Massachusetts Labor Law
(Massachusetts State Labor Law)

Investigate Labor Laws
Link to State and Federal Agencies

The Division of Unemployment Assistance administers the Commonwealth's unemployment insurance programs, and operates a number of programs to provide services to Massachusetts businesses, workers and others interested in employment and unemployment.

DUA, however, has no jurisdiction over laws regulating hours, work and the workplace.

For your convenience, we are providing links to a number of state and federal agencies that do have jurisdiction over employment-related laws .

State Agencies

The Attorney General's Office enforces the payment of wages, minimum wage, child labor, workplace safety, public bidding and prevailing wage laws, as well as those covering the payment and lawful use of the unemployment insurance and workers compensation programs. To file a complaint about labor law violations, call 617-727-3465.

• Workplace Rights and Responsibilities
• Employee's Guide to Workplace Rights
• Attorney General's Civil Rights Division
• Immigrant Worker Outreach Project
• Complaint Forms
• Regional Offices

• Civil Rights Division
• Office of Special Counsel for Immigration-Related Unfair Employment Practices
• ADA Information

• U.S. Department of Labor Employment and Training Administration
• Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OSHA)
• Wage and Hour Division
• elaws Advisors

U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board

U.S. Office of Special Counsel

National Labor Relations Board

source: http://www.detma.org

Labor law

Labor law or labour law is the body of laws, administrative rulings, and precedents which address the relationship between and among employers, employees, and labor organizations, often dealing with issues of public law. It is distinguished between employment law which deals only with employment contracts and issues regarding employment and workplace discrimination and other private law issues.

Hours of Labor
Before the Industrial Revolution, the workday varied between 11 and 14 hours. With the growth of capitalism and the introduction of machinery, longer hours became far more common, with 14-15 hours being the norm, and 16 not at all uncommon.

The first law on the length of a working day was passed in 1833 in England, limiting miners to 12 hours, and children to 8 hours. The 10-hour day was established in 1848, and shorter hours with the same pay were gradually accepted thereafter. In the United States, employers generally accepted the 8-hour day as of 1912. The Wages and Hours Act of 1938 set the maximum standard work week to 44 hours, and in 1950 this was reduced to 40 hours.

Safety concerns about labor law
Other labor laws involve safety concerning workers. The earliest English factory law was drafted in 1802 and dealt with the safety and health of child textile workers.

Unions
Unions were legalised in 1825, although agreements among members to seek better hours and wages were punishable as conspiracy until 1871. In the United States, the Norris-LaGuardia Act of 1932 outlawed the use of injunctions in labor disputes, the 1935 Wagner Act, which led to the establishment of the National Labor Relations Board required employers to accept collective bargaining. The Taft-Hartley Act in 1947 greatly altered the labor resolutions of the 1930s to a more conservative standpoint, and introduced a 80-day injunction procedure in labor disputes that were deemed to affect the national welfare.

Labor (economics)

In classical economics and all micro-economics labour is one of three factors of production, the others being land and capital. It is a measure of the work done by human beings. There are macro-economic system theories which have created a concept called human capital (referring to the skills that workers possess, not necessarily their actual work), although there are also counterposing macro-economic system theories that think human capital is a contradiction in terms.

Labor Compensation and Measurement
The price of labour is called a wage, and the price of labour per period of time is referred to as the wage rate. The two terms are sometimes used interchangeably.

Other frequently used terms include:

wage = payment per unit of time (typically an hour)
earnings = payment per over a period (typically a week, a month, or a year)
total compensation = earnings + benefits
income = total compensation + unearned income
economic rent = total compensation - opportunity cost
Economists measure labour in terms of hours worked, total wages, or efficiency.

Child labor

Child labour or labor is the phenomenon of children in employment. In many countries, it is considered bad if a child below a certain age works, except for some household chores and of course school work. An employer is often not allowed to hire a child below a certain age. This minimum age depends on the country.

Other forms of work include helping in the parents' business or having one's own small "business", like cleaning car windows, shining shoes, selling small items such as cigarettes, etc. Some children work as a guide for tourists, sometimes combined with working for owners of shops and restaurants, bringing tourists to these businesses. Also there is military use of children, child prostitution and illegal drug trade, illegal trade involving copyright violations (CDs, CD-ROMs, etc.) and there are child actors and child singers.

The voluntarity may vary greatly, but even if a child says it wants to work (e.g. because the earnings are attractive or if the child hates school) it may still be an undesirable situation for the child in the long run.

The use of children as laborers, is now considered by wealthy countries as a human-rights violation, and outlawed, while poorer countries may allow it, as families often rely on the labors of their children for survival and sometimes the only source of income.

Child laborer, Newberry, South Carolina. 1908.The term child labor can have a connotation of systematic exploitation of children for their labor, with little compensation nor consideration for their safety, or health.

International concern has recently been raised has been in regard to an implied moral complicity of the buying public with child exploitation, through the purchase of products assembled or otherwise manufactured with child labor.

Individuals, corporations, nations, and other entities can often be active in a deliberate, systematic, use of children for their labor, while others will ignore such abuse.

In the west, during the Industrial Revolution, use of child labour was commonplace, often in factories. In the United Kingdom during the Victorian era, a series of Factory Acts were passed to gradually restrict the hours that children were allowed to work and improve safety. The United States also has extensive child labor laws.

Child labor laws

.Child labor law reform began in the 1910sThe United States has adopted numerous statutes and rules regulating the employment of minors, called child labor laws. People under the age of 18 have to have a permit to work. Those of the age 16 and 17 are not required to provide a work permit after the last day of the school year, in the spring or before the last day of school. The under age teen that has a permit is able to work and get paid minimum wage of $5.45 per hour. When a company employs minors they have to make a list and post it in a conspicuous place. The minors have to keep a book to keep the time they works and the breaks they get. They also have a restriction on the hours and some of these are as follows: during school hours, before 7 a.m or after 9 a.m more than 3 hours and eighteen hours in one week. Those who are 14 and 15 have more restrictions than those that are the age of 16 and 17. The 14 and 15 yrs old are prohibited from engaging in certain tasks such as: mining, railroads, roofing operations, manufacture of chemicals. There must be a six to one ratio of minors to adult supervisors.