Most states have passed legislation to regulate private employ ment exchanges and to mitigate certain abuses, such as the charg ing of exorbitant fees and fee splitting.
The old common law liability of employers to employees injured while engaged in the duties of their employment has been largely replaced by workmen's com pensation laws. Under these, industry, on an insurance basis, bears the cost of injury arising out of and in the course of em ployment. All questions as to the fault or negligence of the em ployer are eliminated. The state laws vary in the extent of their coverage. Farmers, domestic servants, casual workers, are uni versally excluded from the beneficial application of the state acts, but harbour workers are covered by Federal Act. The com pensation awards are based upon a percentage of the wages earned by the employee, with minimum and maximum limits. In most states a commission is charged with their administration, but in some, the courts still administer the provisions of these statutes. A recent tendency has been the extension of the compensation principle to occupational diseases.
Legislation protecting the safety and health of workers bulks large on the statute books. The old type of law specifies in detail the statutory duties imposed. More re cently, legislation has given the state departments of labour or similar public agencies, the power to make reasonable rules and regulations for the health and safety of employees and, thus, to define the general standards established by the legislature. In most states, statutes exist which prohibit certain persons from engag ing in particular employments unless qualified by age, physique or ability. The employment of children in certain dangerous oc cupations is usually prohibited. Other legislation regulates light ing, heating and ventilation in places of employment.
In most states there are special de partments or bureaus created for the purpose of collecting and publishing labour statistics and administering the factory inspec tion, child labour, workmen's compensation and other labour laws.
Since 1913 the Federal Government has had a Department of Labor, the head of which is a member of the President's cabinet. The Department administers the Immigration and Naturaliza tion laws, the Federal Prevailing Wage Law, the Labor Provisions of the Bituminous Coal Act, the Employment Exchange or Wagner-Peyser Act, certain sections of the Social Security Act, and the laws relating to America's participation in the Inter national Labour office. Through the Bureau of Labour Statistics, the Women's Bureau, and the Children's Bureau, it collects facts and publishes bulletins with respect to prices, industrial trends, wages, hours of labour as well as a periodical called the Monthly Labor Review.
of Labor Statistics, Labor Laws of the United States with Decisions of Courts Relating Thereto, Bull. 370 (1925), with annual supplements (1955-1932 incl.) ; Workmen's Com pensation Legislation in the United States and Canada as of July 1, 1926, Bull. 423, with supplement (1929), Bull. 496, and supplementary articles in Monthly Labor Review; Laws Relating to Payment of Wages, Bull. 408 (1926) ; Labor Laws that Have Been Declared Unconstitu tional, Bull. 321 (1921) ; Decisions of Courts and Opinions Affecting Labor, Bull. 592 (1912 to 1933), and current issues of the Monthly La bor Review; E. S. Oakes, Organized Labor and Industrial Conflicts (1927) ; Commons and Andrews, Principles of Labor Legislation (Re vised Edition) (1927) ; Edward Berman, Labor and the Sherman Act (193o) ; Frankfurter and Green, The Labor Injunction (1930) ; James M. Landis, Cases on Labor Law (1934); Witte, The Government in Labor Disputes (1932) ; Twentieth Century Fund, Inc., Labor and the Government (1935) ; Lorwin and Wubrig, Labor Relations Board (1935) ; Lyon, Leverett S. and others, The National Recovery Admin istration (1935) ; Epstein, A., Insecurity, A Challenge to America (1935) ; M. 0. Hudson, Membership of the United States in the Inter national Labor Organization (Oct. 1934), Amer. J. Int. Law Vol. 28.
(F. PE.)