• Employees automatically have a variety of legal rightsWinston Davidian/Photodisc/Getty Images
  
  A wide variety of laws govern the United States labor market. While some of these are specific to particular types of work, others are universal to all types of business and public sector agencies. In most situations, federal law lays down minimum standards, while state laws may offer greater protection to employees.
  
  

Wages

• The Fair Labor Standards Act sets down minimum wages and overtime requirements for employers in three categories: companies with revenues of $500,000 a year; educational, healthcare and other caring-related establishments, regardless of revenue; and government agencies. These employers must pay employees at least $7.25 an hour, or $4.25 an hour for employees who are both aged under 20 and in their first 90 days of employment at the company. Prevailing state law may require employers to pay a higher minimum wage. The employer must also pay overtime for any work over and above 40 hours per week.
  
  

Health and Safety

• Most employers are covered by the Occupational Safety and Health Act. State and local governments may be exempt from the Act depending on the state in question. Under the Act, the employer must follow standards for health and safety, which vary depending on which category the company falls into (general, construction, maritime or agricultural), and carry out regular safety inspections.
  
  Employees have the right to report violations of the Act to the Occupational Safety and Health Act and cannot be punished by employers for doing so.
  
  

Retirement Benefits

• Federal laws do not require employers to offer retirement benefits to employees. Those who do are covered by the Employee Retirement Income Security Act. This requires the employer and anyone else involved in controlling employee benefit plans to act in the best interests of the employees, to avoid conflicts of interest and to give specific information about the financial health and activities of the plan to both employees and government.
  
  

Leave

• Federal law does not require employers to offer annual leave to employees. However, the Family and Medical Leave Act says that any employer with more than 50 employees, or any public agency or educational establishment (regardless of the number of employees), must offer unpaid leave to most employees for family or personal reasons.
  
  The eligible employees are those who meet three criteria: they are working within 75 miles of a site where the employer has at least 50 employees; they have worked for a total of at least 12 months for the employer; and they have worked at least 1,250 hour in the 12 months before taking the leave.