“Employment law” actually takes several different forms:
Statutes are what people think of when they are talking about a “law.” A statute is a written law enacted by the United States Congress or by a state legislature. Examples: the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA), Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (Title VII), and the Pennsylvania Wage Payment and Collection Law.
The most comprehensive federal statutes are the United States Code (U.S.C.) and the United States Code Annotated (U.S.C.A.).
You can find statutes in separate sets of volumes. Pennsylvania statutes are published in Purdon’s Pennsylvania Statutes and Consolidated Statues.
You can find publications of federal or state statutes in local libraries and local law libraries, local bar associations or private attorneys’ offices.
Regulations are written guidance issued by federal and state agencies charged with enforcing particular statutes to their own employees, other persons, and organizations being regulated as to how particular statutory sections should be interpreted. Since regulations are not enacted by legislative bodies, they are not technically binding law. However, courts often use regulations in issuing legally binding decisions on parties involved in legal cases.
Example: Employment-law regulations include the federal regulations issued by the United States Department of Labor interpreting the application of the Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA).
Federal regulations are complied and published in a set of volumes known as the Consolidated Federal Regulations (CFR). State regulation is published in separate volumes, for example, The Pennsylvania Code for Pennsylvania agency regulation.
Published regulations of federal and state regulations may often be found in public libraries and law libraries.
Executive Orders are written orders or regulations issued by the President of the United States that interpret or implement statutory law or the requirements of the Constitution of the United States. Generally, executive orders are binding law only upon federal employees and federal-government employers or federal-government contractors. They do not affect other private employers and employees or public employees of state or local governments.
Example: Executive Order 11246, which was issued in 1965 by President Lyndon B. Johnson and requires federal contractors not to discriminate in the hiring, promotion, pay and working conditions, and discharge of their employees based on race, color, religion, gender, or national origin.