| 'At will' has noting to do with it. When payment is made for services not rendered, it's Fraud. If the employer has expectations that the employee 'does nothing' then it's fine, but that's almost assuredly not the case. This posture is not only toxic, but it's also unjust will spread into much greater malaise as others take up the mantle of 'doing nothing'. Literally a colleague I had over for dinner last night left his job, and the primary reason was 'many of my higher paid colleagues are not doing anything'. I'm not sure if he was more frustrated or jealous, and there were other issues, but he left just the same. |
There's literally no fraud here for a typical American FTE at-will employment arrangement. The worst-case scenario is getting fired from the job with no additional repercussions.