Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Senator Patrick Leahy, inserted text into the legislative history of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act¹ that aptly described the level of whistleblower protections afforded employees throughout the United States. Senator Leahy wrote as follows: “[E]mployees who report fraud are subject to the patchwork and vagaries of current state laws, even though most publicly traded companies do business nationwide. Thus, a whistleblowing employee in one state may be far more vulnerable to retaliation than a fellow employee in another state who takes the same actions.”²

While the Sarbanes-Oxley Act provides significant whistleblower protections to employees of publicly traded companies, private and public sector employees remain subject to the “patchwork and vagaries” of various state and federal whistleblower laws. There are at least 35 federal statutes that contain whistleblower protections, which are generally enforced by the U.S. Department of Labor. In Pennsylvania, employees may also enjoy protections under the Pennsylvania Whistleblower Law.3 The subject matter of these laws varies significantly, but their underlying purpose is constant: i.e., to protect employees who endeavor to impede, report, or testify about employer action that is illegal, injurious, or violative of specified public policies.

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