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Employment protection laws are the set of rules and regulations that regulate the dismissal of workers. Employment protection laws come into play whenever an employer fires or lays off a worker. Of the countries belonging to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries, the United States has the least strict employment protection laws. In spite of this, the United States does have a number of employment protection laws on the books.

The Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act (USERRA) was passed in 1994. The law is employment protection legislation aimed at protecting individuals who serve or have served in the U.S. Armed Forces, Reserves, National Guard or any other one of the "uniformed services." The various provisions of the law are designed to benefit the aforementioned individuals in three main ways.

First, USERRA mandates that former or current service members are to not be disadvantaged in their civilian careers as a result of their service. Second, USERRA mandates that service members be reemployed by their civilian employers as soon as they return from duty. Third, USERRA outlaws discrimination on the basis of past, present or future service in the military. In effect, USERRA prevents employers from terminating employees on the basis of their service in the military.

The Employee Polygraph Protection Act was passed in 1988. The Polygraph Protection Act makes it unlawful for an employer to require an employee to submit to a lie detector test. Moreover, the law makes it unlawful for an employer to terminate the employment of a worker on the basis of the results of a lie detector test. The law also makes it illegal for an employer to take any disciplinary action against an employee who exercises rights guaranteed by the law.