State labor legislation enacted in 2008 (EXCERPT), Monthly Labor Review Online, January 2009

State labor legislation enacted in 2008

John J. Fitzpatrick, Jr., James L. Perine, and Bridget Dutton

The legislative areas of equal employment opportunity, immigration protections, the minimum wage, prevailing wages, time off, wages paid, and worker privacy were among the most active during the individual sessions of the State legislatures in 2008. Legislative activity in those areas and others resulted in the enactment or revision of State statutes or regulations during the course of the year.

In 2008, the States enacted a volume of labor-related legislation less than that enacted in 2007. The decrease was due in part to the fact that only 44 States and the District of Columbia met in regular session during 2008. (All 50 States had met in regular session in 2007.) However, several of the legislatures of the 6 States that did not meet in regular session (Arkansas, Montana, North Dakota, Nevada, Oregon, and Texas) met in special sessions dedicated to various issues of particular interest or immediate necessity. In addition, the legislature of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico met in regular session in 2008 and submitted relevant data. At the time this article was submitted for publication, 44 of the 50 States, plus the District of Columbia, had enacted or amended labor legislation of consequence in the various categories tracked by the Wage and Hour Division of the U.S. Department of Labor.

This excerpt is from an article published in the January 2009 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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