State and Federal Labor Guidance
Free state and federal labor-agency opinion letters, administrative policies, and interpretive notices, with plain-English summaries, current status, and the official source on every page.
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United Way affiliate plans and audit waiver Unknown
EBSA treated the United Way affiliate arrangements as separate plans rather than one combined plan. Each individual plan could use the small-plan audit waiver if it had fewer than 100 participants…
Military separation reasons and UCX eligibility Unknown
ETA explained how DD Form 214 narrative separation reasons affect unemployment compensation for ex-servicemembers. Current status is unconfirmed.
Investment adviser reimbursement of direct expenses Unknown
EBSA said a related adviser’s services to a common trust could qualify for the service exemption if its conditions were met, but conflicted selection could still be self-dealing. Direct…
Hinged rest platforms on fixed ladders Unknown
OSHA wrote a ladder manufacturer after learning it advertised a fixed ladder with a hinged rest platform as OSHA compliant. OSHA said its fixed ladder rule did not allow hinged platforms, except for…
Stop-loss insurance under affiliated-insurer exemption Unknown
EBSA said the described stop-loss contracts bought by health and disability plans could qualify as benefit-funding contracts under class exemption PTE 79-41. The opinion did not cover separate…
Face-amount certificate deposits and ERISA exemption Unknown
The Department said ISA, a face-amount certificate company, was a bank or similar financial institution under ERISA's cited exemption and that its certificates were deposits. Whether the…
Reporting FUTA credit-reduction discrepancies Unknown
ETA announced a two-year period for states to report apparent discrepancies in IRS collections of FUTA credit-reduction amounts. Current status is unconfirmed.
Light-duty pneumatic staplers without release levers
An OSHA region asked about furniture-industry pneumatic staplers without safety release levers. OSHA said tools operating below 100 psi could be acceptable with pressure control, light-duty staples,…
Ryland health plan covered by ERISA Unknown
EBSA said Ryland’s employee health program was an ERISA welfare plan both before and after it became partly self-funded on August 1, 1981. The employer maintained the program for its employees and…
Hearing conservation amendment and construction workers
A construction group asked whether the 1983 hearing conservation amendment covered construction employees. OSHA said it did not apply to construction or agriculture and pointed to the separate…
Retail paint thinner in approved plastic containers
A paint supplier asked about one-gallon plastic containers of paint thinner in a retail store. OSHA said the described Class II combustible liquid could be stored in approved plastic containers…
Power press brake guarding in job shops Unknown
An OSHA regional administrator asked how point of operation guarding requirements applied to power press brakes in job and model shops. OSHA said each setup needed evaluation and that safe distance…
Dental association IRA outside ERISA plan status Unknown
EBSA said an Equitable IRA offered to American Dental Association members was not an ERISA pension plan merely through the association because that association was neither an employer group nor an…
Flammable glue spraying under spray-finishing rules
An OSHA region asked whether spraying glue before lamination was covered by the spray-finishing rule. OSHA said the rule’s broad use of finishing materials included that glue application, as well as…
Wisconsin bankers insurance trust and MEWA rules Unknown
EBSA could not determine whether active-member banks actually controlled the Wisconsin Bankers Association trust, so it declined a blanket single-plan ruling. It said each participating nonvoting…
Denver firefighters retirement and death plan Unknown
EBSA said a firefighters association’s retirement and death benefit arrangement was both an ERISA pension and welfare plan. It was not a governmental plan because the city neither controlled it nor…
Oregon trust company as bank under PTE 80-51 Unknown
EBSA said Capital Trust counted as a bank for class exemption PTE 80-51 when maintaining Real Estate Equity Fund II. It did not decide whether any particular investment met another exemption or…
Fumigant sampling as employee exposure records
A longshore union asked whether fumigant grab samples were employee exposure records. OSHA said section 1910.1020 generally did not require employers to create records, but recorded sample results…
Safe access while assembling or dismantling scaffolds Unknown
A construction company asked five questions about access during scaffold assembly and dismantling. OSHA said continuous ladder access was not required during those tasks, but other safe access was;…
HYO and HYEX stock options and plan assets Unknown
EBSA said the Husky pension plans owned option rights, but stock and underlying corporate assets they might acquire later were not yet plan assets. Decisions to exercise or keep the options still…
Cascade IRA escrow and payroll deductions Unknown
EBSA said Cascade’s escrow account was part of its IRA payroll-deduction program and could remain outside ERISA pension-plan status if the regulatory conditions were met. Depositing withheld pay in…
Affiliate IRA sponsor and employer endorsement Unknown
EBSA said an employer did not endorse an IRA payroll-deduction program solely because the sponsor was its affiliate, if the earlier conditions were met and the affiliate sponsor offered IRA programs…
Fire extinguisher education and evacuation training
A hospital asked about fire extinguisher and emergency plan training. OSHA said its extinguisher education requirement did not require hands-on practice with controlled fires in the described case.…
Truman Medical Center plan remains nongovernmental Unknown
EBSA declined to change its earlier conclusion that the Truman Medical Center retirement plan was not a governmental plan. It still viewed the center as an independent contractor rather than a…
Plan pay for a fully paid union representative Unknown
The Department assumed the Cap Makers funds’ administrator received full-time pay as an international union representative, although the requester had not stated whether she was paid full-time. On…
ESOP majority-securities design and prudence Unknown
EBSA said an ESOP provision requiring more than half its assets in qualifying employer securities did not itself defeat the statutory primary-investment design requirement. Fiduciaries still had to…
Public employee coverage under state fire brigade standards
An OSHA official reviewed Tennessee’s proposed fire brigade standard. The memorandum said state plans had to apply the federal fire brigade requirements to both private and public employees, and…
Local 919 pension as multiemployer plan Unknown
EBSA said the Local 919 food-industry pension trust had a substantial business purpose because collective bargaining covered employment matters beyond the pension. It found the other regulatory…
Baytown mutual benefit association welfare plan Unknown
EBSA said the Baytown association’s medical benefits program was an ERISA welfare plan because the association qualified as an employees’ beneficiary association, even though the employer did not…
Intermittent anchors for suspended window washing platforms Unknown
An OSHA regional administrator asked how an instruction on intermittent building anchors fit the rule for suspended window washing platforms. OSHA said the instruction recognized an equivalent…
Integon payroll-deduction insurance safe harbor Unknown
The Department said Integon’s proposed insurance payroll-deduction program was not an ERISA welfare plan. It saw no indication of a pension plan but limited its opinion to the welfare-plan question.…
Means of egress rules and the Life Safety Code Unknown
A safety consultant asked whether the Life Safety Code controlled interpretation of OSHA's means of egress rules. OSHA said the cited NFPA edition had no independent force of law, and that its…
Questions on 1982 UCX amendments
ETA answered state questions about implementing 1982 amendments governing unemployment compensation for ex-servicemembers. ETA still lists the letter as continuing.
IRA premium reimbursements and ERISA Unknown
EBSA said the insurer’s reimbursement to employees of four percent of their IRA premiums, an amount equal to its usual sales commission, would make its payroll-deduction program an ERISA pension…
IRA fee waivers and employer endorsement Unknown
EBSA could not assure that a brokerage employer’s IRA program stayed outside ERISA when it waived usual enrollment and management fees for employees. The proposed payroll-deduction program failed…
Guardrail citations during structural floor slab pours Unknown
An OSHA regional administrator asked which construction provision to cite for guardrails during structural floor slab pours. OSHA agreed that section 1926.500(d)(1) applied during the pouring of…
Easco employee health program covered by ERISA Unknown
EBSA said Easco’s employee health program was an ERISA welfare plan both before and after its funding changed. The employer maintained it for employees and beneficiaries, and the insurance method…
Bank IRA pricing differences and payroll deduction Unknown
EBSA said a bank’s IRA payroll-deduction programs for unrelated employers did not become ERISA pension plans solely because their IRA terms differed from products sold to individuals outside payroll…
1982 amendments to UCX benefits
ETA explained 1982 statutory changes to eligibility and payment of unemployment compensation for ex-servicemembers. ETA still lists the letter as continuing.
Inpak pension reporting and alternative compliance Unknown
EBSA said Inpak’s proposed reporting and disclosure steps appeared to meet the applicable ERISA requirements in form for its 1980 plan year. It declined to certify full compliance without reviewing…
IRA referral fees and broker fiduciary status Unknown
EBSA said a referral fee became unconditional when a new IRA came into existence, even if the bank paid it earlier. It declined to clear several scenarios because a broker’s fiduciary status…
Thrift-company savings instruments under ERISA Unknown
EBSA treated Fireside Thrift as a bank or similar financial institution under the cited ERISA exemption. Plan investments in its savings instruments could qualify if the remaining conditions,…
Detroit port authority benefit plans governmental Unknown
EBSA said the Detroit/Wayne County Port Authority was a governmental agency or instrumentality, so its employee benefit plans were governmental plans outside ERISA Title I. Groups formed partly by…
Affiliate bank trustee and plan investment fund Unknown
EBSA said retaining an affiliated bank as plan trustee did not itself violate the cited self-dealing rules, and service or collective-fund exemptions could apply if their conditions were met.…
Preventing improper UI payments to undocumented aliens Unknown
ETA gave state agencies procedures for detecting and preventing unemployment benefit payments that federal law barred for certain noncitizens. Current status is unconfirmed.
Photo-grey safety lenses in changing light Unknown
A senator relayed a company's question about photo-grey safety lenses. OSHA said the lenses were unsuitable for indoor work with changing light, but could be used where light stayed fairly constant…
SEP disclosure method with withdrawal restrictions Unknown
EBSA said employers using Foothill Thrift SEP accounts could use the cited alternative reporting and disclosure method despite certificate withdrawal limits if all conditions were met. Any…
Fire hose factory tests and annual inspections
A utility asked how OSHA’s fire hose rule applied to factory testing and later maintenance. OSHA said a factory acceptance test with couplings attached satisfied the cited requirement. The rule did…
1982 tax act changes to unemployment programs
ETA explained Tax Equity and Fiscal Responsibility Act changes to extended benefits, state unemployment loans, and federal unemployment taxes. ETA still lists the letter as continuing.
Ford salaried income security as welfare plan Unknown
EBSA said Ford’s salaried income security program was an ERISA welfare plan and did not appear to be a pension plan because it did not defer pay to termination or provide retirement income on the…
Chiropractors insurance trust outside ERISA plan status Unknown
EBSA said the chiropractic associations did not themselves maintain an ERISA welfare plan through the health trust because employer members did not control them. An individual employer adopting the…
Short-period work prospects for extended benefits Unknown
ETA explained that states may interpret the “reasonably short period” for an extended-benefit claimant’s prospects of returning to customary work as longer than four weeks. Current status is unconfirmed.
Maryland blind-industry pensions governmental Unknown
EBSA said Blind Industries and Services of Maryland was a state agency or instrumentality, making its employee pension plans governmental plans outside ERISA Title I. A state rehabilitation…
Small-business group trust outside ERISA plan status Unknown
EBSA said the Eastern Small Business Federation trust was not itself a single ERISA welfare plan because participating employer-members did not control the trust, which was controlled by the…
Wage continuation during sickness outside ERISA Unknown
EBSA said the proposed wage continuation policies paid from each employer’s general assets for illness or injury absences, lasting up to 13 to 39 weeks, were payroll practices outside ERISA…
Sawdust on workplace floors Unknown
A congressman asked about sawdust used on a workplace floor. OSHA said its walking surface rule required clean, orderly, sanitary floors but did not prohibit sawdust when it created no employee…
Contact lenses during welding
An OSHA region asked whether workers could wear contact lenses while welding. OSHA said contact lenses were acceptable when workers used required eye protection, unless the process produced gas or…
Vanguard affiliate services and self-dealing Unknown
EBSA said a trust company’s appointment of Vanguard Group to provide services would not itself be prohibited self-dealing where the trustee did not use plan-asset authority for its own or Vanguard’s…
Sisters of Mercy welfare-plan audit exemption denied Unknown
EBSA denied an audit exemption for three Sisters of Mercy welfare plans. The trust was not an employee organization for the cited limited exemption, and the employer maintained the plans; a proposed…
IRA payroll materials and employer endorsement Unknown
EBSA addressed an insurer’s IRA payroll-deduction program and said employer involvement such as a name or logo on materials would not alone create an ERISA plan if the regulatory conditions were…
How this guidance is useful
- See how the agency reads the law: An opinion letter shows how a state labor agency actually applied wage-and-hour law to a real employer's or worker's situation.
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Browse guidance by state
This library covers 8 states plus federal guidance so far. Every document is checked against the agency's official source before it is published, so states are added as their labor departments' guidance is verified, not all at once. If your state is not listed yet, its labor department's own site is the place to check.