Employee Rights and Employment Policy Journal

This article suggests that the discretionary choices that an employer makes in designing an employee benefit plan present the occasion for an employer to exercise moral virtue. The article examines the core elements of moral virtue, as set forth in Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics, and considers the application of Aristotle's concept of justice and liberality to the design of an employee benefit plan. In particular, the article examines the choice faced by a church-affiliated employer who is eligible to decide whether or not to subject an employee benefit plan to ERISA regulation. This article examines the legal and ethical factors that bear upon this decision in light of Aristotle's understanding of ethics.