Employment Law Essentials for HR Professionals
Employment law forms the legal foundation of HR practice. The Workplace domain of the SHRM exam tests your knowledge of major federal employment statutes, their coverage and requirements, enforcement mechanisms, and key court cases that have shaped their interpretation. This is consistently one of the most heavily tested areas on both the SHRM-CP and SHRM-SCP exams.
Title VII of the Civil Rights Act (1964)
Title VII prohibits employment discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, and national origin. It applies to employers with 15 or more employees and is enforced by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). Key provisions and concepts include:
- Disparate treatment: Intentional discrimination against an individual because of a protected characteristic. The plaintiff must establish a prima facie case (McDonnell Douglas framework), after which the burden shifts to the employer to articulate a legitimate, nondiscriminatory reason.
- Disparate impact: A facially neutral employment practice that disproportionately affects a protected group. Established by the landmark Griggs v. Duke Power Co. (1971) decision, which held that an employer must demonstrate that selection criteria with disparate impact are job-related and consistent with business necessity.
- Sexual harassment: Includes quid pro quo harassment (submission to unwelcome conduct as a condition of employment) and hostile work environment (unwelcome conduct so severe or pervasive that it alters working conditions). The Meritor Savings Bank v. Vinson (1986) decision established that hostile work environment claims are actionable under Title VII.
- Religious accommodation: Employers must reasonably accommodate an employee's sincerely held religious beliefs unless doing so would impose an undue hardship on the business.
Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA, 1990)
The ADA prohibits discrimination against qualified individuals with disabilities in employment, public services, and public accommodations. It applies to employers with 15 or more employees. Key requirements include:
- Qualified individual: A person who can perform the essential functions of the job with or without reasonable accommodation.
- Reasonable accommodation: Modifications to the job or work environment that enable a qualified individual with a disability to perform essential functions, such as modified schedules, assistive technology, job restructuring, or physical workspace modifications.
- Interactive process: Employers must engage in a good-faith interactive dialogue with the employee to identify effective accommodations.
- Undue hardship: An accommodation that would impose significant difficulty or expense on the employer, considering the organization's size, financial resources, and the nature of the accommodation.
- ADA Amendments Act (ADAAA, 2008): Broadened the definition of disability to cover more conditions and shifted the analytical focus from whether an individual has a disability to whether the employer has met its accommodation obligations.
Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA, 1967)
The ADEA protects individuals aged 40 and older from employment discrimination based on age. It applies to employers with 20 or more employees. Unlike Title VII, the ADEA requires plaintiffs to prove that age was the "but-for" cause of the adverse action (Gross v. FBL Financial Services, 2009), a higher standard than the "motivating factor" test under Title VII.
Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA, 1993)
FMLA provides eligible employees with up to 12 weeks of unpaid, job-protected leave per year for qualifying reasons:
- Birth and care of a newborn child
- Placement of a child for adoption or foster care
- Care of a spouse, child, or parent with a serious health condition
- The employee's own serious health condition that prevents job performance
- Qualifying exigencies related to a family member's military service (up to 26 weeks for military caregiver leave)
Eligibility requires 12 months of employment and 1,250 hours worked in the preceding 12 months at a worksite where the employer has 50 or more employees within 75 miles.
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA, 1938)
The FLSA establishes federal minimum wage, overtime pay (1.5 times the regular rate for hours exceeding 40 in a workweek), recordkeeping requirements, and child labor restrictions. The most frequently tested FLSA concept is the exempt vs. non-exempt classification:
- Non-exempt employees: Entitled to overtime pay for hours worked beyond 40 per week.
- Exempt employees: Not entitled to overtime. To qualify, employees must meet salary basis, salary level, and duties tests for executive, administrative, professional, computer, or outside sales exemptions.
Equal Pay Act (1963)
The Equal Pay Act requires that men and women receive equal pay for equal work in the same establishment. Jobs are considered equal when they require substantially similar skill, effort, responsibility, and working conditions. Pay differences are permissible when based on seniority, merit, quantity or quality of production, or any factor other than sex.
Key Court Cases for the SHRM Exam
- Griggs v. Duke Power Co. (1971): Established the disparate impact theory under Title VII.
- McDonnell Douglas Corp. v. Green (1973): Established the burden-shifting framework for disparate treatment claims.
- Meritor Savings Bank v. Vinson (1986): Recognized hostile work environment sexual harassment under Title VII.
- Burlington Industries v. Ellerth (1998): Established employer liability standards for supervisor harassment.
- Oncale v. Sundowner (1998): Extended Title VII harassment protections to same-sex harassment.
Explore the complete Workplace domain guide for more on legal compliance. Review key statutes with the Workplace Cheat Sheet and test your knowledge with Workplace mini exams. Sign up free to access all employment law practice questions.