Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-rcrh6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-22T12:52:00.408Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Paying People to Risk Life or Limb

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 March 2019

Robert C. Hughes Open the ORCID record for Robert C. Hughes [Opens in a new window]
Robert C. Hughes*
Affiliation:
University of Pennsylvania
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract:

Does the content of a physically dangerous job affect the moral permissibility of hiring for that job? To what extent may employers consider costs in choosing workplace safety measures? Drawing on Kantian ethical theory, this article defends two strong ethical standards of workplace safety. First, the content of a hazardous job does indeed affect the moral permissibility of offering it. Unless employees need hazard pay to meet basic needs, it is permissible to offer a dangerous job only if prospective employees have a reason other than hazard pay to choose this job instead of safer alternatives. Second, employers typically cannot justify omitting expensive safety measures by paying employees more, even if employees prefer higher pay to greater safety. Employers offering dangerous jobs must meet these two standards to avoid treating their employees merely as means.

Keywords

doctrine of double effectemploymenthazard payriskformula of humanity
Type
Article
Information
Business Ethics Quarterly , Volume 29 , Issue 3 , July 2019 , pp. 295 - 316
Copyright
Copyright © Society for Business Ethics 2019 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Arnold, D. 2009. Working conditions: safety and sweatshops. In Brenkert, G. G. & Beauchamp, T. L. (Eds.), The Oxford handbook of business ethics: 628–54. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Arnold, D., & Bowie, N. 2003. Sweatshops and respect for persons. Business Ethics Quarterly, 13: 221–42.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Beadle, R., & Knight, K. 2012. Virtue and meaningful work. Business Ethics Quarterly, 22: 433–50.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bowie, N. E. 1998. A Kantian theory of meaningful work. Journal of Business Ethics, 17: 1083–92.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bowie, N. E. 1999. Business ethics: A Kantian perspective. Malden, MA: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Bratman, M. E. 1993. Shared intention. Ethics, 104: 97–113.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cohen, G.A. 2013. Rescuing conservatism: A defense of existing value (All Souls version). In Otsuka, M. (Ed.), Finding oneself in the other: 143–74. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Council for International Organizations of Medical Sciences (CIOMS). 2016. International ethical guidelines for health-related research involving humans. https://cioms.ch/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/WEB-CIOMS-EthicalGuidelines.pdf.Google Scholar
Emanuel, E., Wendler, D., & Grady, C. 2000. What makes clinical research ethical? JAMA, 283: 2701–11.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Feinberg, J. 1989. Harm to self. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Fitzpatrick, W. 2012. The doctrine of double effect: Intention and permissibility. Philosophy Compass, 7: 183–96.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gilbert, M. 1993a. Agreements, coercion, and obligation. Ethics, 103: 679–706.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gilbert, M. 1993b. Is an agreement an exchange of promises? Journal of Philosophy, 90: 627–49.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hare, R. M. 1979. What is wrong with slavery? Philosophy & Public Affairs, 8: 103–21.Google Scholar
Herman, B. 1989. Murder and mayhem. The Monist, 72: 411–31.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hill, T. 1980. Humanity as an end in itself. Ethics, 91: 84–99.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hughes, R. 2018. Imprisonment and the right to freedom of movement. In Surprenant, C. W. (Ed.), Rethinking punishment in the era of mass incarceration: 89–104. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Kazan-Allen, L. 2005. Asbestos and mesothelioma: Worldwide trends. Lung Cancer, 49(Supp. 1): S3–S8.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kant, I. 1996 [1785]. Groundwork of the metaphysics of morals. In Practical philosophy, translated by Gregor, M. J. Cambridge, United Kindom: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Keating, G. 2003. Pressing precaution beyond the point of cost-justification. Vanderbilt Law Review, 56: 653–748.Google Scholar
Korsgaard, C. 1998. Creating the kingdom of ends. Cambridge, United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Kuflik, A. 1984. The inalienability of autonomy. Philosophy & Public Affairs, 13: 271–98.Google Scholar
Masek, L. 2000. The doctrine of double effect, deadly drugs, and business ethics. Business Ethics Quarterly, 10: 483–95.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Meyers, C. 2004. Wrongful beneficence: Exploitation and third world sweatshops. Journal of Social Philosophy, 35: 319–33.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mill, J. S. 1956 [1869]. On liberty. Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill.Google Scholar
Nagel, T. 1986. The view from nowhere . Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Nelkin, D. K., & Rickless, S. C. 2014. Three cheers for the doctrine of double effect. Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, 89: 125–58.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Powell, B., & Zwolinski, M. 2012. The ethical and economic case against sweatshop labor: A critical assessment. Journal of Business Ethics, 107: 449–72.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Preiss, J. 2014. Global labor justice and the limits of economic analysis. Business Ethics Quarterly, 2014: 55–83.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Quinn, W. 1989. Actions, intentions, and consequences: The doctrine of double effect. Philosophy & Public Affairs, 18: 23–d40.Google ScholarPubMed
Rachels, J. 1994. More impertinent distinctions and a defense of active euthanasia. In Steinbock, B. and Norcross, A. (Eds.), Killing and letting die (2nd ed.): 139–54. New York: Fordham University Press.Google Scholar
Robinson, J. C. 1986. Hazard pay in unsafe jobs: Theory, evidence, and policy implications. The Milbank Quarterly, 64: 650–77.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Scanlon, T. M. 2008. Moral dimensions: Permissibility, meaning, blame. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Scharding, T. 2015. Imprudence and immorality: A Kantian approach to the ethics of financial risk. Business Ethics Quarterly, 25: 243–65.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schofield, P. 2015. On the existence of duties to the self (and their significance for moral philosophy). Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, 90: 505–28.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shrader-Frechette, K. 2002. Risky business: Nuclear workers, ethics, and the market-efficiency argument. Ethics and the Environment, 7: 1–23.Google Scholar
Smith, A. 1999 [1776]. The wealth of nations, edited by Skinner, A.. London: Penguin Books.Google Scholar
Smith, J., & Dubbink, W. 2011. Understanding the role of moral principles in business ethics: A Kantian perspective. Business Ethics Quarterly, 21: 205–31.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thomson, J. J. 1999. Physician–assisted suicide: Two moral arguments. Ethics, 109: 97–518.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Timmerman, J. 2006. Kantian duties to the self, explained and defended. Philosophy, 81: 505–30.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Velazquez, M., & Brady, F. N. 1997. Natural law and business ethics. Business Ethics Quarterly, 7: 83–107.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Viscusi, W. K., & Aldy, J. E. 2003. The value of a statistical life: a critical review of market estimates throughout the world. Journal of Risk and Uncertainty, 27: 5–76.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Waldman, P., & Mehrotra, K. 2017. America’s worst graveyard shift is grinding up workers. Bloomberg, December 29, 2017. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2017-12-29/america-s-worst-graveyard-shift-is-grinding-up-workers.Google Scholar
Wedgwood, R. 2011. Defending double effect. Ratio, 24: 384–401.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wendler, D., & Rid, A. 2017. In defense of a social value requirement for clinical research. Bioethics, 31: 77–86.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Wertheimer, A. 1999. Exploitation. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Wertheimer, A. 2013. Is payment a benefit? Bioethics, 27: 105–16.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Wertheimer, A. 2015. The social value requirement reconsidered. Bioethics, 29: 301–08.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
World Health Organization (WHO). 2014. Elimination of asbestos-related diseases. March 2014. http://www.who.int/ipcs/assessment/public_health/Elimination_asbestos-related_diseases_EN.pdf.Google Scholar