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January 1998, Vol. 121, No. 1

State labor legislation enacted in 1997

Richard R. Nelson

A greater volume of State legislation was enacted in 1997 than in the past few years.¹ Laws of major significance were enacted in several employment standards subject areas, including the traditional fields of minimum wage protection, prevailing wage and child labor as well as in newer areas of parental leave, immunity from liability for providing job information, restrictions on drug and alcohol testing, and bans on employment discrimination because of sexual orientation or genetic testing. A few important court decisions also affected employment standards laws.

This article provides a summary of significant enactments in labor legislation. It does not, however, cover occupational safety and health, employment and training, labor relations, employee background clearance, and economic developoment legislation. Articles on unemployment insurance and workers' compensation appear elsewhere in this issue of Monthly Labor Review.

Wages. Minimum wage was the most active area of State labor legislation and activity again this year as it was last year. Minimum wage rates were increased under Federal law and in 31 States, the District of Columbia, and Guam.

This excerpt is from an article published in the January 1998 issue of the Monthly Labor Review. The full text of the article is available in Adobe Acrobat's Portable Document Format (PDF). See How to view a PDF file for more information.

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Footnotes
¹ The Kentucky legislature met in special session only in 1997 and did not enact any labor legislation. The District of Columbia, Indiana, Kansas, Massachusetts, and New Mexico did not enact significant legislation in the fields covered by this article. Information about the Virgin Islands was not received in time to be included in the article, which is based on information received by November 7, 1997.

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BLS does not have any programs that directly relate to the topic of this article.

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