Employment Law in the United States

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Many wonder how Employment Laws in the United States came to be. Early on, most work was taken care of through slavery. Slaves were made to care for their owners land, crop, animals, children, and family. Slaves worked without monetary compensation and in unhealthy and unfair conditions daily. When slavery was abolished, owners had to compensate their workers for jobs if they wanted the work done. Although not paid very much, slaves continued to do some of the same jobs to help care for their own families. There was not much done about the unhealthy and unfair work conditions. Slaves were not the only people who endured being paid low wages and working in unhealthy and unfair work conditions; anyone who had to work for a living had to deal with the same issues. The federal and state government saw fit to enact employment laws after many complaints, accidents, and deaths in the workplace. Employment laws in the United States were not always in place. In a recent article by the Michigan Law Review (2013) the author argues that “individual employment law is best understood as advancing a particular conception of equality.” Employment laws were put in place to balance the treatment of employers towards employees so there was somewhat of an equal playing field. Congress ensured safe and fair treatment was given to employees by their employers by passing laws to protect them. Unfair treatment was a normal occurrence in the workplace. Employees had to endure being paid low wages, working in unhealthy conditions, and they could be fired without just cause. Much of this treatment was due to the fact that there were so many in need of work that employers knew that what one person would not, another person would. Employees were afraid to put up a fight in fear of losing their job because of this response. Employers had little incentive to treat their labor force well, since

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