Seniority Is Central in Many

Seniority is central in many private and public sector union contracts in the United States. What are the advantages to both employers and employees of using seniority to allocate employment opportunities? What are the disadvantages? How can a balance be struck between the interests of employers and employees?

Using seniority to allocate employment opportunities has an obvious advantage for employees that are long-standing members of a company -- it rewards them for remaining at the company for a long period of time, and links job security, better pay, and promotional possibilities together in a single, attractive 'package.' The most obvious example of this is tenure, whereby it is very difficult to fire public school teachers. This is also supposed to protect teachers in terms of their freedom of speech, so they will not hesitate to give students poor grades or to speak their minds, because of their fear of losing their job.

Seniority also has an advantage for employers, in terms of allocating promotions and pay raises: if workers know that the company rewards loyalty amongst its employees, talented employees are more likely to remain at the company. Retention is an important goal at most organizations, given that companies do not want workers leaving to use their skills and knowledge at the businesses of competitors, and because of the expense of hiring and training a new worker.

However, giving predominance to seniority when bestowing promotions and 'perks' has many obvious potential disadvantages for an employer. If employers are mandated to favor seniority over other qualities, they may have to promote less qualified and talented workers, simply because that individual has served more years at the company. Seniority-first promotions can create a culture of complacency amongst employees, once the employees have 'done their time' at lower-lever positions. Promoting older and more established workers can also insulate management from new ideas, as these workers are less likely to bring in energy, enthusiasm, and new sources of knowledge from outside the organizational hierarchy. And newer workers may find themselves in the frustrating position of being more capable and even more qualified than older, more senior workers, and see those seasoned, senior workers promoted instead. Thus this type of promotional practice can sometimes result in the loss of strong employees, rather than facilitate retention.