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HR’s Important Role in Employment Law, Public Policy and Legislation

Last Updated June 6, 2022

human resources team discussion

A law degree isn’t a requirement to become a human resource professional. Even so, HR students will spend time studying employment laws, and legal aspects likely will touch much of an HR professional’s role.

There are numerous regulations regarding the employer-employee relationship, and that relationship is to a large extent what human resources is all about.

HR professionals must know both federal regulations regarding employment issues as well as state or local laws on the subject. For example, while federal laws barring discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation are limited, many municipalities have laws that specifically prohibit this.

Important Employment Legislation

According to the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), it is believed that the National Cash Register Company established one of the earliest human resources departments in 1901.

Known as personnel management, the department handled record keeping, workplace safety, wage management and employee grievances.

Thirty-five years previous, the U.S. Congress passed the first of many pieces of legislation that would impact the work of that first personnel department’s successors.

The Civil Rights Act of 1866 prohibited discrimination in hiring based on race. The bill specifically addressed hiring — discrimination against an employee wasn’t covered.

Attorney and Villanova University Adjunct Professor Angela Francesco called Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 “the cornerstone of federal antidiscrimination employment law.” Francesco’s remark came during a lecture on Title VII, part of the Employment Law course, a requirement in Villanova’s Master of Science in Human Resource Development program.

Title VII prohibits discrimination in employment on the basis of race, color, gender, national origin and religion. Unlike the 1866 act, which barred discrimination only during hiring, Title VII covers the most essential elements of employment: “hiring, firing, how you discipline, who you pay, which benefits you give [and] classification,” Francesco explained.

Additional acts have extended protection to more groups.

Politics and Public Policy Influence Employment Legislation

With so many statutes on the books, it may be tempting to think of employment law as static. In fact, changes are proposed frequently.

One example is a revision to rules governing overtime pay. Previously, only workers making $23,660 annually were eligible for time-and-a-half overtime pay for working more than 40 hours a week. The updated rule, effective Jan. 1, 2020, raised that threshold to $35,568, far less than the proposal to double the original figure to $47,320 made when the change first was proposed in 2014 under the Obama administration.

SHRM opposed doubling the threshold as “too much, too fast.” The organization made several suggestions concerning the overtime rule change, most of which were incorporated, according to Emily M. Dickens, JD, Chief of Staff, Head of Government Affairs and Corporate Secretary for SHRM.

Changes in employment laws often begin as public policy initiatives from organizations such as SHRM.

SHRM’s current slate of policy actions include efforts to fill what is known as the talent gap, created by low unemployment rates and a stagnant birth rate, which has left more than seven million job positions unfilled.

SHRM has targeted two groups it hopes can help fill the gap. One is the formerly incarcerated, which SHRM is addressing through its “Getting Talent Back to Work” initiative. This project offers encouragement and guidance to employers to consider hiring workers with a criminal record.

Another SHRM policy initiative, this one still at the “start-up stage,” according to Dickens, focuses on the second group, older workers, roughly defined as those 50 and older. SHRM President and Chief Executive Officer Johnny C. Taylor, Jr., said that he’s received many letters from unemployed individuals in this age bracket, many of whom are supporting dependent children and aging parents.

SHRM’s Government Affairs Department has been focusing on:

  • Workplace equity, including anti-harassment efforts and pay equity
  • Workforce development, including older workers, the formerly incarcerated and workers with disabilities
  • Workplace flexibility and leave
  • Workplace immigration to help close the skills gap

Expand Your Knowledge of Employment Law with Villanova University

Students in Villanova’s 100% online Human Resource Management Certificate will gain a foundation of the core competencies necessary for successful leadership as an HR professional.

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