Question: I’ve heard of “employment at-will.” Can you tell me what it means, and is there any state in the U.S. that isn’t an “at-will” state?
Answer: “Employment at-will” means that the employer and employee can terminate the relationship at any time and for any reason as long as the reason isn’t illegal. Here are a couple of examples: (1) An employer cannot terminate an employee because of the person’s religion because it violates Title VII of the Civil Rights Act. (2) An employer could (theoretically) terminate an employee because the person wears yellow shirts and the boss doesn’t like that color.
In the U.S., 49 of the 50 states follow at-will employment laws, with the only exception being Montana, which typically only allows at-will terminations during the employee’s initial six-to-twelve-month probationary period.
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