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Employment is a contract between two parties, one being the employer and the other being the employee. In this relationship, the employer conceives of a productive activity, generally with the intention of creating financial revenues, and the employee contributes labour to the enterprise, usually in return for payment. Employment also exists in the public, nonprofit and household sectors. An employer is any entity that hires employees; it can be either a person, a company, an organisation or a corporation.
In the United States, the "standard" employment contract is considered to be at-will meaning that the employer or the employee is free to terminate the employment at any time and for any cause or for no cause at all.
Under English common law, an indefinite term of employment was presumed to be for one year. See Toussaint v. Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Mich., 408 Mich. 579, 600, 292 N.W.2d 880, 885 (1980) (for an extended discussion on the genesis of the at-will rule). The at-will rule has its genesis in a rule in Horace Gay Wood’s 1877 treatise on master servant relations. Wood cited four U.S. cases as authority for his rule that when a hiring was indefinite the burden of proof was on the servant to prove that an indefinite employment term was for one year. Id. at 601, 292 N.W.2d at 886. In Toussaint the Court noted “…Wood’s rule was quickly cited as authority for another proposition. Some courts saw the rule as requiring the employee to prove an express contract for a definite term in order to maintain an action based on termination of the employment.” Id. at 603, 292 N.W.2d at 887. Thus was born the U.S. at-will employment rule, which allowed discharge for no reason. This fundamentally harsh rule was adopted by all states and it was not until Peterman v. Intl. Bhd. of Teamsters, Chauffeurs, Warehouseman, and Helpers of Am., Local 396, 174 Cal. App. 2d 184, 344 P.2d 44 (1959), that the first judicial exception to the at-will rule was created.
The employee may contribute to the evolution of the enterprise, but the employer maintains control over the productive infrastructure, such as intellectual property and business contacts (the former can be particularly important with regards to copyright law, as in "works for hire" -- within the scope of employment and as a function thereof -- can and usually are considered to be authored by the employer, not the employee who actually made them). Many persons sell their labor without having legal standing as employees. These workers are called independent contractors.
Employment is almost universal in capitalist societies, while it was of minor significance in pre-capitalist societies. To the extent that employment or the economic equivalent is not universal, unemployment exists.
Opponents of capitalism such as Marxists oppose the employment system, but the surrealist movement is one of the few tendencies to actually oppose work.
Job
In general, the word job refers to any discrete activity of economic production. In this sense, a group may divide up a set of tasks among its members, each task being "the job" of the individual it is assigned to.
However, in capitalist societies, the word "job" has become synonymous with "employment". This refers to the long term relationship between a labourer and those who have legal control of the other factors of production. In this sense, labourers talk of "getting a job", or "having a job".
This conceptual metaphor of a "job" as a possession has led to its use in slogans such as "money for jobs, not bombs". Similar conceptions are that of "land" as a possession (real estate) or intellectual rights as a possession (intellectual property). None of the three are recognized in traditional labour economics which emphasizes work, not entitlements or even necessarily royalties, as the basis of rights to receive economic benefits.
Employer
An employer is a person or institution that hires employees or workers. Employers offer wages to the workers in exhange for the worker's labor-power.
Employers include everything from individuals hiring a babysitter to governments and businesses which hired 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.
Within large organizations the management of employees is often handled by Human Resources departments.
An organization who has workers who labour for something other than wages, such as volunteers, is generally not considered an employer. Someone who works under a threat of physical force is known as a slave and slaveowners are also not considered employers.
There are differing types of employee. Some are permanent and provide a guaranteed salary, other employers hire workers on short term contracts or rely on consultants.
It is often in the employer's interest to have low wages and few benefits and well as poor working conditions. To prevent this employees can organize into labour unions or government regulations can intervene in the economy. Some companies also feel that a happier work force is a better one and thus offer extra benefits to improve morale and performance.
While slavery is probably older employers hiring workers for wages has long been common. Early forms of wages included salt (from which the word salary is derived).
Employee
An employee is any entity hired by an employer - typically, a worker hired to perform a specific job. The employee forms part of a relationship between two parties - the other being the employer - called "employment". Employees exist in the public, nonprofit, and household sectors as well as the "for-profit" sectors.
The employee contributes labour and expertise to an enterprise. Employees perform the discrete activity of economic production. An employee may contribute to the evolution of the enterprise, but usually has little autonomous control over the productive infrastructure, such as intellectual property and business contracts. Employees usually provide the labor in the three factors of production (labor, land and capital).
Employers assign a set of tasks to employees, each task being the employee's "job". Typical examples include - accountants, solicitors, lawyers, photographers, among many other worker classifications.
Workers who sell their labor on their own count in law as independent contractors and do not technically become employees.
Sometimes labor unions (American English), or trade unions (British English) represent employees.
In General Motors house style, the word "employee" appears as "employe".
Types of labour
See also
he:יחסי עובד מעביד
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