Employment Law

For more than 40 years, our team of nationally recognized employment lawyers has helped thousands of clients resolve workplace disputes, including wage and hour disputes, wrongful termination, whistleblower rights and protections, retaliation, discrimination, hostility, and workplace safety.

Employment law is a broad and complex practice covering the rights, obligations, and responsibilities of an employer and its workers. Numerous federal and state laws, regulations, and judicial precedent all inform the employer-employee relationship and define the rights and responsibilities of each.

Employment
Lawyer

Dee Miles

Lance Gould

Larry Golston

Lauren Miles

Leon Hampton

View More Attorneys

If you feel your employer is violating your rights and protections as an employee, our employment and labor attorneys can help you through the process of seeking justice. At Beasley Allen, all of our lawyers live and work by the credo “helping those who need it most.”

Wage and Hour Laws – Minimum Wage, Overtime, and Tips

The U.S. Department of Labor is the regulatory agency that oversees employment laws at the federal level. The DOL oversees and enforces the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), a body of wage and hour laws that sets the minimum wage ($7.25 in 2020), overtime pay eligibility for hours worked over 40 in a workweek, and other compensatory time for U.S. employees.

While many companies treat their employees fairly and legally, it is not uncommon for employers to violate labor laws and engage in various forms of employee wage theft. These could be as simple as paying workers below the minimum wage or not at all. Wage theft can also result from less obvious schemes, including promoting workers to “managerial” positions in title only to exempt them from overtime; forcing tipped workers to pool tips with non-tipped workers, or providing comp time instead of overtime pay to name just a few.

learn more about wage and hour cases

learn more about the fair labor standards act

Hostile Workplace – Discrimination, Retaliation and Wrongful Termination

Every worker has a right to work in a safe and supportive environment, but the workplace can be an abusive and sometimes dangerous environment for too many working Americans.

Employees may find themselves working under intolerable conditions for other reasons. Some of the most common forms of workplace hostility include:

Workplace Discrimination

A number of federal and state laws prohibit employers from discriminating against employees or job applicants on the basis of race, sex, orientation, age, disability, or national origin. Despite legal protections, some employers discriminate, either creating a hostile or unfair environment.

learn more about
workplace discrimination

Workplace Retaliation

Like discrimination, workplace retaliation can make an employee’s work environment hostile and negative. When retaliation occurs, an employer attempts to punish an employee for taking part in activities that are permitted by law but are discouraged by that particular employer.

learn more about
workplace retaliation

Wrongful Termination

Wrongful termination occurs when an employee is fired for an illegal reason, such as illegal discrimination or a breach of contract. Federal employment law provides that no employee can be fired based on race, gender, ethnic background, religion, or disability.

learn more about
wrongful termination

Worker’s Rights – Frequently Asked Questions

What is employment law?

Employment law is a complex practice covering the rights, obligations, and responsibilities of an employer and its employees. Numerous federal and state laws, regulations, and judicial precedent all inform the employer-employee relationship and define the rights and responsibilities of each.

What does employment law cover?

Employment law is a broad area of the law that covers the rights, obligations, and responsibilities governing the employer-employee relationship. In the U.S., employers are bound to state and federal laws designed to protect employees from life-threatening working conditions and abuse rampant before the 1938 passage of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), which established the minimum wage and set child labor standards, among other employee protections.
Today, employment and labor law encompasses a spectrum of work-related issues, including workers compensation, discrimination, labor relations, family and medical leave, immigration issues, employee benefits, minimum wage issues, occupational safety and health, wrongful termination, and social security and retirement (ERISA) issues.

What can you do if your job doesn’t pay you?

The U.S. Department of Labor, Wage and Hour Division requires employers to pay wages in an accurate and timely manner, and states may have additional wage laws mandating when employees should be paid.

Failure to pay wages on time or not at all is a violation of federal and state law. If you are experiencing problems getting paid, there are measures you can take. The first step is to speak with your employer and state your concerns in writing. If late payment or a payment error has caused you to accrue bank fees and other penalties, provide this information to your employer and give them a chance to remedy the problem.

However, if your employer refuses to pay you the wages you earned, you may file a wage claim with the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division or your state labor department. If you do not file a wage claim, you may pursue a lawsuit against your employer for back pay, damages for financial hardship, and attorney and court costs. Taking legal action against your employer is the most effective way to recover pay that a wage claim may not cover, such as vacation and holiday pay.

What are your rights as an employee?

Employment and labor laws encompass all the rights and obligations defining the employer-employee relationship. As an employee, you have rights protecting you from discrimination and harassment, wrongful termination, unlawful wage practices, unsafe and hostile working conditions, and in many cases, denial of overtime pay. Employees also have whistleblower rights that shield them from retaliation for reporting violations and other wrongdoing.
Most states have laws affording employees a large degree of privacy in the workplace. Privacy rights apply to personal possessions, such as handbags or briefcases, storage lockers, and private mail addressed only to the employee. While most employees have the right to privacy in their telephone conversations and voicemail messages, they have very limited rights to privacy in their e-mail and Internet activity while using the employer’s computer system.

Can you sue for unfair treatment at work?

You’re more than qualified for promotions that go to less experienced and skilled colleagues. Your coworkers always manage to get the holiday or weekend off while you’re stuck with the undesirable shifts. Your company had to downsize so your boss let you go because he or she favored others more. Employees with children enjoy greater freedoms and workplace flexibility than your coworkers without kids. The workplace may sometimes feel like a very unfair place to work.

But while unfair treatment in the workplace is demoralizing and frustrating, it’s not always grounds for a lawsuit. Valid legal claims usually arise when the unfair treatment you’ve experienced on the job violates a specific law, such as federal or state discrimination and wage laws, or the terms of your employment contract.

Employees who report a job injury, unsafe working conditions, wrongdoing, or other violations may find themselves demoted, harassed, threatened, or fired in retaliation for speaking out. In such a case, the unfair treatment may violate the employee’s whistleblower rights. If you feel that the unfair treatment you’ve suffered at work violates your rights as an employee, Beasley Allen’s highly experienced employment law attorneys can help you understand your claim and guide you through the process, from initial consultation to settlement or award.

How do you file a complaint against your employer?

Federal employment law requires employees with potential discrimination or harassment lawsuits to first file an administrative charge with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) or a similar state agency. If you skip this legal requirement, then the court will find that you failed to exhaust your administrative remedies and dismiss your claim.

Of course, before you file a complaint with the EEOC or state agency, the first and most practical thing to do would be to confront the boss, coworker, or other person who is mistreating you. This will put the wrongdoer on notice and potentially start a dialogue through which the problem may be remedied. It may also help you document some important facts of the matter that could help you in the event that your problem amounts to a lawsuit.

In some cases, a direct conversation or other dialogue with the offender may not be an option. For instance, you may fear for your safety or feel you can’t endure the sheer stress of the situation. That’s ok. Your company should have proper protocols in place for you to file a complaint. Check the employee manual or consult with your company’s human resources department for the right procedure. Doing this will give your employer an opportunity to investigate and resolve the problem.

If your problem persists, then it is time to file an administrative charge with the EEOC or a similar administrative agency, which will send you a right to sue letter. That is when you need to contact a lawyer who can guide you through the process of whether, where, and when to file a formal complaint and what to include in it.

What can employers say about former employees?

If you are applying for new jobs, you may worry about what your former employer might say about you if contacted. Can your former employer tell a prospective employer that you were fired for poor performance, that you quit without giving notice, or that you were frequently late or took excessive sick days?

As long as what the former employer says about you is factual and accurate, it is legally permissible under federal law, which doesn’t restrict the type of information employers say about former employees. State laws, however, may put more restrictions on the type of information that employers can share about their former employees, so it is best to check the labor laws specific to your state. Your state’s labor department should have that information available on its website.

Can you hire a lawyer if you have a union?

Thousands of workers are injured or killed on the job every day in the U.S. If the injured worker belongs to a union, he or she or their family typically will receive a visit from a union official. The union will provide the contact information of a lawyer who can help them seek justice and damages for their financial losses, pain, and suffering.

But does the worker or his or her family have to call the union’s lawyer? The short answer is no. Although there may be benefits in using the union’s go-to lawyers, it’s not always beneficial to the employee or the family to seek counsel from a union lawyer.

If you have talked with your union’s lawyer and have lingering concerns about your case, doubts about the lawyer’s experience or skills, or a nagging suspicion that something isn’t quite right, it may be best for you to contact one of Beasley Allen’s experienced employment and labor attorneys for legal guidance.

What qualifies as a hostile workplace?

In 2010, a Workplace Bullying Institute poll found that 37% of U.S. workers — 54 million people — believe they have been subjected to hostility in the workplace.

But while there may be many aspects of a job or workplace that an employee finds difficult or hostile (a nasty boss, a rude coworker, a workplace devoid of promotion and job growth, an unpleasant working environment, poor pay, etc.), U.S. labor laws have specific criteria for what constitutes a hostile workplace in the legal sense.

According to the U.S. Department of Labor, a hostile work environment “can result from the unwelcome conduct of supervisors, co-workers, customers, contractors, or anyone else with whom the victim interacts on the job, and the unwelcome conduct renders the workplace atmosphere intimidating, hostile, or offensive.”

Under U.S. employment law, a variety of situations, including discrimination, harassment, wrongful termination and retaliation are some of the situations that make a workplace hostile in the legal sense.

When does an employer have to pay overtime?

Unless exempt, employees covered by the FLSA must receive overtime pay for hours worked over 40 in a workweek at a rate not less than time and one-half their regular rate of pay. The FLSA does not limit the number of hours employees aged 16 and older may work in any workweek and does not require employers to pay overtime for work on Saturdays, Sundays, holidays, or other regular days of rest, unless overtime is worked on such days.

The Act applies on a workweek basis. An employee’s workweek is a fixed and regularly recurring period of 168 hours — seven consecutive 24-hour periods. It need not coincide with the calendar week, but may begin on any day and at any hour of the day. Different workweeks may be established for different employees or groups of employees. Averaging of hours over two or more weeks is not permitted. Normally, overtime pay earned in a particular workweek must be paid on the regular payday for the pay period in which the wages were earned.

U.S. labor laws allow several exemptions to relieve an employer from having to meet the statutory overtime, minimum wage, and record-keeping requirements. The largest of these are executive exemptions, which apply to professional, administrative, and executive employees. Legal exemptions are narrowly defined and frequently abused. An employer must be able to prove that its employees fit plainly and unmistakably within the exemption’s terms, and not simply reclassify lower-level workers and supervisors as executives to avoid paying overtime.

Likewise, employers can’t simply exempt workers from the FLSA by calling them independent contractors. Many employers have illegally misclassified their workers as independent contractors in order to avoid paying overtime and other benefits because the FLSA doesn’t require employers to pay non-employees (independent contractors and volunteers) overtime.

Some state employment and labor laws offer even greater protections from overtime abuse than those afforded by the federal government.

When is an employer required to give employees breaks and lunches?

Federal employment law does not require employers to offer employees paid lunch or coffee breaks. However, when employers do offer short breaks (usually lasting about 5 to 20 minutes), federal law considers those short breaks to be compensable work time that would be included in the sum of hours worked during the work week and also factored into determining whether the employee receives overtime.

Employers do not need to compensate employees for unauthorized extensions of authorized work breaks when the employer has expressly and unambiguously communicated to the employee that the break may only last for a specific length of time. The employer must also communicate to the employee that any extension of the break is contrary to the employer’s rules and will be punished.

Under U.S. employment and labor laws, meal periods, which typically last at least half an hour, do not have to be considered compensable work time.
Several states have stricter meal period and break laws than those offered by the federal government.

What does Employment-At-Will really mean?

In the most basic sense, employment-at-will means that they can be fired at any time, for any reason except for a handful of reasons federal law considers illegal. In the real world, this means that your employer can decide to let you go with little explanation or cause, leaving you with very limited legal recourse.

Unless employers clearly communicate to employees that they only fire employees for a good cause, U.S. and state laws presume that you are employed “at will.” The only exception to this rule is Montana, which has labor laws protecting employees who have finished an initial probationary period from being fired without cause.

All but the smallest employers are bound to federal and state laws prohibiting job discrimination, so you cannot legally be fired because of certain personal characteristics, such as your race, religion, or gender.

U.S. employment law also protects you from being fired for “protected activities,” such as complaining about illegal activity, discrimination or harassment, and workplace health and safety violations. At-will employees are also protected from being terminated for exercising a multitude of legal rights, including the right to take family and medical leave, to take leave to serve in the military or to take time off work to vote or serve on a jury.

Is an employer required to provide maternity, parental, or other leave of absence?

In the U.S., the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) is the only federal law that guarantees leave to care for a newborn, a newly adopted child, or an ill family member: 12 weeks of unpaid, job-protected time off for both mothers and fathers.
But not all employees are covered by the FMLA. The law applies only to companies with at least 50 employees, and the specific employee must have worked at the company for at least one year and a minimum of 25 hours per week. With these restrictions in place, roughly half of U.S. employees are entitled to medical leave.

Of course, being entitled to medical leave under the FMLA is one thing. Being able to afford it is another. About half of people who have FMLA protections don’t take it because it’s financially impossible or difficult.

Paid family leave is an optional benefit for U.S. employers to offer their employees. Approximately 13% of U.S. workers have access to paid family leave, but it is even less common among blue-collar employees who need the benefit the most.

Leaves of absence are usually extended periods of time that an employee takes off from work without pay due to a personal or life event. It is up to the employer whether employees may take leaves of absence, except in cases where the time off is legally required, such as time allotted by the FMLA, active-duty military service, and jury duty.

Have your employment case evaluated

Choose the Right Employment Lawyer

At Beasley Allen, our employment attorneys truly are committed to helping you by seeking justice and fair compensation on your behalf for injuries and injustices suffered at work.

If you feel your employer has violated your rights under federal and/or state employment and labor laws, your best first move is to contact a labor and employment lawyer. You can be confident knowing Beasley Allen’s team of experienced workplace lawyers have your back and will work to get you the compensation you deserve.

Have your case evaluated

Cookie	Duration	Description
beasley-allen-cookie-consent	1 year	This cookie is used to record the user consent for the site's cookies. It does not store any personal data.
cli_user_preference	1 year	This cookie is set by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin to record whether the user has given consent to the use of cookies.
cookielawinfo-checkbox-advertisement	1 year	Set by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin, this cookie is used to record the user consent for the cookies in the "Advertisement" category .
cookielawinfo-checkbox-analytics	11 months	This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Analytics".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-functional	11 months	The cookie is set by GDPR cookie consent to record the user consent for the cookies in the category "Functional".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-necessary	11 months	This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookies is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Necessary".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-others	11 months	This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Other.
cookielawinfo-checkbox-performance	11 months	This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Performance".
CookieLawInfoConsent	1 year	Records the default button state of the corresponding category & the status of CCPA. It works only in coordination with the primary cookie.
viewed_cookie_policy	11 months	The cookie is set by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin and is used to store whether or not user has consented to the use of cookies. It does not store any personal data.

Cookie	Duration	Description
apexchat_dompopup_chatwindow	session	Possible states or events for a chat window. It does not store any personal data.
apexchat_dropdown_invitation	session	Possible states or events for a chat invitation. It does not store any personal data.
apexchat_prechat_invitation	session	Possible states or events for a “pre-chat” invitation. It does not store any personal data.
apexchat_tab_invitation	session	Possible states or events for a tab invitation.
cdn_apex_profile_id	session	ID of the ApexChat widget profile. It does not store any personal data.
livechat_agent_alias_id	1 Hour	ID of an agent alias. It does not store any personal data.
livechat_invitation_traffic_sources	6 months	Available traffic sources (source/medium/campaign, etc.) associated with the chat. It does not store any personal data.
livechat_is_page_refreshed	session	If page was refreshed once the prechat loaded (true/false). It does not store any personal data.
livechat_operator_id	10 minutes	ID of the operator who was handling the chat (if applicable). It does not store any personal data.
livechat_original_referrer	session	Original referrer URL (page URL where the visitor came from before initiating the chat). It does not store any personal data.
livechat_prechat_lastmessage	session	Stores the last message sent from the chat agent. It does not store any personal data.
livechat_prechat_message_ids	session	Stores IDs of questions that comes from the agent side (Chat feature) for internal use. It does not store any personal data.
msd365mkttr	2 years	Register an ID to uniquely identify the data filled in by the user through the specific form on Microsoft Dynamics 365.
msd365mkttrs	session	For correct operation of website forms provided by Microsoft Dynamics 365 and setting of user privacy preferences.

Cookie	Duration	Description
_ga	2 years	The _ga cookie, installed by Google Analytics, calculates visitor, session and campaign data and also keeps track of site usage for the site's analytics report. The cookie stores information anonymously and assigns a randomly generated number to recognize unique visitors.
_gat_UA-173605-1	1 minute	A variation of the _gat cookie set by Google Analytics and Google Tag Manager to allow website owners to track visitor behaviour and measure site performance. The pattern element in the name contains the unique identity number of the account or website it relates to.
_gid	1 day	Installed by Google Analytics, _gid cookie stores information on how visitors use a website, while also creating an analytics report of the website's performance. Some of the data that are collected include the number of visitors, their source, and the pages they visit anonymously.
319af4c0-e197-4de9-8a9b-fe98c8a2ca04	session	This cookie is also set and/or read on any webpage where you have placed a Dynamics 365 Marketing website behavioral-analysis script. Dynamics 365 Marketing uses it to group all page loads by a given visitor that are recorded by the same behavioral-analysis script and that occur within the configured timeframe; it will consider all of these as part of a single “visit” to the website.
79f08280-5c63-4331-b04d-fb6f39afda51	2 years	The cookie contains no personal information. Allows scoring leads based on level of interaction with the website. Used by Dynamics 365 Marketing.
CONSENT	2 years	YouTube sets this cookie via embedded youtube-videos and registers anonymous statistical data.

Cookie	Duration	Description
VISITOR_INFO1_LIVE	5 months 27 days	A cookie set by YouTube to measure bandwidth that determines whether the user gets the new or old player interface.
YSC	session	YSC cookie is set by Youtube and is used to track the views of embedded videos on Youtube pages.
yt-remote-connected-devices	never	YouTube sets this cookie to store the video preferences of the user using embedded YouTube video.
yt-remote-device-id	never	YouTube sets this cookie to store the video preferences of the user using embedded YouTube video.
yt.innertube::nextId	never	This cookie, set by YouTube, registers a unique ID to store data on what videos from YouTube the user has seen.
yt.innertube::requests	never	This cookie, set by YouTube, registers a unique ID to store data on what videos from YouTube the user has seen.