Wisconsin Employee Rights

Learning Your Wisconsin Employee Rights

There are various employee rights like minimum wage, employee safety rights, employee privacy and personnel files. Additionally, there’s fair pay and equal pay as well as laws against discrimination. Every minor should know the various employee rights, minimum wage, employee safety rights and discrimination.

Here’s a few basic Wisconsin employee rights:

1. Employment of Minors (Discrimination Law)

2. Employer Retaliation Against Workers (Discrimination Law/Wrongful Termination)

3. Meal Periods (Employee Safety Rights)

4. Medical Examinations (Employee Safety Rights/Drug Tests for Job Applicants)

5. Minimum Wage & Subminimum Wage Licenses

6. One Day of Rest in Seven (Employee Safety Rights)

7. Penalties & Enforcement (Discrimination and Wrongful Termination)

8. Employee Privacy and Personnel Files

Among these various employee rights are the lawful hiring process and the right to administer drug tests for job applicants, plus the standard idea of fair pay and equal pay among workers. You can expect protection from wrongful termination as well under these various employee rights.

To give you an idea of basic Wisconsin employee rights along with discrimination and fair pay and equal pay, we’ll elaborate on a couple others:

Business Closing Law

It’s standard law under Wisconsin employee rights. These various employee rights state that employers with 50 or more workers in the state must give a notice of 60 days prior to closing. This accounts for mass layoffs where workers don’t have adequate preparation to find more work. This law falls under wrongful termination.

Cessation of Health Care Benefits Law

Additionally, Wisconsin employee rights state that any worker can know within 60 days advance notice of the event that health care benefits may cease: mandatory information during the hiring process.

Of course, the standard requirement of 50 or more employees also applies. The law allows workers time to establish some form of health care before the company benefits end.

This also falls under wrongful termination.

Employment of Minors (Liquor Included)

It’s an established law that a minor of age 12 to 17 under the hiring process along with lawful drug tests for job applicants must be provided a valid Wisconsin work permit before accepting a job along with appropriate minimum wage requirements. It’s the responsibility of the employer to make sure of that in the hiring process as well as all fair pay and equal pay standards.

There are, of course, exceptions to the hiring process and the fair pay and equal pay standard along with employee privacy and personnel files:

1. Agricultural Work

2. Apprenticeships

3. Domestic Service

In addition, minors under the age of 12 can’t receive any employment at all in the state of Wisconsin, so under this the employee privacy and personnel files law doesn’t apply. Neither do the drug tests for job applicants.

On the subject of liquor, though, there are exceptions behind the standard law stating that minors cannot work in any establishment involving alcohol, which would activate all laws regarding employee privacy and personnel files and drug tests for job applicants. In general, those exceptions involve establishments where the minor isn’t actually serving, selling, giving away, or even dispensing liquor. Some examples of that would be:

1. Hotels

2. Motels

3. Summer Resorts

4. Clubhouses

5. Bowling Alleys

6. Restaurants

Common job positions in these exceptions would be bus boys, or simply workers clearing tables at a restaurant. Minors can even work as waiters or waitresses but aren’t allowed to take drink orders.