labor lawAdivision of labor law center

Employers have already been warned that the state minimum wage will increase with the new year in Oregon, Washington, Florida, New Mexico, Vermont, Colorado, Arizona, Missouri, Montana, Ohio and Connecticut.

However, employers in other states also have to contend with minimum wage increases this year.

Even if an employer has no minimum wage employees, each increase means the employer must update his or her minimum wage posters. By law, employers are required to display a variety of labor law posters prominently in the workplace. Failure to do so can result in fines, penalties and citations.

On July 1, 2009 the Illinois minimum wage will increase by 50 cents, from $7.50 to $8.00 per hour. This is the final step in a 3-tiered increase introduced by the now-infamous (more…)

The U.S. Department of Labor’s Employee Benefits Security Administration or EBSA is giving some employers a reprieve from filing annual reports and returns following Hurricanes Gustav and Ike.

On September 22, 2008 the Employee Benefits Security Administration announced that employers in 29 Texas counties and 14 Louisiana parishes have until January 5 to file documents that are normally due between September 7, 2008 and January 4, 1009. These include Form 5500 and Form 5500 EZ annual reports and returns.

The extension applies to (more…)

With 2 major hurricanes affecting the Gulf Coast in just 11 days, the US Department of Labor personnel is stretched thin, but responding to demands for assistance, thanks to volunteers from Alabama, Montana, New Mexico, Ohio, South Dakota and Utah.

Initially volunteers from Texas traveled to Louisiana to assist survivors of Hurricane Gustav.  

However, as Hurricane Ike pummeled the Texas coast just days later, most of them returned to their home state to aid in recovery efforts there.

The U.S. Department of Labor’s Employment and Training Administration (ETA) and state and local workforce organizations have (more…)

 The US Department of Labor has a number of resources in place for Louisiana victims of Hurricane Gustav. Similar programs for survivors of Hurricane Ike in Texas are sure to follow.

So far, the US Department of Labor has announced a $22.2 million national emergency grant  to Louisiana to aid workers displaced by the hurricane. Emergency grant funds are available to employers, small business owners and self-employed workers as well as employees displaced by the natural disaster.

The funds will be used to create more than 4,000 (more…)

In addition to releasing new regulations on combustible dust for many industries, OSHA just levied one of the largest worker safety fines in history, against a sugar refinery for violating the regulations.

OSHA issued citations with penalties totaling $8,777,500 against Imperial Sugar Co. and two affiliates. This is the third largest fine in OSHA history.

The fines are for violations at sugar plants in Port Wentworth, Georgia, and Louisiana. After the tragic February 7, 2008 explosion that claimed 13 lives at the Port Wentworth refinery near Savannah, 40 other employees were hospitalized. Three employees are still in the hospital. On rescue worker described the fiery scene “like walking into hell.”

Officials at the Gramercy, Louisiana plant should not have been surprised by the OSHA inspection. The agency has a history of inspecting other plants belonging to the same company, after a serious accident.

OSHA’s inspection showed that (more…)