United States Department of Labour Case Study

Abstract

This paper provides information about the United States of Labor Website. First of all, it gives the major features of the Website and using of these features on monitoring employee benefits. Then, it explains the using of the Website from employers' point of view. Also it explains how employees would use the Website to ensure their benefits rights are protected. And last it gives the outlines of the Website.

1. Describe the major features of this Website and how each feature can be used to monitor employee benefits.

The mission of the Department of Labor (DOL) is to foster, promote, and develop the welfare of the wage earners, job seekers, and retirees of the United States; improve working conditions; advance opportunities for profitable employment; and assure work-related benefits and rights (DOL, 2012, para. 1). It strives to improve working conditions and create opportunities for profitable employment. It also works to protect retirement and healthcare benefits, help employers find workers, strengthen collective bargaining, and track changes in employment, prices and other national economic measurements (Investopedia Ulc., 2012, para. 2).

Also, DOL administers and enforces more than 180 federal laws. These mandates and the regulations that implement them cover a wide variety of workplace activities and cover about 10 million employers and 125 million workers. The DOL administers a variety of Federal labor laws including those that guarantee workers' rights to safe and healthful working conditions; a minimum hourly wage and overtime pay; freedom from employment discrimination; unemployment insurance; and other income support (Calvasina, G., Calvasina, R. & Calvasina, E., 2011, p. 2).

The health plans and benefits part of the website consist of detailed information. There are a lot of helpful parts there. An employee can easily monitor compliance his or her benefits with the laws. There is a comprehensive subtopics part which provides information from women's health and cancer rights protections to Employee Retirement Income Security Act. Also, Hispanic employees can find provided information that submitted in Spanish. There are a lot of Frequently Asked Questions parts available to make clear laws, health plans, coverage, and eligibility. These parts explain everything about the topic step by step. The Website is a really good source for employees to monitor their benefits. It is a good source for employers to be sure about their implementations are complains with the laws as well.

2. Explain how employers could verify that their employee benefits comply with all federal laws by using this resource.

As it mentioned above the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) is committed to providing America's workers, employers, job seekers, and retirees- with clear and easy to access information on how to comply with federal employment laws. This information is often referred to as "compliance assistance," which is an important part of the Department's efforts to protect the wages, health benefits, retirement security, employment rights, safety, and health of America's workforce (DOL, 2012, para. 1). For this reason, the website provides a part which is helpful navigating of both employers and employees to see if the benefits comply with federal laws.

On the website there is a section which provides 4 subtopics. The subtopics provide information according to topic, audience, law and being new. This feature of the website also makes it really simple so an employer, who checks it, can find the necessary information easily. The law section is a great source to check if an employer's benefits comply with federal laws. There is a list of laws and when they are clicked there is another list appears which provides overview, compliance assistance materials, applicable laws and regulations, related topics and link, and DOL contacts about that particular law. Also the website provides summary of major laws, which has brief descriptions of many of the Department's laws. The website provides information from wages and hours to play closing and layoffs. For example, there is a section which shows a map of United States. If an employer clicks to the state that he or she is in, she or he can see a table of minimum wage rates of the state. However, an employer cannot verify their employee benefits comply with "all" federal laws just by looking at DOL, because it doesn't administer and enforce