List of Federal Laws by Employee Count

In preparing an Employment Law Overview course for the SBDC, I put together a list of laws by company size. I am just going to list the laws here, without any in-depth information on each law.

From 1 to 14 Employees:

- Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA)
- Immigration Reform & Control Act (IRCA)
- Employee Polygraph Protection Act
- Uniformed Services Employment & Re-employment Rights Act (USERRA)
- Equal Pay Act
- Consumer Credit Protection Act
- National Labor Relations Act (NLRA)/Wagner Act
- Labor-Management Relations Act (Taft-Hartley)
- Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) - if you offer benefits
- Uniform Guidelines of Employee Selection Procedures
- Federal Insurance Contributions Act (FICA)
- Occupational Health and Safety Act

From 15 - 19 Employees, add the following laws:

- Title VII of the Civil Rights Act
- Title I, Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) as amended by the ADAAA
- Pregnancy Discrimination Act
- Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA)
- Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act (FACTA)

From 20 - 49 Employees, add the following laws:

- Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA)
- Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act (COBRA)

From 49 to 99 Employees, add the following laws:

- Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA)

For 100 or more Employees, add the following laws:

- Worker Adjustment & Retraining Notification Act (WARN)
- EEO-1 Report must be filed annually

And for those who are federal contractors:

- EEO-1 Report filed annually with 50+ employees and a federal contract for more than $50,000
- Executive Orders 11246, 11375, 11478
- Vocational Rehabilitation Act
- Drug Free Workplace
- Vietnam-Era Veterans Adjustment Act
- Davis Bacon Act
- Copeland Act
- McNamara-O'Hara Service Contract Act
- Walsh-Healy Act

The Take Away:

Employers have to abide by many regulations, and ignorance does not create a safe harbor. It is important to be aware of and to abide by the requirements of these laws. The cost of violation will prove exorbitant when compared to the cost of compliance.

By way of a brief example, I audited a company's I-9 files (IRCA compliance). On four forms, I found 14 errors. This equates to about $1,400 in liability.