Why wouldn't you be able to fire someone because you think they cost too much money? This is a perfectly acceptable reason to fire someone under at-will employment. It's probably also one of the most common reasons.
There are very few reasons that don't fly for a firing under at-will employment. Discrimination against a protected class is the big one, and companies do the performance plan thing so that they have something objective to point to should an employee ever try to claim they were discriminated against. The thing about performance plans is they take 3-6 months to mature into a full firing. If a company needs to clear out an employee quicker than that, they'll forgo the performance plan.
The handful of other reasons you can't fire someone are things like the FMLA and retaliation for good-faith reports of harassment or violations of labor law. Pretty much any other reason will probably work.
I Am Not a Lawyer and This Has Not Been Legal Advice (tm). Everything I've said is probably wrong.
There are very few reasons that don't fly for a firing under at-will employment. Discrimination against a protected class is the big one, and companies do the performance plan thing so that they have something objective to point to should an employee ever try to claim they were discriminated against. The thing about performance plans is they take 3-6 months to mature into a full firing. If a company needs to clear out an employee quicker than that, they'll forgo the performance plan.
The handful of other reasons you can't fire someone are things like the FMLA and retaliation for good-faith reports of harassment or violations of labor law. Pretty much any other reason will probably work.
I Am Not a Lawyer and This Has Not Been Legal Advice (tm). Everything I've said is probably wrong.