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Wisconsin Watch partners with Gigafact to produce Fact Briefs — bite-sized fact checks of trending claims. Read our methodology to learn how we check claims.

Yes.

At-will employment is the law in every state except Montana.

That generally means employees in every other state can be fired at any time for any reason.

Montana allows at-will termination only during an employee’s probation period. 

At-will also means employers can change the terms of the employment, such as wages or hours, with no notice.

There are at-will exceptions. 

Firing cannot be illegal. For example, an employee can’t be terminated based on discrimination. 

Also, employees who have a contract or are covered by union collective bargaining agreements are not at-will. Many government employees are not at-will.

Wisconsin has another exception, established by the state Supreme Court: A termination isn’t legal if it “clearly contravenes the public welfare and gravely violates paramount requirements of public interest.”

Other countries generally allow employers to fire employees only for cause, such as poor performance.

This fact brief is responsive to conversations such as this one.

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Tom Kertscher joined Wisconsin Watch as a full-time Milwaukee-based reporter in October 2024 after starting as a freelance Fact Briefs reporter in January 2023. In addition to contributing to Wisconsin Watch’s collaboration with The Gigafact Project to combat online misinformation, he reports on Wisconsin policy, labor, energy and the rapid expansion of data centers across the state. Kertscher is a former longtime reporter at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, a contributing writer for Milwaukee Magazine and the author of two sports books, on Al McGuire and Brett Favre.