Ethics and Employee Rights

Societies don’t rely just on employers’ ethics or sense of fairness to ensure that they do what’s right. Societies also institute laws, and procedures for enforcing these laws. These laws lay out what employers can and cannot do. In so doing, these laws also carve out explicit rights for employees.

For example, Title VII of the Civil Rights Act gives employees the right to bring legal charges against an employer who they believe discriminated against them due to race. The Fair Labor Standards Act gave employees the right to a minimum wage and overtime pay. The bottom line is that although ethics, fairness, and morality help govern how employers treat their employees, the enforceable rights embedded in employment law also govern what employers and employees can do.