Indianapolis Employment Lawyers

Laws protecting employees span a broad range of situations. Here’s a look at some of the key provisions that you might want to know. However, it’s always best to talk to a lawyer about a specific situation that comes up.

Unlike some major cities, Indianapolis doesn’t have its own minimum wage law for private-sector employers. However, most businesses are covered by the federal Fair Labor Standards Act, which is enforced by the Wage and Hour Division of the U.S. Department of Labor. This law generally requires a minimum wage of $7.25 per hour. Businesses with tipped employees only need to pay them $2.13 per hour if their tips account for the difference.

The FLSA also requires employers to pay overtime at one and half times an employee’s regular rate of pay for any hours that they work beyond 40 hours in a workweek. Certain types of employees are exempt from minimum wage and overtime protections, such as outside sales employees and people in executive, administrative, or professional roles.

Businesses that aren’t covered by the FLSA may be covered by the Indiana minimum wage law if they have two or more employees. The state law has the same minimum wage and overtime rules as the FLSA. It’s enforced by the Wage and Hour Division of the Indiana Department of Labor. Also like the FLSA, the state law exempts various types of employees.

Compensable time often extends beyond time spent actively doing job tasks. For example, rest breaks between five and 20 minutes are considered compensable time under the FLSA. An employee also must be paid for time spent in job-related training programs and time when they’re on call at their workplace. They might even need to be paid for on-call time away from the workplace, depending on how much the employer restricts their activities during that time. If an employee continues working after the end of their shift with the permission of their employer, this is also considered compensable time. Work-related travel is often compensable time, although this doesn’t include the time that an employee spends commuting to their workplace.

Local, state, and federal laws protect many employees in Indianapolis from discrimination based on certain protected traits. Discrimination may take a wide range of forms, some more subtle than others. Examples include:

• Firing an employee, or refusing to hire a job applicant
• Demoting or refusing to promote an employee
• Workplace harassment that rises to a certain level
• Providing less favorable work assignments
• Limiting access to training opportunities
• Withholding employment benefits
• Paying an employee with a protected trait less than another employee without the same trait for doing the same work

The Indianapolis anti-discrimination ordinance applies to businesses with six or more employees. Protected traits under the ordinance include race, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, religion, color, national origin or ancestry, disability, age, and military service veteran status. The Indianapolis Office of Equal Opportunity enforces the law. You’ll need to file a complaint within 180 days of what you think was discrimination.

Indiana has an anti-discrimination law called the Indiana Civil Rights Act, which similarly applies to businesses with six or more employees. Protected traits under the Civil Rights Act include race, religion, color, sex, disability, national origin, ancestry, and status as a veteran. The Indiana Civil Rights Commission enforces this law. As with the Indianapolis ordinance, you have 180 days to file a complaint of alleged discrimination.

Indiana also has a separate law prohibiting age discrimination, which applies to employers of all sizes. (However, it doesn’t apply to businesses covered by the federal ADEA, discussed further below.) The age discrimination law prohibits dismissing or refusing to hire or rehire someone because of their age if they’re between 40 and 75 years old. The Indiana Department of Labor enforces this law.

Employees in Indianapolis also have important protections under several federal laws. These include Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which covers employers with 15 or more employees. It prohibits discrimination in the workplace based on race, color, religion, sex, and national origin. “Sex” includes pregnancy, and the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that it covers sexual orientation and gender identity as well. Meanwhile, the Americans With Disabilities Act protects employees with qualifying disabilities from discrimination by businesses with 15 or more employees. The Age Discrimination in Employment Act shields employees who are 40 or older from discrimination by businesses with 20 or more employees. The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission enforces these laws.

Discrimination at work includes sexual harassment. These claims tend to take two forms. Quid pro quo harassment occurs when a supervisor or someone else who has the authority to make job-related decisions tells an employee that they’ll receive an employment benefit (or avoid a negative employment action) if they do something sexual. For example, an executive might tell their secretary that they’ll get the raise that they wanted if they sleep with the executive on a business trip.

The other main type of sexual harassment is called a hostile work environment. This can arise from physical conduct or verbal or written statements by coworkers, clients, or customers as well as supervisors. Harassment rises to the level of a hostile work environment when it creates an atmosphere that would be intimidating, offensive, or hostile to a reasonable person in the employee’s position. The behavior needs to be severe or pervasive, but it doesn’t need to be both. In other words, an employee might have a claim based on an accumulation of several incidents even if each of them wouldn’t be enough on its own to create a hostile work environment.

People often think of sexual harassment as perpetrated by men against women. However, both the perpetrator and the targeted employee can be any gender or sexual orientation.

If an employee develops a serious health condition or encounters certain family needs, they may want to know about their rights to take time off from work. The federal Family and Medical Leave Act is the main law protecting Indianapolis employees. It’s enforced by the Wage and Hour Division of the U.S. Department of Labor.

Private-sector employers with 50 or more employees are generally covered by the FMLA. It provides up to 12 weeks of unpaid but job-protected leave during a 12-month period. An employee may be eligible for FMLA leave if they:

• Have worked for the employer for at least 12 months
• Have accumulated at least 1,250 hours of service during the 12 months before the leave
• Work in a place where the employer has 50 or more employees within 75 miles

You can use this leave to address a serious health condition that prevents you from working, or to care for a spouse, child, or parent who has a serious health condition. In addition, you can use FMLA leave to bond with a new child who has entered your family through birth, adoption, or foster care placement. The law also covers leave for certain reasons involving the foreign deployment of a family member in the armed forces. One distinctive provision of the FMLA provides up to 26 weeks of leave in a 12-month period if you need to care for a qualifying family member who is (or was recently) in the military and has a serious injury or illness.

Unlike some states, Indiana doesn’t have a generally applicable family and medical leave law. It does have a law providing for military family leave. Like the FMLA, it generally applies to employers with at least 50 employees. The employee must have been employed by a covered employer for at least 12 months and have worked for at least 1,500 hours during the 12 months before taking the leave. They can take up to 10 days of unpaid leave per year for certain reasons when their spouse, child, grandchild, parent, or sibling is ordered to active duty. You can file a lawsuit if an employer has violated your rights under this law.

Indiana follows a rule called “at-will employment,” which usually allows a business to fire an employee without having a particular reason. The employee also has a right to quit without having a particular reason. Like most general principles, though, the “at-will employment” rule has some exceptions. One of the most notable exceptions is that a business can’t fire an employee based on a trait protected by an anti-discrimination law that applies to the business. A business also can’t terminate someone’s employment in retaliation for doing something that the law protects, such as helping an investigation of discrimination or harassment, serving on a jury, or pursuing workers’ compensation benefits. (However, an employer can fire an employee who engaged in a protected activity if the employer has a different reason for the termination.)

Another significant exception to at-will employment involves employment contracts. Sometimes these agreements limit the reasons for an employer to terminate the relationship. An employee could bring a breach of contract claim if they get fired for a reason that’s not allowed by the contract.

If you get injured on the job or develop an occupational disease, you may be able to get benefits through the Workers’ Compensation Board of Indiana. You can get workers’ compensation without needing to prove that anyone was at fault for your injury or illness. In exchange, you can’t sue your employer for damages in a personal injury lawsuit. This doesn’t prevent you from suing a third party, though, such as a careless driver who wasn’t a coworker or a manufacturer of defective equipment that wasn’t your employer. A third-party personal injury lawsuit could allow you to get damages that aren’t available through workers’ compensation, like compensation for pain and suffering.

You should report an accident on the job as soon as possible. Waiting more than 30 days to tell your employer could put your claim at risk. If you have a dispute with your employer, you generally have two years to file an Application for Adjustment of Claim with the Board. If you can’t return to work for more than seven days, you’ll receive weekly income benefits in addition to reimbursement for your medical costs. Once you’ve been out for 21 days, you’ll get compensated for the first week that you missed due to your injury or illness. If you’re completely unable to work, you’ll get two-thirds of your average weekly wage over the last 52 weeks, up to a certain cap. If you’re able to work in a reduced capacity, you’ll get two-thirds of the difference between your average weekly wage and your weekly wage after the injury, again up to a cap.

An Indiana resident who loses their job may be able to get unemployment benefits through the Indiana Department of Workforce Development. To be eligible for these benefits, you must have received a certain amount of wages during a time period called the “base period.” This usually covers the first four of the last five full calendar quarters before you file your application. You also must be unemployed through no fault of your own. If you quit voluntarily, you may qualify for benefits if you had a good reason related to your job, such as harassment or safety problems in your workplace. In addition, you must be able to work, available to work, and actively seeking full-time work.

You generally can receive benefits for up to 26 weeks. Your weekly benefit amount is usually about 47 percent of your average weekly wage during your base period. However, there’s a cap of $390 per week set by Indiana law. In some cases, an employee can receive partial benefits if their employer reduces their work hours, or if they get a part-time job that pays less than their weekly benefit amount.

The Indianapolis Chamber of Commerce lists major employers in the Indianapolis region across various sectors of the economy. These include:

• Advanced manufacturing: Rolls Royce, Allison Transmission, Allegion
• Sports: Indianapolis Motor Speedway
• Life sciences: Eli Lilly, Anthem, Roche Diagnostics, Corteva
• Information technology: Salesforce, Genesys, Appirio
• Logistics: Express Scripts, Amazon, FedEx
• Agribusiness: Elanco, Beck’s Hybrids, AgReliant Genetics

If your employer or former employer is a major corporation, you might be intimidated by the prospect of going up against them in a legal dispute. Getting a lawyer on your side can help level the playing field.

An employee thinking about taking legal action to assert their workplace rights should know the agencies that enforce the laws protecting them. Some key agencies in this field include:

• U.S. Department of Labor, Wage and Hour Division: enforces the federal Fair Labor Standards Act and Family and Medical Leave Act
• Indiana Department of Labor, Wage and Hour Division: enforces the state minimum wage law
• Indianapolis Office of Equal Opportunity: enforces the city anti-discrimination ordinance
• Indiana Civil Rights Commission: enforces the main state anti-discrimination law
• Indiana Department of Labor: enforces the state age discrimination law
• U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission: enforces most federal anti-discrimination laws

The Workers’ Compensation Board of Indiana oversees the system of benefits for job-related injuries and illnesses. The Indiana Department of Workforce Development manages the unemployment benefits system.

At Justia, we’re committed to helping people understand and assert their rights under the law. Our Justia Legal Guides contain an Employment Law Center that describes many of the issues that can come up in the workplace and their legal implications.

If you want input from a lawyer on a certain issue involving your job, you can post a question on the Justia Ask A Lawyer platform. You might get useful responses from employment attorneys in Indianapolis or elsewhere in the state. This isn’t the same as hiring an attorney, though. A lawyer doesn’t create an attorney-client relationship with you by responding to your question.

Once you decide that you need a lawyer to handle a workplace matter, you can explore the listings on this page in the Justia Lawyer Directory. Take some time to sort through your options and think about which lawyers seem like good fits for your situation and needs. You’ll probably want to talk with a few different lawyers before hiring one of them.

Conflicts on the job can be especially stressful because they could put both your career and your mental and physical health at risk. You might feel reluctant to put your hard-earned money toward an attorney, but there’s no substitute for personalized counsel and advocacy from a professional when the stakes are high. Employment laws have many nuances that are hard to spot for an ordinary person. Your lawyer will understand these details and the latest changes in statutes and regulations. They’ll also know how courts have tended to interpret provisions that could affect your case. Sometimes a very small point could end up making the difference.

An attorney also can take the burden off your shoulders by putting together the evidence that you need for your case. If you don’t get legal counsel, this process could be a headache while you’re trying to look for a new job or otherwise deal with the consequences of the employer’s wrongdoing. As settlement negotiations progress, your attorney can make sure that the employer and its defense team don’t take advantage of you. They can evaluate any settlement offer so that you can knowledgeably decide whether to take it. If your case ends up in court or an administrative hearing, you’ll probably have a better chance of presenting your side of the story smoothly and persuasively if a professional does it for you. They’ll know which types of arguments tend to persuade judges and juries.

It’s not always easy to pick out the best attorney for you, even if you get suggestions from others who have hired an employment lawyer before. You’ll probably end up going online to look for lawyers sooner or later. When you do, the Justia Lawyer Directory provides a streamlined way to compare your options.

Employment law consists of many diverse sub-areas, so it’s critical to get a lawyer who has helped employees bring claims like yours. If you think that you got misclassified as an independent contractor, and your employer owes you wages, you’ll want to work with a lawyer who handles wage and hour cases. If you suspect that you keep getting passed over for promotion because you’re a woman, you should look for an attorney who is experienced in sex discrimination claims.

As you explore the website of an attorney or law firm, you’ll probably see some of their most notable results. It’s good to explore their track record, but this doesn’t give you the whole picture. You should also read reviews from former clients, which can provide some insight into what it might be like to work with that attorney. If they have favorable reviews from other attorneys, this could suggest that they’re well-respected by their peers, which could give your case an intangible boost in settlement negotiations or at trial.

It’s important to check out the Indiana State Bar Association to see whether an attorney who interests you has had any disciplinary actions against them. A small slip-up may not warrant crossing them off your list, but you should think twice if an attorney seems to repeatedly get into trouble. Unethical or incompetent representation could undermine an otherwise strong case.

Before you choose your attorney, you should set up consultations with several who interest you. This will allow both the attorney and you to decide whether working together makes sense. No matter how strong an attorney’s credentials look, you need to have the right personality fit to get the most out of the relationship.

1. Do I have a right to a meal break at a job in Indiana?

   No, neither the federal Fair Labor Standards Act nor Indiana state law provides a right to a meal break. Rest breaks also are not required under either federal or state law.

2. Can my employer punish me if I reported what I thought was discrimination, but I was wrong?

   Your employer generally can’t punish you for reporting what you thought was discrimination, even if you were wrong. An employee just needs to have reported the suspected misconduct in good faith. If they didn’t really think that a violation occurred, and they just filed a complaint to harass a coworker or for some other improper purpose, the employer can fire or otherwise punish them.

3. Am I an independent contractor just because my employer says so?

   No. Classification as an independent contractor or an employee generally depends on factors related to the degree of control that a business has over how, when, and where you work. Labeling a worker as an independent contractor doesn’t automatically give them that status. Misclassification can affect wages and benefits, so you should contact an agency like the U.S. Department of Labor or an attorney if you suspect that you might be an employee even though your employer says otherwise.

4. Are there specific rules in Indiana for drug testing employees or job applicants?

   Indiana doesn’t have a specific law governing workplace drug testing. This allows private employers a lot of leeway in setting drug testing policies as long as they don’t violate other laws. (Employers in some industries may need to comply with federal rules specific to that industry.) Any drug testing policy must be applied in a non-discriminatory way.

5. How much will I need to pay an employment lawyer?

   You’ll often pay your lawyer an hourly rate, which means that the fee will depend on the time that your case requires. If it extends deep into litigation, you’ll probably end up paying a greater fee. On the other hand, some employment cases are handled on a contingency basis. This means that the lawyer collects a percentage of the money that they recover for a client as their fee. In some limited situations, a lawyer might charge a flat fee for a simple task. Fee structures can be complex, so you should carefully read the fee provisions of your representation agreement and ask for clarification if needed.