Employment is a contract between two parties, one being the employer and the other being the employee. An employee may be defined as: "A person in the service of another under any contract of hire, express or implied, oral or written, where the employer has the power or right to control and direct the employee in the material details of how the work is to be performed." Black's Law Dictionary page 471 (5th ed. 1979).
In a commercial setting, the employer conceives of a productive activity, generally with the intention of generating a profit, and the employee contributes labour to the enterprise, usually in return for payment of wages. Employment also exists in the public, non-profit and household sectors.
Employer
An employer is a person or institution that hires employees or workers. There are federal rules which determine whether an employee can be classified as exempt or non exempt from over time. Once an employee has been properly classified as exempt or not exempt, an Employer may offer hourly wages or a salary. It is important to note that "salary" does not always mean "exempt from overtime requirements." A properly classified, as exempt, salaried employee is typically not paid more for more hours worked and employers may not deduct wages for items such as lack of work or because the employee worked less hours due to no fault of their own.
Employees, that are not exempt, must be paid overtime. They are most often referred to as "hourly employees." The federal rule for overtime for all hourly employees is: Hourly employees that work more than 40 hours in a set and predetermined 24 hour and 7 consecutive day period must be paid 1.5 times their regular rate of pay for all hours over 40. Under no circumstance may either the employer or employee waive the over time requirement. Additionally, many states have their own individual requirements about when and how over time is to be paid. In general, when there are both federal and state laws that apply to the same employment issue, such as Over Time, the law that treats the employee the best or with most favor, is the law that governs.
Most employment in the U.S is what is known at AT Will. One state, Montana, is not At Will. For all other states, this means that either the employer or the employee may end the relationship "At Will" and with no notice. In the United States there are a growing body of rules, regulations, and laws which affect the AT Will relationship. Therefore, At Will for employers also means that they must not terminate or make an adverse employment decision based on an "unlawful reason."
Employers include individuals hiring a babysitter to governments and businesses which may hire many thousands of employees. In most western societies, governments are the largest single employers but most of the work force is employed in small and medium businesses in the private sector.
Although employees may contribute to an enterprise, the employer maintains control over the productive base of land and capital, and is the entity named in contracts. The employer typically maintains ownership of intellectual property created by an employee within the scope of employment and as a function thereof. These inventions or creations become the property of the employer based on a concept known as "works for hire".
An employers’ relative level of power over employees is dependent upon numerous factors; the most influential being the nature of the employment relationship. The relationship employers share with employees is affected by three significant factors – interests, control and motivation. It is up to employers to effectively manage and balance these factors to ensure a harmonious and productive working relationship.
Interests can be best described as monetary constraints and economic pressures placed on organizations in their pursuit of profits. It covers facets such as labour productivity, wages and the effect of financial markets on businesses.
Wood et al. (2004, p 355) describe control as being either output focused, focusing on desired targets with managers defining, and using, their own methods for reaching targets, or process controls, which specify the manner in which tasks will be achieved (Ibid, p. 357). Employer and managerial control within an organization rests at many levels and has important implications for staff and productivity alike, with control forming the fundamental link between desired outcomes and actual processes. Employers must balance interests such as decreasing wage constraints with a maximization of labour productivity in order to achieve a profitable and productive employment relationship.
Employee
An employee contributes labor and expertise to an endeavour. Employees perform the discrete activity of economic production. Of the three factors of production, employees usually provide the labor.
Specifically, an employee is any person hired by an employer to do a specific "job". In most modern economies, the term employee refers to a specific defined relationship between an individual and a corporation, which differs from those of customer, or client.
Becoming an employee
Most individuals attain the status of employee after a job interview with a company. If the individual is determined to be a satisfactory fit for the position, he or she is given an official offer of employment within that company for a defined starting salary and position. This individual then has all the rights and privileges of an employee, which may include medical benefits and vacation days. The relationship between a corporation and its employees is usually handled through the human resources department, which handles the incorporation and onboarding of new hires, and the disbursement of any benefits which the employee may be entitled, or any grievance
Organizing
Employees can organize into trade unions or labor unions, who represent most of the available work force in a single organization. They utilize their representative power to collectively bargain with the management of companies in order to advance concerns and demands of their membership.
Ending employment
An offer of employment, however, does not guarantee employment for any length of time and each party may terminate the relationship at any time. This is referred to as at-will employment. In some professions it is customary to offer two weeks notice when resigning for a job, but that may not be legally enforceable.
Employment contract
Australia
In Australia there is the controversial Australian Workplace Agreement. In March 2008 a bill was passed in the Austons for workers to be transferred from AWAs into intermediate agreements
Canada
In the Canadian province of Ontario, formal complaints can be brought to the Ministry of Labour (Ontario). In the province of Quebec, grievances can be filed with the Commission des normes du travail.
Pakistan
Pakistan has Contract Labour, Minimum Wage and Provident Funds Acts. Contract labour in Pakistan must be paid minimum wage and certain facilities are to be provided to labour. However, a lot of work has yet to be done to fully implement the Acts.
India
India has Contract Labour, Minimum Wage and Provident Funds Acts. Contract labour in India must be paid minimum wage and certain facilities are to be provided to labour. However, a lot of work has yet to be done to fully implement the Act.
Philippines
In the Philippines, Private employment is regulated under the Labor Code of the Philippines by the Department of Labor and Employment.
United States
In the United States, the standard employment relationship is considered to be at-will meaning that the employer and employee are both free to terminate the employment at any time and for any cause, or for no cause at all. However, if a termination of employment by the employer is deemed unjust by the employee, there can be legal recourse to challenge such a termination. Unjust termination may include termination due to discrimination because of an individual's race, national origin, sex or gender, pregnancy, age, physical or mental disability, religion, or military status. Additional protections apply in some states, for instance in California unjust termination reasons include marital status, ancestry, sexual orientation or medical condition. Despite whatever agreement an employer makes with an employee for the employee's wages, an employee is entitled to certain minimum wages set by the federal government. The states may set their own minimum wage that is higher than the federal government's to ensure a higher standard of living or living wage for their residents. Under the Equal Pay Act of 1963 an employer may not give different wages based on sex alone.
Employees are often contrasted with independent contractors, especially when there is dispute as to the worker's entitlement to have matching taxes paid, workers compensation, and unemployment insurance benefits. However, in September 2009, the court case of Brown v. J. Kaz, Inc. ruled that independent contractors are regarded as employees for the purpose of discrimination laws if they work for the employer on a regular basis, and said employer directs the time, place, and manner of employment.
In non-union work environments, in the United States, unjust termination complaints can be brought to the United States Department of Labor.
Trade Unions in the United States
In unionized work environments in particular, employees who are receiving discipline, up to and including termination of employment can ask for assistance by their shop steward to advocate on behalf of the employee. If an informal negotiation between the shop steward and the company does not resolve the issue, the shop steward may file a grievance, which can result in a resolution within the company, or mediation or arbitration, which are typically funded equally both by the union and the company.
Sweden
According to Swedish law there are three types of employments.
Test employment. The employer hires a person for a test period of max 6 months. The employment can be ended at any time without giving any reason. This type of employment can be offered only once per employer and employee. Usually a time limited or normal employment is offered after a test employment.
Time limited employment. The employer hires a person for a specified time. Usually they are extended for a new period.
Normal employment, which has no time limit (except for retirement etc.).
There are no laws about minimum salary in Sweden. Instead there are agreements between employer organisations and trade unions about minimum salaries, and other employment conditions.
Culture and social considerations
Ideological shifts in demographic eras:
The examples and perspective in this section may not represent a worldwide view of the subject. Please improve this article and discuss the issue on the talk page. (July 2010)
The Depression era
The Depression placed great emphasis on work when it was so scarce that to not work literally meant to starve. Families were separated as men went looking for work wherever it could be found, whatever it was, no matter how menial. Life expectancy in the 1930s was also not as long as the current (2008) expectancies, so the option for a family to "move back in with parents" wasn't worthwhile, as parents either weren't alive, or didn't have the investment environment to have had a "nest egg" to depend on.
World War 2
World War 2 dramatically flipped the supply and demand of both work and labour. Manufacturing of war supplies created plenty of work, but the absence of men due to recruitment opened the floodgates for labour demand that would be met by women and those who could not enlist and fight.
Post World War 2
In the post-World War 2 period, the workplace had changed as women who had reported for work during the war to replace the men who had gone overseas to fight remained in the workplace to a significant extent. While the demand for manufacturing wasn't as high once the war ended, the new optimism and new social phenomena including urban sprawl created new demands for supply that would create new jobs in road-building, real estate development, etc. Work remained high in social value.
Babyboom competition
As the baby boomers left school and started working in the 1970s, the oil crisis and economic lag slowed their engagement in consumerism. As the 1980s dawned, the largest generation were now in their peak employment years, peaking in terms of income, and were now fully engaged in buying, whether homes, or vehicles, or investments for the future.
The sheer number of people in the workforce during this period created heightened competition for work, so that corporations who supplied jobs could be increasingly selective and demanding, and workers would do more and more to keep the job they had. As such, commitment to work became sacrificial, as having a good job and the social status it provided became all-consuming for many. This was the era marked most significantly by the standard introduction of "so, what do you do?"
Baby bust and echo
The baby bust generation, or Generation X, is the smallest of the last 50 years. As baby boomers retire, there are not as many workers to replace them, so corporations have had to become more accommodating in order to attract the best from this cohort, who have enjoyed less competition and more flexibility than previous generations. Terms like "work life balance", "telecommuting and work from home" and flexible benefits packages have developed in part to offer more attractive options for a generation that has more choice[citation needed].
Models of the employment relationship
Scholars conceptualize the employment relationship in various ways. A key assumption is the extent to which the employment relationship necessarily includes conflicts of interests between employers and employees, and the form of such conflicts. In economic theorizing, the labor market mediates all such conflicts such that employers and employees who enter into an employment relationship are assumed to find this arrangement in their own self-interest. In human resource management theorizing, employers and employees are assumed to have shared interests (or a unity of interests, hence the label “unitarism”). Any conflicts that exist are seen as a manifestation of poor human resource management policies or interpersonal clashes such as personality conflicts, both of which can and should be managed away. From the perspective of pluralist industrial relations, the employment relationship is characterized by a plurality of stakeholders with legitimate interests (hence the label “pluralism), and some conflicts of interests are seen as inherent in the employment relationship (e.g., wages v. profits). Lastly, the critical paradigm emphasizes antagonistic conflicts of interests between various groups (e.g., the competing capitalist and working classes in a Marxist framework) that are part of a deeper social conflict of unequal power relations. As a result, there are four common models of employment:
Mainstream economics: employment is seen as a mutually advantageous transaction in a free market between self-interested legal and economic equals
Human resource management (unitarism): employment is a long-term partnership of employees and employers with common interests
Pluralist industrial relations: employment is a bargained exchange between stakeholders with some common and some competing economic interests and unequal bargaining power due to imperfect labor markets
Critical industrial relations: employment is an unequal power relation between competing groups that is embedded in and inseparable from systemic inequalities throughout the socio-politico-economic system.
These models are important because they help reveal why individuals hold differing perspectives on human resource management policies, labor unions, and employment regulation. For example, human resource management policies are seen as dictated by the market in the first view, as essential mechanisms for aligning the interests of employees and employers and thereby creating profitable companies in the second view, as insufficient for looking out for workers’ interests in the third view, and as manipulative managerial tools for shaping the ideology and structure of the workplace in the fourth view.
Work as an economic component
Capitalism demarcates "work" as something that is supplied by "owners" and demanded by "non owners" to a great degree. In this viewpoint, the risk associated with owning and operating a business is seen as fairly rewarding the risk-taker with the lion's share of profits, even though in reality the lion's share of the "work" to provide the good or service is provided at the worker level. Unsafe and unfair work conditions and a lack of profit-share are among the key factors that contributed to the establishment of unions.
Unions The purpose of a union is a written contract between the employer and the employee, specifying the rights and duties of each.
Prior to the existence of unions, very few labor contracts existed, allowing the employer to re-define the job any time, occasionally to the detriment of the employee.
In the purest sense, a union leverages the collective strength of a group of workers to force owners and management to increase their compensation.
Opponents of capitalism, such as Marxists oppose the capitalist employment system, considering it to be unfair that the people who contribute the majority of work to an organization, regardless of their level of financial risk, do not receive a proportionate share of the profit and that full employment is rarely reached under capitalism.
Other "isms"
Marxist communism reorders the hierarchy to suggest that all citizens of a society, regardless of individual differences, are equal owners and are thus entitled to equal share of the wealth of the society.
Value of labor
The value of work is also informed by the economic system in which it functions.
Capitalism allows, or purports to allow, the marketplace to determine the value of a good or service based on demand, rather than impose a value on a good or service. In a communistic environment, the state determines the value a job may have, and may also open or close avenues to those jobs, creating less of a sense of freedom as to who may occupy those jobs.
Socio-psychological concepts of freedom, self-actualization, motivation and aspiration are thus tested in a society where a person is not taught "you can do whatever you want", or "you don't have to work hard to get by okay". The capitalist system suggests that success is unlimited or directly proportional to how much an individual wants to work at it, while opponents of communism suggest that imposing value takes away the motivation for someone to be better at their job than the next guy who isn't working as hard but the value in what they do is fixed regardless of performance.
While the debate rages, and different countries subscribe to and build their society on different approaches, clearly "work" plays a great role in the definition of a society and the culture of government that will be in place to administer its functioning.
The Surrealists and the Situationists were among the few groups to actually oppose work, and during the partially surrealist-influenced events of May 1968 the walls of the Sorbonne were covered with anti-work graffiti. Bob Black is an anarchist author who is well known for exploring the ideas of opposition to work in the essay The Abolition of Work, published in 1985.
Alternatives
A developing model of employment, as practiced by such companies as Semco, Google, DaVita, Freys Hotels and Linden Labs, seeks to set aside the "master-servant relationship" implicit in the traditional employment contract. The concommitant employment practices are often grouped under the heading Workplace democracy, and are characterised by high levels of employee engagement; principles-based rather than rules-based work relations; and a problem-solving approach to workplace conflict. In this model management (including its employment function) effectively becomes a domain shared between managers and staff. The resurgent New Unionism movement promotes this employment model, and seeks to extend it.
When an individual entirely owns the business for which he or she labours, this is known as self-employment. Self-employment often leads to incorporation. Incorporation offers certain protections of one's personal assets. Laws of incorporation vary from state to state with Delaware having the most incorporated businesses of any state in the U.S.
Workers who are not paid wages, such as volunteers, are generally not considered as being employed. One exception to this is an internship, an employment situation in which the worker receives training or experience (and possibly college credit) as the chief form of compensation.
Those who work under obligation for the purpose of fulfilling a debt, such as an indentured servant, or as property of the person or entity they work for, such as a slave, do not receive pay for their services and are not considered employed. Some historians suggest that slavery is older than employment, but both arrangements have existed for all recorded history.
Globalization and employment relations
The balance of economic efficiency and social equity is the ultimate debate in the field of employment relations. By meeting the needs of the employer; generating profits to establish and maintain economic efficiency; whilst maintaining a balance with the employee and creating social equity that benefits the worker so that he/she can fund and enjoy healthy living; proves to be a continuous revolving issue in westernized societies.
Globalization has effected these issues by creating certain economic factors that disallow or allow various employment issues. Economist Edward Lee (1996) studies the effects of globalization and summarizes the four major points of concern that affect employment relations:
International competition, from the newly industrialized countries, will cause unemployment growth and increased wage disparity for unskilled workers in industrialized countries. Imports from low-wage countries exert pressure on the manufacturing sector in industrialized countries and foreign direct investment (FDI) is attracted away from the industrialized nations, towards low-waged countries.
Economic liberalization will result in unemployment and wage inequality in developing countries. This happens as job losses in un-competitive industries outstrip job opportunities in new industries.
Workers will be forced to accept worsening wages and conditions, as a global labour market results in a “race to the bottom”. Increased international competition creates a pressure to reduce the wages and conditions of workers.
Globalization reduces the autonomy of the nation state. Capital is increasingly mobile and the ability of the state to regulate economic activity is reduced.
What also results from Lee’s (1996) findings is that in industrialized countries an average of almost 70 per cent of workers are employed in the service sector, most of which consists of non-tradable activities. As a result, workers are forced to become more skilled and develop sought after trades, or find other means of survival. Ultimately this is a result of changes and trends of employment, an evolving workforce, and globalization that is represented by a more skilled and increasing highly diverse labour force, that are growing in non standard forms of employment (Markey, R. et al. 2006).
See also
(source:wikipedia)
