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Know your rights under anti-discrimination law Employees have a legal right to a workplace free of illegal harassment, and employers have a responsibility to protect their employees from the same. Of course, in many workplaces, there are individuals other than employees present, such as vendors, contractors, and customers. Those non-employee third parties might be involved...

Under both federal and state law, employees in Ohio are protected from unlawful discrimination on the basis of race, sex, religion, age, national origin, pregnancy, or disability. That means your employer can’t fire you or take other adverse employment actions on the basis of your protected characteristic. It also means you have legal recourse if...

Under federal law, most employers are legally required to treat disabled employees fairly. They must provide reasonable accommodations for disabilities and cannot discriminate against disabled people in hiring, promotion, and other employment decisions. Yet some employers don’t follow the law, and the consequences can be severe. A recent lawsuit filed by the Equal Employment Opportunity...

Regulators at the U.S. Department of Labor (USDOL) had a busy summer dealing with violations of the wage and hour laws that deal with tipped workers. According to Bloomberg Law, the federal agency cited at least 13 companies for tip-credit and tip pool violations between June and August 2024. The crackdown shines a light on...

Non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) serve valuable purposes in the business world. Often, high-level discussions about business partnerships and joint ventures require an NDA to ensure that parties can talk about confidential information without worrying about leaks. And senior employees with access to trade secrets and other confidential information may need to be under NDAs to protect...

When we think of hazards on construction sites, we usually think about physical safety: heavy equipment, power tools, and so on. But the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the federal agency that enforces anti-discrimination laws, is shedding light on another hazard that faces many construction workers: illegal harassment. New guidelines are designed to protect construction...

State and federal wage and hour laws are meant to protect workers. However, that’s not always how it plays out in practice. Whether due to ignorance or a deliberate ploy to pay workers less than they are owed, too many employers flout the law, and the consequence is money right out of your paycheck. The...

New guidelines reflect 25 years of changes in the law and the workplace Last month, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), which enforces federal anti-discrimination laws, issued updated enforcement guidance on unlawful workplace harassment. This is the first time the federal agency has updated its guidance on the subject since 1999. While the EEOC's...

On April 23, 2024, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced a new rule that would eliminate virtually all employee noncompete agreements nationwide. Nearly one in five American workers are currently subject to noncompetes, and this new rule will affect more than 30 million employees. The federal regulation would empower millions of workers According to the...

Recent research highlights the impact of discrimination on employees. It's well-known that discrimination can have serious effects on victims, but new research has highlighted just how profoundly it can affect physical health. The study, published in the Journal of the American Heart Association (JAHA), looked at the connection between workplace discrimination and hypertension (high blood...