HR Law 101: The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) covers the federal minimum wage, rules on overtime pay and child labor regulations. Since the U.S. Labor Deparment recently overhauled the overtime rules, it's critical to make sure you're properly classifying workers as exempt or nonexempt ...

HR Law 101: To ensure you’re in compliance with the FLSA, it’s important to understand the definition of “hours of work.” Any hour when an employee’s on duty is considered time worked. The only period usually excluded: when an employee uses the time for personal reasons ...

HR Law 101: In May 2007, Congress voted to increase the federal minimum wage from $5.15 per hour to $7.25 per hour over a two-year period. The minimum wage will increase in three phases by 70 cents per hour ...

HR Law 101: Under the Immigration Reform and Control Act, new employees must provide to employers proof of identity and employment eligibility with documents listed on the I-9 Form ....

HR Law 101: The Americans with Disabilities Act prohibits discrimination against qualified individuals with disabilities who can perform a job's essential functions with or without reasonable accommodation. All employers that have 15 or more employees must comply with the law ...

HR Law 101: The ADA requires employers to walk a fine line between enforcing reasonable workplace safety and behavioral rules and making accommodations for those who are addicted to drugs or alcohol. The law doesn't protect current users of illegal (i.e., “street”) drugs, but it does protect alcoholics and those who’ve shaken their drug addiction sufficiently to no longer be classified as active illegal users ...

HR Law 101: In 1998, the Supreme Court issued its first ruling on an AIDS-related issue and its first major interpretation of the Americans with Disabilities Act. The justices made it clear that all persons who are HIV-positive, even though they may show no overt symptoms of the disease, are also protected under the ADA ...

HR Law 101: The ADA prohibits employers from asking job applicants questions that may reveal a disability. You should ask only about the person's ability to perform a job's essential functions ...

HR Law 101: A few years ago, the EEOC released guidelines that clarify employers' responsibilities in applying the ADA to workers with psychiatric disabilities. The law protects persons with mental disabilities, and employers must reasonably accommodate them ...

HR Law 101: An employer needn't hire a disabled person if he or she lacks the requisite skills, experience and education for the job in question. But if the deciding factor is the disability, you must prove that the condition interferes with what the ADA terms the "essential functions" of the job ...

HR Law 101: Under the ADA, a "reasonable accommodation" enables a qualified individual with a disability to perform the job's essential functions. But an accommodation is considered unreasonable when it causes the employer an undue hardship ...

HR Law 101: The EEOC has taken a proactive approach to enforcing the ADA's protections for disabled workers. In 2004 alone, the agency received more than 15,000 complaints from workers alleging disability discrimination ...

HR Law 101: When drugs don’t seem to present a problem in a workplace, it’s easy to develop a cavalier attitude about them. That’s not very smart. Drug abuse often begins with a single offender and then spreads out ­malignantly. Experts say your best defense is to detect drug abuse when it first appears and to root it out immediately ...

HR Law 101: Drug testing and substance abuse prevention programs can involve substantial legal liability if employers don't manage and administer them properly. If your organization decides to implement a drug testing program, there are ways to minimize the risk of employee lawsuits ...