Employer

Sponsorship the way you would do it

An employer is a person or institution that hires employees or workers. Employers offer wages to the workers in exhange for the worker's labour.

Employers include everyhting 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.

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.

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.

It is often in the employer's interest to have low wages and few benefits and well as poor working conditions. To prevent this employees can organize into labour unions or government regulations can intervene in the economy. Some companies also feel that a happier work force is a better one and thus offer extra benefits to improve morale and performance.

While slavery is probably older employers hiring workers for wages has long been common. Early forms of wages included salt (from which the word salary is derived).