Economics
Employment
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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. Early forms of wages included salt (from which the word
salary is derived).
Employment also exists in the public, nonprofit and household
sectors.
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.
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.
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Labourers often 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.
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.
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.
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).
Some companies feel that a happier work force is a better one and thus offer
extra benefits to improve morale and performance. However, other employers try
to increase profits by providing low wages and few benefits. To resist this,
employees can organize into labor unions (American English), or
trade
unions (British English), who
represent most of the available work force and must therefore be listened to by
the management. This is the source of considerable bad feeling between the two
sides, and sometimes even violence.
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.
Alternatives
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. Some historians suggest that slavery is older
than employment, but both arrangements have existed for all recorded
history.
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 do not receive a proportionate share of
the profit.
The
surrealist movement is one of the few groups to actually oppose
work.
Types of labour
See also
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