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.
No documents match your search
Try different keywords or clear a filter.
Temporary lighting strings with non-heavy-duty cord
An electrical maker asked about temporary construction lighting strings that lacked heavy-duty cord. OSHA said listed manufactured strings installed under their listing instructions and kept safe…
Salary continuance as a payroll practice Unknown
The Labor Department said The Continental Corporation’s salary continuance for medical absences, paid from employer general assets and capped at normal pay, was a payroll practice outside ERISA…
General safety requirements for hand tools
A requester asked about OSHA requirements for hand tools. OSHA said it did not prescribe general tool dimensions, but employers had to keep tools and equipment in a safe condition. It also…
Illinois general interest-rate law and plan loans Unknown
The Labor Department said ERISA preempted Illinois’s general interest-rate ceiling to the extent the statute applied to loans made by covered employee benefit plans. It found the law was a broad…
Extended-benefit work-test interpretation changes
ETA revised and clarified its interpretation of the federal extended-benefit work test in the 1980 Omnibus Reconciliation Act. ETA still lists the letter as continuing.
Dock securing under powered industrial truck rules
A dock equipment company asked about truck and trailer restraint during loading. OSHA said the powered industrial truck rule covered several truck types, and securing a trailer to the dock could be…
Meals and lodging as FUTA wages after Rowan Unknown
ETA explained the Supreme Court’s Rowan decision on whether employer-provided meals and lodging count as wages under federal unemployment tax law. Current status is unconfirmed.
Blasting mats and drilling near charged holes
An OSHA region asked about construction blasting distances. OSHA said equipment such as a backhoe placing blasting mats was not covered by the cited 50-foot equipment restriction. It distinguished…
Competent persons for construction crane inspections Unknown
A construction manager asked whether employees inspecting cranes needed an ANSI Level II rating. OSHA said its rules required competent persons for pre-use and annual inspections, but did not…
Third-class mailing of pension plan disclosures Unknown
The Labor Department said the Teamsters pension fund could mail required disclosures by second or third class without guaranteed return and forwarding postage if it requested address corrections and…
ESOP money purchase plan and employer securities Unknown
The Labor Department said a qualified money purchase plan forming part of an employee stock ownership plan would be an eligible individual account plan for the cited ERISA employer-securities limit.…
Hospital pension loan to a medical center Unknown
The Labor Department said Lakeland Medical Center was not a party in interest to the hospital’s pension plan on the facts supplied. It declined to decide whether a proposed plan loan to the center…
When fire detection and employee alarm rules apply
An insurer asked when OSHA’s fire detection and employee alarm rules applied. OSHA said the cited provisions applied to systems installed to meet particular OSHA standards, and gave examples of…
Teamsters pension escrow account outside ERISA Unknown
The Labor Department said an escrow account established to hold employer contributions for possible entry into a Teamsters pension plan was not itself an ERISA welfare or pension plan. It did not…
Employer contribution of real estate option to pension plan Unknown
The Labor Department said an employer’s contribution of a condominium purchase option to satisfy its defined-benefit plan funding obligation was a prohibited sale or exchange with a party in…
Steel band guardrails at concrete slab edges Unknown
A concrete contractor asked whether steel bands could protect workers at building slab edges. OSHA said ordinary bands posed an edge hazard, but a flagged, edge-protected, strong, and regularly…
Transit plan reporting after public acquisition Unknown
The Labor Department said a midyear sale of two transit companies to a state entity did not alone accelerate their plans’ reporting deadlines. Former administrative committee members generally were…
Holiday Inn health plans and Florida insurance review Unknown
The Labor Department said seven individually established Holiday Inn benefit plans were ERISA welfare plans and could not be deemed insurers under Florida insurance law. It could not decide whether…
Temporary worker housing beyond migrant agriculture
An OSHA region asked whether the temporary labor camp rule was limited to migrant farmworkers. OSHA said the rule applied to employer-provided temporary job housing for workers away from a permanent…
Legal-services plans, state insurance law, and pooled assets Unknown
The Labor Department said providing services to ERISA plans did not by itself preempt state regulation of the service provider; the particular law and insurance exception mattered. Separate employer…
Credit union prepaid legal-services plan Unknown
The Labor Department treated the N&W Employees Credit Union as an employee organization and its prepaid legal-services program as an ERISA welfare plan. The provider’s participation alone did not…
Phoenix Steel annuity plan after final insurance payment Unknown
The Labor Department said Phoenix Steel’s old pension plan would be outside ERISA if, after the Bank waived its contract rights, annuitants could choose on their own to enforce benefits against the…
Kimberly-Clark employee fund and audit requirement Unknown
The Labor Department said the Munising Mill employees’ benefit fund was an ERISA welfare plan and ordinarily needed an independent accountant’s audit. It was considering a specific exemption,…
Air-supplied welding helmets and breathing-air quality
A helmet maker asked whether a cooling-air welding helmet could be used wherever standard helmets were allowed. OSHA said the supplied air had to meet Grade D breathing-air quality and the helmet…
Milk vendors pension plan and ERISA coverage Unknown
The Labor Department said a milk-vendor pension plan did not appear covered by ERISA Title I on the limited material supplied because the vendors did not appear to be employees of the milk…
Canadian mine pension plan outside ERISA Unknown
Based on the requester's account that the covered employees were Canadian residents and not U.S. citizens, and that the relevant operations were in Canada, the Labor Department said the Wabush Mines…
Rooftop fall protection for powered platform access Unknown
An engineer asked about protection on roofs where workers access powered platforms. OSHA said it would accept a three-foot guardrail in the described locations and an adequately anchored permanent…
Audible warning horns on construction equipment
A contractor asked whether older construction equipment was exempt from horn requirements. OSHA said motor vehicles and bidirectional equipment such as bulldozers and loaders needed operable audible…
Rollover IRA loan to owner’s company Unknown
The Labor Department said an IRA established from a former employer’s plan distribution met two regulatory conditions for being outside ERISA pension-plan status. A loan from the IRA to the owner’s…
Firefighters association group life insurance Unknown
The Labor Department treated a Nashville-area government firefighters association as an employee organization under ERISA. It declined to decide whether the association endorsed a voluntary group…
Deferred vacation benefits as welfare plan Unknown
The Labor Department said American Motors’ proposed deferred vacation benefit arrangement appeared to satisfy its severance-pay exclusion from ERISA pension-plan status, assuming reasonable…
Manual fire alarms and employee emergency plans
An employer asked about supervised manual fire alarms. OSHA said there was no general requirement to install a manual fire alarm, but a system installed for an emergency plan had to meet applicable…
Height, bracing, and rails on mobile scaffold towers Unknown
A scaffold manufacturer asked how construction rules applied to a mobile tower. OSHA said the photographed unit should be treated as one tower and meet the then-current height-to-base ratio,…
Low pitched roof perimeter rule and built-up roofing Unknown
An OSHA regional office asked when its low-pitched roof perimeter rule applied. OSHA said the then-current rule addressed built-up roofing work, while other roofing tasks could fall under other fall…
Scholarship fund participants and reporting Unknown
The Labor Department said individuals meeting the Arthur J. Faggion Scholarship Fund's eligibility criteria were participants, and their eligible children were beneficiaries. Those criteria included…
Electrical grounding, clearances, and grain dust classifications
An OSHA region asked six questions about the revised general-industry electrical rules. OSHA explained when grounding-type receptacles and terminals were required, how limited exposed live parts and…
Alaska public employees legal plan status Unknown
The Labor Department said the Alaska Public Employees Legal Fund was a governmental plan outside ERISA Title I, despite its collective bargaining origin and joint administration. The conclusion…
Thomas decision on religious voluntary quits Unknown
ETA explained the Supreme Court’s Thomas decision and its implications for unemployment benefits after a worker quits for religious reasons. Current status is unconfirmed.
Gratuitous death benefit from pension assets Unknown
The Labor Department said paying a fund manager’s widow a gratuitous death benefit from pension assets would violate ERISA’s exclusive-purpose duties because she was not a plan beneficiary and the…
Treadle-activated security locks on exit doors
A company asked whether a security door opened by a treadle pad met the exit route rule. OSHA said the system appeared acceptable if the pad released the door and exit remained possible during power…
Petroleum landmen association insurance programs Unknown
The Labor Department said insurance programs offered by the American Association of Petroleum Landmen were not themselves ERISA welfare plans because the association was neither an employee…
Arbitrator fiduciary status and indemnification Unknown
The Labor Department said an arbitrator deciding plan benefit claims could be an ERISA fiduciary, but to the extent the described arbitration concerned only plan design in collective bargaining, it…
Training trust as ERISA welfare plan Unknown
The Labor Department said a collectively bargained training trust was an ERISA welfare plan, even though it funded other entities to conduct training. Eligible workers were participants, and the…
Longshore job-security funding program Unknown
The Labor Department said a collectively bargained program that collected carrier assessments to cover shortfalls in local longshore benefit plans was not itself an ERISA benefit plan because…
Iowa bankers benefit-plan reporting Unknown
The Labor Department could not determine whether the Iowa Bankers Benefit Plan was a single ERISA plan without more facts about the sponsoring bank group. If member banks had separate plans, each…
Employer stock contribution and repurchase Unknown
The Labor Department found a company profit-sharing plan was an eligible individual account plan and that its employer stock was qualifying securities. A proposed company repurchase could meet an…
ANSI press brake standard as guarding guidance Unknown
An ANSI committee member asked how OSHA used its press brake standard. OSHA said the general machine guarding rule governed mechanical power press brakes and that it used ANSI B11.3 and a later…
Retention and access to accident-related medical X-rays
An OSHA regional memo circulated an April 24 interpretation about medical X-rays. It said accident-only bone films could be excluded from long-term retention under stated conditions, while their…
Medical records held by outside healthcare contractors
A company asked whether its duties under the medical records access rule extended to physical examinations and treatment by outside providers. OSHA said they did: employers remained responsible for…
Crane operator physical qualification requirements Unknown
A union asked whether physical qualification provisions in ANSI crane and derrick standards referenced by OSHA's construction rule applied to equipment operators. OSHA said those incorporated…
Hospital plan fiduciaries serving on insurer board Unknown
The Labor Department said a hospital plan fiduciary’s service on a Blue Cross board was not itself a prohibited conflict under the cited ERISA provision. If the insurer’s interests were adverse to…
YWCA savings plan and New York insurance law Unknown
The Labor Department classified a YWCA employees’ savings plan as an ERISA pension plan. Because it was covered and no exclusion appeared to apply, ERISA preempted New York Insurance Law section 200…
Life-insurance program and small-plan reporting relief Unknown
The Labor Department said the described Equitable insurance arrangement satisfied paragraph (b)(2)(ii) of the small-plan reporting rule. It did not determine whether the plans satisfied every…
Retention of accident-related employee X-rays
A medical clinic asked about preserving worker medical records. OSHA said employees exposed to toxic substances or harmful physical agents generally had medical records retained for employment plus…
Steel truss work and perimeter fall protection Unknown
A lawyer sought a variance for perimeter netting during steel truss work. OSHA discussed static lines, ladder access, and the limited circumstances in which initial steel connectors might work…
Early redemption penalty on bank plan deposits Unknown
The Labor Department said an ERISA exemption could cover bank-rule penalties when a bank-sponsored plan redeemed its certificates of deposit early. The exemption did not excuse fiduciary prudence,…
Sun retirement plan employer-security limits Unknown
The Labor Department treated Sun’s retirement arrangement as one plan for ERISA employer-securities limits, rather than separate plans for each participating corporate employer. It relied on the…
California dental program outside ERISA plan status Unknown
The Labor Department said Peoples Dental and its dental program were not ERISA welfare plans because the sponsoring association was neither an employee organization nor an employer and no employer…
Retiree travel passes outside ERISA coverage Unknown
The Labor Department said Eastern Airlines’ reduced-rate travel program for retirees was not an ERISA welfare plan because travel discounts were not listed benefits, and did not appear to be a…
Guarding of nonwoven abrasive wheels
An OSHA office asked for testing of varied nonwoven abrasive wheels before issuing final product-wide guidance. Its preliminary analysis said the abrasive wheel guard rule could apply when a…
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.
- Check the status before relying: Every page shows whether the document is still active or has been superseded, rescinded, or withdrawn, and when that status was last verified.
- Guidance, not law: These documents explain the agency's position but bind no court, and the agency can change its view. The official document linked on every page is the authoritative source.
- Research across states: Compare how different states treat the same question, from overtime and travel time to tips and independent-contractor status.
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.