Labor law in the US

Labor law in the US is bare bones and essentially assures people are paid for their work.That's about it.

On the Department of labor (DOL) web site it states:

The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) does not require payment for time not worked, such as vacations, sick leave or federal or other holidays. These benefits are matters of agreement between an employer and an employee (or the employee's representative).


You can add the 12-weeks of unpaid time authorized by the family and medical leave Act., too. Women who were pregnant could use this time to care for their newborn child. it could be also applied to families with members who were severely ill.

However, you must have worked at a companies with 50 or more employees fir 12 months to be eligible for the 12-weeks. 

Yet the GOP threw a sissy fit when Congress introduced this act.

This is why more private sector labor unions are needed. Employees need paid vacations, paid sick leave  and holidays. They also need to be able to file grievances against stupid managers who are using bad judgment or violating the law.

Unfortunately, the union movement is very weak in the US. Most of the unions are public sector. Private sector unions only account for only 6.9 per cent of the labor force.

Labor unions help he Democratic Party win elections, but the Democrats rarely return the favor to labor. This is one of the reasons that private sector union movement is so weak.

Now the Republicans like Scott Walker are attacking the public sector unions as well.

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