Unit 9 Preview and Introduction

Introduction

Throughout the life of any business that has employees, the employees will get pay raises and maybe even promotions. When selecting people for raises and promotions, one must be careful not to discriminate. Once the person is chosen for promotion, decisions have to be made. Does the employee’s new position require an employment contract (or a new one); what about a non-compete? Has the employee moved from an hourly wage to salary?

Additionally, there are numerous federal and state statutes that apply to employment. Knowing something about these is important for anyone representing businesses with employees regardless of whether the statutory requirements apply to them. Common law may still require compliance with these statutes, and other non-legal reasons like having a fair workplace should raise these policies to high levels of importance for our clients.

This unit will not make you an expert in employment law. These laws are very detailed. My endeavor is to highlight the main points as they pertain to small businesses. We won’t have time to go into the employee benefits laws (Affordable Care Act, ERISA – Employee Retirement and Income Security Act, COBRA – Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act, HIPAA – Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act), immigration laws, the NLRA, or workplace safety laws like OSHA in this unit but you should be aware they are important and exist.