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In this series, we will explore some of the ways states vary from one another in their employment laws.
For people who sit at a desk all day, the right to sit down at work may be taken for granted. However, for many jobs that involve frequent standing or moving around, sitting down can be seen as a luxury. Employee requests to sit often come in the form of disability accommodation requests, and many employers restrict the ability to sit to those with medical restrictions requiring seats. However, there are seven states that require employers to provide seats for a significantly broader group of employees.
Massachusetts law allows practically all employees to sit while working if their jobs allow for it, and allows all employees to sit when they are not performing duties:
Employers shall provide suitable seats for the use of their employees and shall permit such employees to use such seats whenever they are not necessarily engaged in the active duties of their employment, and shall also provide for their use and permit them to use suitable seats while at work, except when the work cannot properly be performed in a sitting position or when such seats may reasonably be expected to result in an unsafe or hazardous working condition. Whoever violates this section shall be punished by a fine of not less than fifty nor more than two hundred dollars.
California law states that "[w]hen the nature of the work reasonably permits the use of seats, suitable seats shall be provided for employees working on or at a machine." Florida, a state not typically known for its pro-employee laws, requires seats to be provided for employees in stores who are not required to be on their feet for certain duties or are not engaged in active work. Montana, New Jersey, Oregon and Wisconsin have similar seating laws.
Interestingly, significantly more states had seating laws between the 1900s and 1980s. However, those laws applied only to women workers. By the 1980s, many states repealed these laws, and most of the states that maintained their seating laws amended them to be gender-neutral. Utah and the District of Columbia amended their seating laws to be gender-neutral, but subsequently repealed them.
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