An important characteristic of the American legal system is the constitutional separation of powers between the federal government and the government of each of the fifty states. The federal government has the power to pass the laws that uniformly regulate the conduct of citizens and organizations throughout the nation. Each of the states has its own power to regulate affairs within its territorial limits. Also, local government units such as cities and municipalities are generally granted some of the government powers of the states to pass laws affecting individuals and companies who reside or do business in those localities.
What does this mean for our purposes? If you want to find out what laws govern the employment relationship in a particular place, you must research not only federal laws but also laws of the particular state and possibly local ordinances as well. Examples of federal employment laws are the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), which sets overtime and minimum wages; the American with Disabilities Act (ADA), which prohibits employment discrimination against persons with disabilities; and the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), which establishes rights to unpaid leave from work for certain employees with qualifying family situations or medical conditions.
Employment laws at the state level often regulate subjects not covered by federal laws. Examples of this kind of state employment statutes are the laws that provide workers-compensation benefits to employees who are injured on the job and unemployment-compensation benefits to persons who lose their jobs in certain situations.
In some cases, state laws can regulate the same subjects as federal laws. For example, most states have their own anti-discrimination statutes and minimum-wage statutes. Generally, state employment laws that regulate the same subjects as federal laws largely duplicate the federal-law provisions, but may provide greater protections or benefits to employees than the federal laws; or may cover employers that are excluded from federal-law coverage because they are too small; or may provide different remedies than the federal laws. For instance, a state law may set a higher minimum wage than the FLSA and covered workers within that state must be paid at the higher state minimum-wage level. While many states currently do not provide same sex domestic partner benefits, a city ordinance may require employers operating within the city limits provide health care benefits to spouses of their employees to extend the same benefits to same-sex domestic partners of employees.
However, state and local-government employment laws and ordinances only cover employers and employees within the geographic limits of the local government. The most important implication of the separation of powers is to recognize that federal, state, and local laws covering the geographic location where the employment issue arises must be considered before employment decisions are made.