of West Virginia (WV)

September 15th, 2006 Posted by Derrick

I would like to tell you about the labor law posters for West Virginia. These posters are required to be placed in a conspicuous area. This means the posters need to be in an obvious spot. The labor law posters for West Virginia need to be in a well-lit area where employees are known to gather.

It’s up to the employers to make sure the labor law posters for West Virginia are displayed in an appropriate area. It’s also the employer’s job to make sure the labor law posters for West Virginia are updated whenever an applicable law changes.

There are several state and federal requirements for the posting of the labor law posters for West Virginia. The federal posting requirements for the labor law posters for West Virginia are the same as the required postings for the rest of the United States. The required state postings are: Workers’ Compensation, Unemployment Insurance, Wage and Payment Collection, Discrimination Notice, and Minimum Wage.

The exact posting requirements for each business depend on the size and type of the business. This can be a little tricky for employers. Also, if the business is large, it may be necessary to display the labor law posters for West Virginia in more than one area in the workplace. This will help ensure that all employees have an opportunity to see the labor law posters.

If employers fail to display the correct labor law posters for West Virginia, or they fail to update the posters, then the employer is in violation of the law. If any type of violation occurs, an employee should file a complaint. The labor law posters for West Virginia let the employee know where to go and what to do to file such a complaint. An employee can’t be retaliated against for filing a complaint.

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Mandatory Poster Agency

September 8th, 2006 Posted by Mark

When people have the chance to make money off the backs of honest employers, the sad truth is that there are folks out there that will leap at the chance. Such is the sad case, my readers, of the Mandatory Poster Agency. This company was run out of Michigan, but actually purported to be the “West Virginia Labor Law Poster Service.”

What Mandatory Poster Agency did should be a warning to all employers out there, not just those in West Virginia. Because in this case, the Mandatory Poster Agency went after West Virginia employers, but in the next case, it could be you that some scam artist is after.

The basis of the Mandatory Poster Agency case is that the company contacted nearly early employer in the state of West Virginia with offers for workplace posters on mandatory state and federal laws and on employee rights—the same posters that we talk about all the time here at the blog.

But what the Mandatory Poster Agency didn’t tell the employers was the big thing. First, the Mandatory Poster Agency never made it clear that they were not representing the actual government of West Virginia. In fact, they sort of led the employers to believe that the Mandatory Poster Agency was actually acting in behalf of the government.

Also, the Mandatory Poster Agency charged exorbitant amounts of money for their posters, but never once did it tell employers that they could just get the West Virginia posters for free from the government Web page.

What’s more, the Mandatory Poster Agency pretended to have an office and headquarters in South Charleston, West Virginia, when all along they were out of Michigan. The South Charleston address was actually just a mailbox.

Eventually, the Mandatory Poster Agency angered enough employers with their antic that the West Virginia Attorney General, Darrell McGraw, sued them in 2005. Let it be a lesson to all of us.

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