Seniority is at least partly a factor in nearly 90 percent of private sector contracts and can also be found in a variety of public sector...

Seniority can be loosely as the length of time for which a given employee has worked for their employer or in their current position.  Seniority can be measured in different ways.  It can, for example, reset whenever an employee switches positions in a company or it can simply measure how long an employee has worked for the firm in any capacity at all.  Seniority can be used in workplace decisions in a variety of ways.

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Seniority can be loosely as the length of time for which a given employee has worked for their employer or in their current position.  Seniority can be measured in different ways.  It can, for example, reset whenever an employee switches positions in a company or it can simply measure how long an employee has worked for the firm in any capacity at all.  Seniority can be used in workplace decisions in a variety of ways.

Perhaps the most common way to use seniority is to distribute pay and benefits on the basis of seniority.  Many organizations, particularly in the public sector, have employees’ wages increase automatically as they gain seniority.  As workers’ levels of seniority rise, many employers give them more vacation and/or sick leave hours each year.

In some organizations, seniority can be used to affect larger decisions about employment.  In some organizations, particularly those with union contracts, workers with seniority can be given preference in transferring from one job to another within the organization.  In some organizations, people will be laid off in order of seniority and rehired in the same way when the economy improves.

All of these are ways in which seniority can play a part in workplace decisions.