Of all the anti-discrimination laws, none confuses employers more than the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), especially when it comes to hiring. Employers want to make sure that the person they hire can actually perform the job, but often aren't sure how to explore this issue without running afoul of the law.

Federal law requires employers to pay all employees a minimum hourly wage. Each state is also free to impose its own minimum wage (and many do). In addition, some cities and counties have passed "living wage" laws, which may set an even higher minimum wage. Some of these laws apply only to companies that have contracts to do business with the local government; others apply more generally to all employers in the area. As an employer, you must pay whichever amount is highest -- federal, state, or local.

Federal and state laws require most employers to pay overtime. The overtime premium is 50% of the employee's usual hourly wage. This means an employee who works overtime must be paid "time and a half" -- the employee's usual hourly wage plus the 50% overtime premium -- for every overtime hour worked.

These laws contain many exceptions, so not all employees are entitled to overtime. Employees who are eligible for overtime are called “non-exempt” employees, and those who are not eligible for overtime are called “exempt” employees.

Some employers adopt a policy of giving their employees compensatory, or "comp," time -- an hour off at some later date for every extra hour worked -- instead of paying them overtime. But these policies are generally illegal under federal law, at least for private employers (state and local governments can offer comp time, in certain circumstances).

Independent adoptions are attractive to birth parents and prospective adoptive parents because they allow the people involved to keep control over the adoption process. However, there are risks and costs involved in independent adoptions that don't come with agency adoptions, as well as more work for the adoptive parents.

There are special issues for lesbian and gay singles and couples who want to adopt or who are raising children. This article addresses adoption for LGBT singles and couples, as well as parenting and the rights of second parents.

Grandparents, stepparents, and other caretakers often form deep and loving attachments with the children in their lives. Yet when death, divorce, or estrangement tears families apart, these caretakers may find themselves without any legal right to maintain contact with the children they love.

In some states, any of these presumptions of paternity is considered conclusive, which means it cannot be disproven, even with contradictory blood tests. In Michael H. v. Gerald D., 491 U.S. 110 (1989), the U.S. Supreme Court upheld California's presumed father statute as a rational method of protecting the integrity of the family against challenges based on the due process rights of the father and the child.

To qualify as child support, payments must be designated as child support in a divorce or separation agreement. If the agreement lumps the payments together as "family support" or "alimony," or doesn’t otherwise designate a specific portion of each payment as child support, none of the payment will be considered child support for tax purposes.