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You are Here: Home > Laws > State Labor Laws

State Labor Laws

State labor laws are linked below by state. They are provided on the Web by each state's legislative branch of government or other organizations authorized by same.

About State Labor Laws

States may simply adopt Federal labor laws "as is" or they may establish their own that include or expand the minimum protections afforded by the Federal equivalents. Federal labor laws set only the minimum provisions in the states.

Generally, your employee rights are protected by whichever laws—Federal or state—have the better provisions. However, states may also establish their own labor laws for which there are no Federal equivalents.

Although state labor laws typically deal with employer-union relationships and state employment laws typically deal with employer-employee relationships, the terms are interchangeable in common usage. State labor laws as the most common usage to represent both. State employment and labor laws are created by acts and enforced by regulations.

Both state employment and labor laws are included in the links below. However, the Web sites linked below might not call them state employment laws or state labor laws, as those are general terms. Instead, they might call them code, statutes or some variation of those terms (e.g., Revised Statutes, meaning current) and list them under various sections (e.g., chapters or titles), such as Labor and Industry.

Be sure to check for related sections too, because many states split their employment and labor laws into separate sections, such as Workers' Compensation, Health and Safety or Civil Rights (including employment discrimination laws).

State Labor Law Links

In most cases, each link below leads to a "main page" for all laws in the state indicated, instead of directly to employment or labor laws. That's because, as previously mentioned, some states split their employment and labor laws into separate sections from which you must choose, starting at a main page.

Additionally, the main pages often include other useful links, such as to rules, regulations, court cases and new legislative bills related to state labor laws.

State labor laws can be difficult to understand because they're written in legalese. So, you might want to also visit the Web site of the state labor department (if not already linked below) or another relevant, state government office. Some explain state labor laws and related rules, regulations and such. See also State Labor Law Research.

If the Web is of little help in understanding a state labor law, consider consulting a lawyer, especially to discover whether or not your employee rights were violated under the law or a related rule or regulation.

Alabama
Alaska
Arizona
Arkansas
California
Colorado
Connecticut
Delaware
District of Columbia
Florida
Georgia
Hawaii
Idaho
Illinois
Indiana
Iowa
Kansas

 

Kentucky
Louisiana
Maine
Maryland
Massachusetts
Michigan
Minnesota
Mississippi
Missouri
Montana
Nebraska
Nevada
New Hampshire
New Jersey
New Mexico
New York
North Carolina

 

North Dakota
Ohio
Oklahoma
Oregon
Pennsylvania*
Rhode Island
South Carolina
South Dakota
Tennessee
Texas
Utah
Vermont
Virginia
Washington
West Virginia
Wisconsin
Wyoming

"State labor laws" are also available online for Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands.

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* Rules and regulations only at this writing. State labor laws and the acts that created them are not available online, but are available at public libraries.

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