Company locations in different states - What laws apply

JulieJulie

Our company has different locations throughout the U.S. Which state laws apply? Do you go by the state laws the company is incorporated in or are you to go by each state law the location is in?

Parabeagle

Generally (and I think I can say this -- someone correct me if I'm wrong, please), in employment-related issues, anyway, you need to follow the laws of the state in which the facility's located. When there is a conflict between the laws of the state and the feds, you follow the law most beneficial to the employee (e.g., fed. min. wage is $5.15 per hour, but Oregon's min. wage is $6.90 per hour -- therefore, we have to pay Oregon min. wage).

I'm sure there are zillions of exceptions, but this is the way we operate.

JulieJulie

Thank you. This is going to make things very difficult. Our company has locations in 9 different states. Any suggestions on how not to miss a law?

Parabeagle

I can recommend a couple of good, quick-reference guides that I rely on.

But even with that, you can never have too many reference tools, so I would latch onto everything I could. It may be spendy but it will be money well spent.

Meantime, if you want to e-mail me I can give you the information regarding the publications I rely on -- just a guess, but I don't expect we're supposed to promote particular products on this thing.

Eric

Don D

......And there may not BE a FACILITY either. If you have regionally based sales people for example, working out of their home and car, you will also be impacted by the laws in THOSE states. I'm in Mississippi. If we fire someone here, we can do it at will, give them no reason, and pay the person on the next regular paydate, going by our state laws. If we decide to fire one of our regional salespersons living in California, we are driven by the nightmarish laws of that state.

JulieJulie

Wow! I am going to need a state by state law book or something. Do you know of any?
Thanks for your insight.
Julie

Steve McElfresh

The dear sponsorers of this site, HRhero.com, have state employement law periodicals they distribute for most (all?) states that are excellent for updates and emerging issues. Look in column to the left, under "Ways we can Help" - "Products by state."

In addition, in many states, the state chamber of commerce publishes a labor law guide that is a good reference.

Regards,

Steve Mac

Steve McElfresh, PhD
Principal
HR Futures

408.605.1870

System

Sorry, I fell off the forum wagon and missed this discussion entirely. Yes, HRhero.com does offer state-specific newsletters in all states, including Washington, D.C. Along with the newsletter, you also receive access to the state laws in the subscribers area on HRhero.com.

You can order the newsletters online from [url]www.hrhero.com/empnl.shtml[/url] . The prices are discounted if you want to receive more than one state's newsletter, but you'll need to call us at 800/274-6774 or contact us at [email]custserv@mleesmith.com[/email] to find out what the discount is (it depends on how many newsletters you want to subscribe to).

Also, if you have offices across the U.S., you might want to check into a Multi-User Account, which gives you and your HR people across the U.S. access to their state's newsletter and laws, etc. More info at
[url]http://www.hrhero.com/sitelicense.shtml[/url]

Christy Reeder
Website Managing Editor
[url]www.HRhero.com[/url]

Gillian

You will never completely learn all the laws of all the states, and if you did one of them would pass a new law and you would be out of date already. The best think to do would be to identify the key issues, wage and hour and discrimination come to mind, and research the state government websites about those topics. There may also be other areas of regulation that are specific to your industry.

Don D

This is no commercial, but Business And Legal Reports of Madison, CT publishes an absolutely complete Bible containing all Federal regulations in lay fashion as well as state by state addendums and that company sends you monthly updates and inserts with remove and replace instructions. Problem is that it would be terribly expensive to subscribe to this large two volume set for multiple states. One state, fine, it's a very useful tool and very, very all inclusive. Otherwise, I suggest you consider both Steve and Gillian's suggestions mixed with a sizeable portion of daily prayer.