29 U.S.C. § 630 — Definitions

(a) “Person” means one or more individuals, partnerships, associations, labor organizations, corporations, business trusts, legal representatives, or organized groups of people.
(b) “Employer” means a person in an industry affecting commerce who has 20 or more employees on each working day in 20 or more calendar weeks of the current or preceding calendar year. Before June 30, 1968, an employer with fewer than 50 employees was not considered an employer. The term also includes an agent of that person; a State or a political subdivision of a State, and any agency or instrumentality of a State or political subdivision; and an interstate agency. It does not include the United States or a corporation wholly owned by the Government of the United States.
(c) “Employment agency” means a person who regularly undertakes, with or without compensation, to obtain employees for an employer. It includes that person’s agent, but not an agency of the United States.
(d) “Labor organization” means a labor organization engaged in an industry affecting commerce and any agent of that organization. It includes any organization of any kind, agency, employee representation committee, group, association, or plan engaged in that industry in which employees participate and that exists, in whole or in part, to deal with employers about grievances, labor disputes, wages, pay rates, hours, or other terms or conditions of employment. It also includes a conference, general committee, joint or system board, or joint council engaged in that industry that is subordinate to a national or international labor organization.
(e) A labor organization is considered engaged in an industry affecting commerce if it either (1) maintains or operates a hiring hall or hiring office that obtains employees for an employer or obtains opportunities for employees to work for an employer; or (2) has 50 or more members before July 1, 1968, or 25 or more members on or after that date. For a labor organization made up of other labor organizations or their representatives, this number may instead be based on the combined membership of those other labor organizations. In addition, the labor organization must meet one of these conditions: (1) it is the certified representative of employees under the National Labor Relations Act or the Railway Labor Act; (2) although not certified, it is a national or international labor organization, or a local labor organization recognized or acting as the representative of employees of employers in an industry affecting commerce; (3) it has chartered a local labor organization or subsidiary body that represents or actively seeks to represent those employees; (4) a labor organization representing or actively seeking to represent those employees chartered it as the local or subordinate body through which those employees may become members of or affiliated with that labor organization; or (5) it is a subordinate conference, general committee, joint or system board, or joint council of a national or international labor organization that includes a labor organization covered by an earlier paragraph of this subsection.
(f) “Employee” means an individual employed by an employer. It does not include a person elected to public office in a State or political subdivision of a State by its qualified voters; a person chosen by that officer for the officer’s personal staff; or an appointee at the policymaking level or an immediate adviser concerning the constitutional or legal powers of the office. The exclusion does not include employees subject to the civil-service laws of a State government, governmental agency, or political subdivision. “Employee” includes a United States citizen employed by an employer at a workplace in a foreign country.
(g) “Commerce” means trade, traffic, commerce, transportation, transmission, or communication among the several States; between a State and a place outside the State; within the District of Columbia or a possession of the United States; or between points in the same State through a point outside that State.
(h) “Industry affecting commerce” means an activity, business, or industry in commerce, or one in which a labor dispute would hinder or obstruct commerce or its free flow. It includes an activity or industry “affecting commerce” under the Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure Act of 1959. This section does not otherwise define the quoted term “affecting commerce.”
(i) “State” includes a State of the United States, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, American Samoa, Guam, Wake Island, the Canal Zone, and Outer Continental Shelf lands defined in the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act.
(j) “Firefighter” means an employee whose job duties are mainly to perform work directly connected with controlling and extinguishing fires or maintaining and using firefighting apparatus and equipment. It includes an employee doing this work who is transferred to a supervisory or administrative position.
(k) “Law enforcement officer” means an employee whose job duties are mainly to investigate, apprehend, or detain people suspected or convicted of offenses against a State’s criminal laws. It includes an employee doing this work who is transferred to a supervisory or administrative position. For this subsection, “detention” includes guarding people incarcerated in any penal institution. This section does not define “penal institution.”
(l) “Compensation, terms, conditions, or privileges of employment” includes all employee benefits, including benefits provided under a genuine employee-benefit plan. This section does not define “bona fide” or “genuine.”