On February 5, 1993, the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) became the first legislation signed into law by President Bill Clinton. On February 5, 2013, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) celebrated the 20th anniversary of the Act by publishing new FMLA regulations and holding a special event attended by President Clinton, former Secretary of Labor Alexis Herman, and others who promoted the 1993 statute.

The agency also released “Family and Medical Leave in 2012,” a report on the law compiled for the DOL that reviewed the status of the FMLA in 2012 and opined on proposals to change the law. The report surveyed 1,812 worksites, some covered and some not, and 2,852 employees, some eligible for FMLA leave and some not. Here are some of the facts from the report: read more…

by Edward Sisson

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) was very busy in fiscal year (FY) 2012. The agency reported that it finished the year with record-high monetary recoveries for victims of discrimination.

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Online job website CareerBuilder conducted a national survey between May 14 and June 4, polling more than 3,800 full-time workers and more than 2,200 hiring managers across industries and functions. Managers and workers ages 25 to 34 and managers and workers 55 and older were surveyed to get a picture of how the styles of the two groups differ.

“Age disparities in the office are perhaps more diverse now than they’ve ever been,” says Rosemary Haefner, vice president of human resources at CareerBuilder. “It’s not uncommon to see 30-year-olds managing 50-year-olds or 65-year-olds mentoring 22-year-olds. While the tenets of successful management are consistent across generations, there are subtle differences in work habits and views that all workers must empathize with when working with or managing someone who’s much different in age.” read more…

When President Obama signed Executive Order 13548 on July 26, 2010, he specifically set a goal of hiring 100,000 people with disabilities by 2015. The U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) not only lead federal agencies in the first two quarters of 2012 with 4.2 percent of all new hires being people with disabilities, the agency also trained 3,000 federal employees from more than 56 agencies on recruitment techniques for finding and hiring people with disabilities.

“People with disabilities are welcome in the federal family,” said OPM Director John Berry. “We need the talents and creativity of all people—including people with disabilities—to help do the work of the American people.  We are doing anything possible to remove barriers to their employment, and the good news is that we’re moving in the right direction, and you can see it in the numbers.”

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According to the 2010 Hate Crime Statistics report released by the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting Program late in 2011 the number of hate crimes reported nationwide in 2010 remained fairly steady from the previous year. Participating local law enforcement agencies reported a total of 6,628 incidents — up just slightly from the 6,604 incidents reported in 2009 — involving 7,699 offenses as a result of bias toward a particular race, religion, sexual orientation, ethnicity/national origin, or disability. Alabama showed an increase in the number of hate crimes reported — from nine in 2009 to 19 in 2010, but remained well below the average of such crimes reported in other states.

Agencies that participated in the Hate Crime Statistics Program in 2010 represented over 285 million inhabitants, or 92.3 percent of the nation’s population, and their jurisdictions covered 49 states and the District of Columbia. For each hate crime offense type reported, law enforcement must indicate at least one bias motivation. A single-bias incident is defined as an incident in which one or more offense types are motivated by the same bias. A multiple-bias incident is defined as an incident in which more than one offense type occurs and at least two offense types are motivated by different biases. read more…

On March 8, 1857, women from New York City factories staged a protest over working conditions. In 1981, 124 years after that historic protest, Congress established National Women’s History Week to be commemorated the second week of March. In 1987, Congress expanded the week to a month. Here are some facts about American women from the U.S. Census Bureau:

• According to the 2010 Census, 157.0 million females lived in the United States at the time. The number of males was 151.8 million. At 85 and older, there were more than twice as many women as men.

• In 2010, there were about 71.9 million women 16 and older who participated in the labor force. Of those women, 40.6% worked in management, professional and related occupations, compared with 34.2 % of employed males.

• In 2010, the median annual earnings of women 15 or older who worked year-round was $36,931 , unchanged from 2009. read more…

By H. Mark Adams and B. Trevor Wilson

Employers now have a powerful new incentive for hiring recently discharged and other unemployed veterans. Under the Veterans Opportunity to Work (VOW) to Hire Heroes Act of 2011, enacted by Congress this past November, employers may receive significant income work opportunity tax credits for hiring unemployed veterans, including:

• 40 percent of the employee’s first year’s wages, up to $6,000 (i.e., a tax credit of up to $2,400) for each veteran hired who receives Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits;

• 40 percent of first-year wages, up to $6,000 (i.e., a tax credit of up to $2,400) for each veteran hired who was unemployed for a period of at least four weeks but less than six months during the year ending on the hire date;

• 40 percent of first-year wages, up to $12,000 (i.e., a tax credit of up to $4,800) for each veteran hired who has a service- connected disability and is hired not more than one year after being discharged or released from active duty; read more…

Last year is ended on a high note, at least in terms of one economic indicator: the nation’s unemployment rate fell to 8.5 percent in December. Despite that good news, many states are still experiencing record unemployment; this rampant unemployment was the number one issue addressed by state legislatures this past year. Here is a brief look some key issues state legislatures tackled in 2011:

• In an effort to modernize and update their programs, as well to pull down available federal funds, several states overhauled their unemployment compensation laws.
• Maine and Pennsylvania added work-sharing laws.
• New Jersey, Illinois, Michigan, and New York passed laws prohibiting employers from discriminating against the unemployed when hiring. A proposed federal law is also pending in both the House and Senate. read more…

On October 21, 2011, President Barack Obama announced “After nearly 9 years, America’s war in Iraq will be over.” At the time, America had already withdrawn nearly 100,000 troops from Iraq, leaving nearly 40,000 “non-combat” troops to come home by the December 31 deadline set in 2008. Referencing plans for troop withdrawal in Afghanistan as well, Obama declared that “the tide of war is receding” and that the number of troops deployed “will continue to go down.” As we welcome our veterans home, here are some facts about that population from the U.S. Census Bureau:

• In 2010, there were 21.8 million military veterans in the United States.

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American Indians and Alaska Natives is one of the six major race categories. Each November, the United States celebrates American Indian and Alaska Native Heritage Month. Here are some facts from the U.S. Census Bureau on the group:

• As of the 2010 Census, the population of American Indians and Alaska Natives in the United States was 5.2 million, making up 1.7 percent of the total population. Of this total, 2.9 million were American Indian and Alaska Native only, and 2.3 million were American Indian and Alaska Native in combination with one or more other races.

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