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. To the extent that employment or the economic equivalent is not universal, unemployment exists.
Employer
An employer is a person or institution that hires employees or workers. Employers offer hourly wages or a salary in exchange for the worker's labor power, depending upon whether the employee is paid by the hour or a set rate per pay period. A salaried employee is typically not paid more for more hours worked than the minimum, whereas wages are paid for all hours worked, including overtime.
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.
Motivation is the third and most difficult of the factors for employers to effectively manage in the employment relationship . Employee motivation can often be in direct conflict with control mechanisms of employers, and can be broadly defined as that which energizes, directs and sustains human behaviour ( Stone, 2005, p 412). Dubin (1958, p 213) further elaborates on this, noting motivation as “something that moves a person to action, and continues him in the course of action already initiated.”
The employment relationship is thus a difficult challenge for employers to manage, as all three facets are often in direct competition with each other, with interests, control and motivation often clashing in the equally important quest for individual employee autonomy, employer command and control and ultimate profits.
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 of new hires, and the disbursement of any benefits which the employee may be entitled, or any grievances that employee may have.
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.
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.
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 Acts.
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 contract 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.
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.
Culture and Social Considerations
Ideological shifts in demographic eras
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. Manufa
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