How did the PA. law come to be-that an employee could be fired at will-or for no reason?

Question

Is this a lay-over from turn of the century steek enpire. I don't know of any other state having this kind of law.

Answer 1

PA is a "right to work" state. You may legally quit at any time for any or no reason, the flip side is that they may also terminate your employment at time for any or no reason. The employer and employee are therefore under the same rule. Not saying I agree with it, it's just the way the law is.

Answer 2

New hires are nearly always told that for a certain number of days, they are on probation and can be fired for any or no reason. If you have been fired for no reason, it was probably in the employment contract. If that is the law in PA , it probably could be challenged these days. Since the government began to run businesses instead of the employer, things like that became an issue. You cannot hire or fire anyone you want. For example, 10 people, equally qualified, apply for a job. The employer cannot hire the person he likes best, he has to hire the black, Mexican, or some other person who is a minority.
Today in some businesses the minority is the person the employer wanted in the first place, not someone he was forced to hire by regulations.

Answer 3

A Supreme Court decision in 1908 ratified this concept - see first link below.

Employment at will is the law in most states. If I remember right, there is one state, maybe Montana, where it's not the law.

If there's an employment contract, then you're not subject to this. And you can't be fired because of your membership in a protected class e.g. gender, or race.

Answer 4

Indiana, Colorado, and Georgia all have the same law. It is not your right to work it's your priviledge. Work hard and you will keep your job or better yet - build your own company and you will find out why this law is so important to businesses.

Answer 5

New York has the same asinine law.