Every employer of employees subject to the Fair Labor Standards Act's minimum wage provisions must post, and keep posted, a notice explaining the Act in a conspicuous place in all of their establishments so as to permit employees to readily read it. The content of the notice is prescribed by the Wage and Hour Division of the Department of Labor. An approved copy of the minimum wage poster is made available for informational purposes or for employers to use as posters.

The Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) Act was enacted to "assure safe and healthful working conditions for working men and women" by setting and enforcing standards and providing training, outreach, education and compliance assistance. The OSH Act created the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) at the Federal level and provided that states could run their own safety and health programs as long as those programs were at least as effective as the Federal program.

Enforcement and administration of the OSH Act in states under Federal jurisdiction is handled primarily by OSHA. Safety and health standards related to field sanitation and certain temporary labor camps in the agriculture industry are enforced by the Wage and Hour Division (WHD) in states under Federal jurisdiction.

Who Must Post: Private employers engaged in a business affecting commerce. Does not apply to federal, state or political subdivisions of states.

Citations / Penalty: Any covered employer failing to post the poster may be subject to citation and penalty.

The Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA)

The Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993 (FMLA) provides a means for employees to balance their work and family responsibilities by taking unpaid, job-protected leave for certain family and medical reasons. The FMLA provides that eligible employees are entitled to:

• Twelve workweeks of leave in a 12-month period for:
  • the birth of a child and to care for the newborn child within one year of birth; the placement with the employee of a child for adoption or foster care and to care for the newly placed child within one year of placement;
  • to care for the employee's spouse, child, or parent who has a serious health condition;
  • a serious health condition that makes the employee unable to perform the functions of his or her job; and
  • any qualifying exigency arising out of the fact that the employee's spouse, son, daughter, or parent is a covered military member on "covered active duty;" and
• Twenty-six workweeks of leave during a single 12-month period to care for a covered servicemember with a serious injury or illness if the employee is the spouse, son, daughter, parent, or next of kin of the servicemember (Military Caregiver Leave).

The FMLA also requires that the employee's group health insurance coverage be maintained under the same terms and conditions during the leave as if the employee had not taken leave.

The Wage and Hour Division administers and enforces the FMLA for all private, state and local government employees, and some Federal employees. Most Federal and certain congressional employees are also covered by the law and are subject to the jurisdiction of the U.S. Office of Personnel Management or the Congress.

Who Must Post: Public agencies (including state, local, and federal employers), public and private elementary and secondary schools, as well as private sector employers who employ 50 or more employees in 20 or more work weeks and who are engaged in commerce or in any industry or activity affecting commerce, including joint employers and successors of covered employers.

Citations / Penalty: Willful refusal to post may result in a civil money penalty by the Wage and Hour Division not to exceed $100 for each separate offense.

The Employee Polygraph Protection Act (EPPA)

The Employee Polygraph Protection Act of 1988 (EPPA) generally prevents private sector employers from using lie detector tests, either for pre-employment screening or during the course of employment, with certain exceptions.  Employers generally may not require or request any employee or job applicant to take a lie detector test, or discharge, discipline, or discriminate against an employee or job applicant for refusing to take a test or for exercising other rights under the Act.

EPPA excludes Federal, state and local government agencies from the Act's coverage, with respect to public employees.  Lie detector tests may also be administered by the Federal Government to employees of Federal contractors engaged in national security intelligence or counterintelligence functions.

EPPA includes limited exemptions that allow for the administration of polygraph tests (but no other lie detector tests) by private sector employers:

Subject to restrictions, the Act permits polygraph (a type of lie detector) tests to be administered to certain job applicants of security service firms (armored car, alarm, and guard) and of pharmaceutical manufacturers, distributors, and dispensers.

Subject to restrictions, the Act also permits polygraph testing of certain employees of private firms who are reasonably suspected of involvement in a workplace incident (theft, embezzlement, etc.) that resulted in specific economic loss or injury to the employer.

Where polygraph examinations are permitted under the Act, they are subject to strict standards concerning the conduct of the test, including the pre-test, testing, and post-test phases of the examination.

The Wage and Hour Division (WHD) enforces the EPPA.

Who Must Post: Any employer engaged in or affecting commerce or in the production of goods for commerce. Does not apply to federal, state and local governments, or to circumstances covered by the national defense and security exemption.

Citations / Penalty: The Secretary of Labor can bring court actions and assess civil penalties for failing to post.

Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act (USERRA)

The Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act (USERRA) protects service members’ reemployment rights when returning from a period of service in the uniformed services, including those called up from the reserves or National Guard, and prohibits employer discrimination based on military service or obligation.

The Veterans’ Employment and Training Service (VETS) enforces USERRA.

Who Must Post: The full text of the notice must be provided by each employer to persons entitled to rights and benefits under USERRA.

Citations / Penalty: No citations or penalties for failure to notify. An individual could ask DOL to investigate and seek compliance, or file a private enforcement action to require the employer to provide the notice to employees.

“Know Your Rights: Workplace Discrimination is Illegal” Poster

The law requires an employer to post a notice describing the Federal laws prohibiting job discrimination based on race, color, sex (including pregnancy and related conditions, sexual orientation, or transgender status), national origin, religion, age (40 and older), equal pay, disability or genetic information (including family medical history or genetic tests or services), and retaliation for filing a charge, reasonably opposing discrimination, or participating in a discrimination lawsuit, investigation, or proceeding. Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 imposes a monetary penalty for covered employers who fail to post these notices. The penalty, currently $680, is adjusted annually for inflation as required by law.

The “Know Your Rights: Workplace Discrimination is Illegal” poster, prepared by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), summarizes these laws and explains how employees or applicants can file a complaint if they believe that they have experienced discrimination.

These posters should be placed in a conspicuous location in the workplace where notices to applicants and employees are customarily posted. In addition to physically posting, covered employers are encouraged to post the notice digitally on their web sites in a conspicuous location. In most cases, electronic posting supplements the physical posting requirement. In some situations (for example, for employers without a physical location or for employees who telework or work remotely and do not visit the employer's workplace on a regular basis), it may be the only posting.

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) requires that notices of Federal laws prohibiting job discrimination be made available in a location that is accessible to applicants and employees with disabilities that limit mobility.

Printed notices should also be made available in an accessible format, as needed, to persons with disabilities that limit the ability to see or read. Notices can be recorded on an audio file, provided in an electronic format that can be utilized by screen-reading technology or read to applicants or employees with disabilities that limit seeing or reading ability.