Activity was concentrated in the traditional subjects of minimum wage protection, regulation of child labor, and bans on employment discrimination. Trends continued from previous years with additional States granting employers immunity from civil liability for disclosure of work performance information and authorizing reciprocal agreements for the collection of wage claims. New laws enacted address workplace harassment and violence, and protect whistleblowers. A first-in-the-Nation law enacted places limits on mandatory overtime; also, for the first time, an indexed State minimum wage rate took effect.

This article summarizes significant State labor legislation passed in 2000. It does not, however, cover legislation on occupational safety and health, employment and training, labor relations, employee background clearance, economic development, and local living wage ordinances. Changes in unemployment insurance and workers’ compensation laws appear elsewhere in this issue.

This excerpt is from an article published in the January 2001 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 Arkansas, Montana, Nevada, North Dakota, Oregon, and Texas legislatures did not meet in regular session in 2000. The District of Columbia, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, New Mexico, and North Carolina did not enact significant legislation in the fields covered by this article. Information about Guam and the Virgin Islands was not received in time to be included in the article, which is based on information received by November 10, 2000.

Related Monthly Labor Review articles
State labor legislation enacted in 1999.—Jan. 2000.
State labor legislation enacted in 1998.—Jan. 1999.
State labor legislation enacted in 1997.—Jan. 1998.
State labor legislation enacted in 1996.—Jan. 1997.
State labor legislation enacted in 1995.—Jan./Feb. 1996.
State labor legislation enacted in 1994.—Jan. 1995.