Managing Human Resources, Eight Edition

Why Understanding the Legal Environment Is Important

Understanding and complying with HR law is important for three reasons. It helps you to do the right thing, realize the limitations of your firm’s HR and legal departments, and minimize your firm’s potential liability.

Doing the Right Thing

First and foremost, compliance with the law is important because it is the right thing to do. Although you may disagree with the specific applications of some of the laws we discuss, the primary requirement of all these laws is to mandate good management practice. The earliest of the EEO laws requires that male and female employees who do the same job for the same organization receive the same pay. This is the right thing to do. A more recent EEO law requires ...