labor lawAdivision of labor law center

The South Carolina Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation or SCLLR recently announced that it has hired 10 new inspectors to ensure that every employer follows the state’s tough immigration codes.

Employers in South Carolina need to be scrupulous in following the state’s immigration and hiring laws, including the SCIIRA or South Carolina illegal Immigration Reform Act. This law is enforced thought the Office of Immigrant Worker Compliance in Columbia.

The SCIIRA currently applies to employers with more than 100 workers. The statute requires employers in South Carolina to use E-Verify or a similar program to make certain that new hires and current employees are legally entitled to work in the U.S. Employers can require a South Carolina driver’s license or I.D. card or those from 26 other states, instead of using E-Verify.

Beginning July 1, 2010, employers with fewer than (more…)

When the federal minimum wage increased from $6.55 per hour to $7.25 on July 24, 2009, most employers in South Carolina were affected.

South Carolina doesn’t have a state minimum wage. In fact, if a South Carolina employee is not eligible for the federal minimum wage, he or she can legally be paid a mere $1.00 per hour or less. Due to use of the Internet and credit cards, though, most employees in South Carolina are entitled to the federal minimum wage.

The Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 is the relevant law for the federal minimum wage. This law applies to employers with annual revenue of $500,000 or more and to employers engaged in interstate commerce.

Interstate commerce is defined as any business that takes place across state lines. The Internet, email, answering out -of-state phone calls, shipping packages to other states all qualify as interstate commerce, so most employers in South Carolina and throughout the US (more…)

Under the new South Carolina Immigration law, employers must take a number of measures to ensure that the employees they are hiring may legally work in the U.S.

These steps include:

• Complying with all federal I-9 requirements
• Verifying the legal status of employees

The state recommends that employers use E-Verify, a free federal program, to verify the employee’s identity online in a few minutes.

This law goes into effect on July 1, 2009 for private employers with 100 or more employees. Private employers with fewer than 100 employees have until July 1, 2010 to comply.

E-Verify is a program available through the Department of Homeland Security. It detects fraudulent documents by comparing the employee’s information, including date of birth, social security number and gender, with a nationwide database and social security records and immigration documents.

A new feature of E-Verify will also permit the system to compare the photos on immigration documents with those in the DHS records. This will make it more difficult for an employee to counterfeit immigration documents such as green cards.

According to the South Carolina Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation, employers can also verify identity by making sure that the employee has a South Carolina driver’s license or I.D. card. A driver’s license or I.D. card from another state with requirements as strict as those in South Carolina is also acceptable. The South Carolina Department of Motor Vehicles has determined that drivers’ licenses or identification cards issued by Alaska, Arizona, (more…)

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 new South Carolina Illegal Immigration Reform Act requires employers to verify the legal status of new employees.

One way to comply with this law is to use E-verify from the Department of Homeland Security. The E-verify database combines records from the Social Security Administration, immigration records and other federal agencies to eliminate identity theft. It also prevents employers from breaking the law by employing undocumented workers.

The state suggests that another way to comply with the law is to establish whether the employee has a South Carolina driver’s license or other government issued identity document. Employers are warned that in some cases, employers who refuse to hire legal immigrants, discriminate against Hispanic workers, or try to specify which forms of id they will accept from the list of acceptable documents on the I-9, may be in violation of federal law. It is not clear yet (more…)