White Paper:

US-Based Multinational Employers and the Social Contract Outside the United States

The modern social contract in almost every country is an implicit bargain where employees offer their good citizenship and earnest labor in exchange for a viable package of benefits (or at least a viable social safety net) that, in large part, is employer-provided.

This employee-friendly social contract paradigm exists almost everywhere in the world—rich and developing economies alike. But it does not apply in the United States, which operates under a unique, market-driven version of common law employment-at-will.

Under US-style employment-at-will, as distinct from employment laws elsewhere (and subject to certain isolated exceptions), broadly applicable rules generally do not force employers to give their workers a cap on hours worked, holidays (paid or unpaid), vacations (paid or unpaid), paid sick leave or paid maternity leave, medical insurance, employer profit sharing, year-end bonuses, or severance pay or pre-termination notice.