Detroit Employment Law Blog

Depending on the company and position, your new employer may not require you to sign a contract. While this sounds like a good thing, as you don't have to deal with additional paperwork, you'll want to think twice before agreeing.

An employment contract goes a long way in protecting you as an employee. Here's how:

• Outlines the terms and conditions of your employment: For example, if you are illegally terminated in the future, your employment contract can help when taking legal action against your former employer.
• Compensation details: There's nothing worse than taking a job with the idea that you'll earn a specific amount of money, just to find that this isn't the case. With an employment contract in place, your employer won't be able to alter your compensation without consent at a later date.
• Overview of benefits: A comprehensive employment contract provides an overview of the benefits you'll receive. This can include health insurance, life insurance, disability insurance, access to a retirement plan, paid time off and sick days.

Many victims of workplace discrimination in the Detroit region believe that they will never find a satisfactory solution. If you are one of these victims and have run out of hope, information released by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) may rekindle your faith in the system.

The EEOC released a report earlier this year filled with workplace discrimination statistics for the fiscal year 2018. The report shows that the EEOC found a resolution for more 91,000 charges of occupational discrimination. Below you will find several more notable statistics from the report involving Michigan victims.

• There were 2,473 workplace discrimination charges in 2018
• Overall, victims of discrimination won financial damages totaling over $505 million
• The number of retaliation charges stands at 39,469
• The number of sex discrimination charges reached almost 25,000
• Discrimination charges centered on religion totaled 2,859
• The number of age discrimination charges stands at 16,911
• The EEOC helped victims of sexual harassment acquire a total of $56.6 million
• Race-related workplace discrimination charges totaled 24,600

When companies break the law, disclosure of wrongdoing often falls on the shoulders of employees.

These people are called whistleblowers, and many of them put their careers at risk when they bring illegal activity to light. There are laws, however, that protect employees from retaliation.

There's nothing more satisfying than receiving an offer of employment. You put a lot of work into the job-search process, so you should be proud of yourself.

Before you sign an employment contract, read through it several times. While doing so, make note of any details you'd like to negotiate into the contract.