- Published: January 11, 2022
- Updated: January 11, 2022
- University / College: Indiana University Bloomington
- Level: Intermediate School
- Language: English
- Downloads: 25
Limits to What an Employer Can Do to Their Employees s March 21, Limits to What an Employer Can Do to Their Employees Intoday’s society, one of the most important things is the source of livelihood, somewhere one can make a living from. This is because every single thing in life is bought, basic needs, education and the like. One source of livelihood is through employment, although many have argued against it as it does not guarantee job security. Many people today despise employment because employers have to be the subjects of their employees under all costs. Further, there have been cases where employers have been said to be mistreated, harassed or even retrenched unnecessarily. Such incidences leave employees in a state of tumult and cursing their employment (FLSA, 2012). On the same note, the employers are said to remunerate their employees however they wish subjecting the employees in a state of discomfort and discontentment. In this study, we look at some state and federal laws that have a limit or prohibit what employers can do to their employees as well as the pro and cons of those laws.
The first law that will be discussed is the Federal Wage Garnishment Law, The Consumer Credit Protection Act’s Title 3 (CPPA) (Dol. gov, 2009). But, what is meant by wage garnishment? Wage garnishment can be defined as any legal or equitable procedure through an employee’s portion of the wage is required to be withheld by an employer for settlement of dome debt. Primarily, garnishments are done following a court order. Other types of wage garnishment may include IRS or the federal tax collection agency levies for unpaid taxes and the federal agency garnishments for non-tax debts owed to the federal government (Dol. gov, 2009). The CPPA limits the amount of employee’s wages that can be garnished by the employers and protects them from facing the sack if their earnings are garnished for only one debt. This law is very important because it helps employees whose wages have been garnished for a single debt to continue working, but it fails on part that the amount to be garnished will be after all the legal deductions, leaving the employee with little or nothing to take home. The law also allows pensions to be garnished and this is not pleasing especially to the elderly.
The 1963 Act of Equal Pay is another law that prohibits employers from exploiting employees. It safeguards men and women who perform equally at work or equal work from sex-based wage discrimination and compels the employers to pay them equally regardless of the gender of the workers (Eeoc. gov, 2015). If it is a construction work done by employees of bother gender, then the salary or wages should be equivalent. However, this law has a shortcoming, in that the quality of labor may differ with gender and the employer may feel intimidated to pay somewhat they didn’t deserve. Further, men are considered to be hard-workers and at the end of the day, they will have done more work than the women, hence men may feel not rewarded adequately for their efforts (Eeoc. gov, 2015).
The other law that will be discussed is the Fair Labor Standards Act (FSLA) which sets the minimum wage an employee can receive, the overtime pay and the youth employment standards affecting employees in the private sector, states, federal and local governments (Dol. gov, 2015). This law set a minimum of $7. 25 per hour and the employers cannot reduce this amount whatsoever. This law is very important in that it protects the citizens from low pay and covers up for the overtime issues, but does not necessarily specific the threshold amount of hour and employees should work for a certain employer, whether on ordinary or overtime basis. However, employers keep pay and time records for the employees (Dol. gov, 2015).
Conclusively, employers can exploit workers mercilessly if they are not watched over closely and set tough laws to govern their dealings with normal citizens. With the rising population, there are many unemployed citizens and employers can take the advantage of the adequate supply of manpower for their own gains. That is why the above discussed laws are very crucial in safeguarding and upholding the welfare of the employees, lest the employers will exploit them and reward them peanuts for their manpower.
References
Dol. gov. (2009). Fact Sheet #30: The Federal Wage Garnishment Law, Consumer Credit Protection Acts Title 3 (CCPA). Retrieved 21 March 2015, from http://www. dol. gov/whd/regs/compliance/whdfs30. pdf
Dol. gov. (2015). Compliance Assistance – Wages and the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). Retrieved 21 March 2015, from http://www. dol. gov/whd/flsa/
Eeoc. gov,. (2015). Federal Laws Prohibiting Job Discrimination Questions And Answers. Retrieved 21 March 2015, from http://www. eeoc. gov/facts/qanda. html#
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). (2012). Washington State Human Resource. doi: 2012