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Richard R. Nelson
A significant amount of legislative activity occurred in the States during 1990, covering a variety of subjects in the field of employment standards.1 Major laws enacted concerned traditional issues such as minimum wage protection, collection of unpaid wages, bans on employment discrimination, and regulation of child labor. Also receiving considerable attention were newer issues such as parental leave and child care, door-to-door sales by children, employee testing for drug or alcohol abuse, and employment discrimination against persons with AIDS.
Wages. Hourly minimum wage rates rose under Federal law, and in 24 States and 4 jurisdictions as the result of new laws, wage orders, administrative actions, or as provided for in prior legislation. Among the more significant developments, a first-time law was enacted in Missouri and a new law was enacted in Utah, replacing one applicable only to women and minors. New measures also provided for increases in Idaho, Indiana, Kentucky, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, South Dakota, and Wisconsin, and for employees in certain occupations in the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. An amendment provides for an increase in Rhode Island (effective April 1, 1991). Prior legislation resulted in increases in the Federal rates (on April 1, 1990, with and additional increase April 1, 1991), and also in the rates for Alaska, Delaware, Guam, Illinois, Iowa, Maryland, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Vermont, and the Virgin Islands.
Kentucky, Maryland, Ohio, and South Dakota adopted sub-minimum training wages for employees under the age of 20. Utah adopted a learner rate and Wisconsin adopted an adult probationary rate.
This excerpt is from an article published in the January 1991 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 Legislatures did not meet in Arkansas, Nevada, and
North Dakota and met in special session only in Montana, Oregon,
and Texas to consider subjects outside the scope of this article.
Alabama did not enact significant legislation in the fields
covered by this article. Information on the Virgin Islands was
not received in time to include the the article. Separate
articles on unemployment insurance and workers' compensation,
which are not within the scope of this article, are published in
the issue of the Monthly Labor Review.
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