Beware the December pay trap!

EssexHebridean

Have your management given any reasons for deciding to pay early this month? To me that is just plain irresponsible. 

peb

No.  Last year we were told that it was so people could buy stuff on black Friday.   There's some sensible people but others who are always broke by payday anyway.  .

Apparently the intention is to permanently move payday to the 25th but 1) I suspect that'll still be an issue in November and December and 2) I'm trying to explain to people it means we are paid a week in advance.  So they are spending money before they've earned it.

I remember issues in my first proper job which was two weeks in arrears and two in advance with a payday of the ,15th, when people moved on then they were shocked at the big gap to the next payday and frequently said they thought that they were paid in arrears when the final pay was less than expected.

I've worked for Solicitors firms all my adult working life......

TheAble

EssexHebridean said:

Have your management given any reasons for deciding to pay early this month? To me that is just plain irresponsible. 

I was initially going to comment that it's not a company's job to be responsible for its employees' budgeting abilities (or lack thereof). But in a way you're right - this bringing forward of the pay date doesn't seem to serve any good purpose and appears to just court trouble. I wouldn't do it if I owned a company myself.

kimwp

It's the difference between being kind and nice. Kind is better for people (helping with budgeting by keeping a regular pay date). Nice is what people remember (we work for a company that helps us have a nice Christmas)

stewartwilliams

The previous company I worked for (before Covid), used to give us an estimated payment for 2 weeks pay a few days before Xmas.  We used to get weekly paid, which was far better in my opinion than monthly.  A lot easier dealing with bills as less budgeting.

Half the time, what you were going to work, and what they estimated were completely wrong, so everyone had to wait until the first week or so of Jan to get things corrected.
Pretty much all the managers, payroll, HR, and office staff got 2 weeks or so off which is why payments were made early.  The rest of us worked over the Xmas / NY period (and the company ran fine without any of them!).

My present job is monthly paid and we get paid on the last working day of the month, so Thursday the 30th Nov this month.  Suspect I'll get paid on the 22nd Dec as that's the Friday before Xmas I think.  Then Wed 31st Jan for the next one.

The bulk of my bills come off around the 1st of the month, the odd one like amazon Prime a day or two earlier from time to time, so I should be ok this year. 
Got 6 days holiday to take next month, and if I can take them between rostered days off, that's 12 days I could be at home spending less (unless I go away somewhere).

Rob5342

stewartwilliams said:

The previous company I worked for (before Covid), used to give us an estimated payment for 2 weeks pay a few days before Xmas.  We used to get weekly paid, which was far better in my opinion than monthly.  A lot easier dealing with bills as less budgeting.

Surely it would be more work putting the money aside for bills four times a month than once a month 

EssexHebridean

Rob5342 said:

stewartwilliams said:

The previous company I worked for (before Covid), used to give us an estimated payment for 2 weeks pay a few days before Xmas.  We used to get weekly paid, which was far better in my opinion than monthly.  A lot easier dealing with bills as less budgeting.

Surely it would be more work putting the money aside for bills four times a month than once a month 

I’d be inclined to agree - if budgeting properly rather than just working on the basis that “well there is X amount coming in next week, so that will pay A, b and C off the credit card, then there should be enough left over the week after to pay the gas and electric…” There does seem (from historical evidence as a long time user here) to be more of a “hand to mouth” way of living with weekly paid, but almost always those who ARE weekly paid seem to prefer it. 

RAS

Generally I used to budget for basic costs including monthly bills based on a 4 week month. When it was the 5 week month I planned for the extras like batteries, clothes or cloth, shoes, cleaning kit, bulk goods.

backinbusiness

De-lurking to comment that it depending on payroll works - it may be that the Employer has no choice, ie if outsourced and that company aren't available to process payroll information at the "normal" date in December.  That's this case with us. BiB x 

peter3hg

Working for an organisation with many thousands on the payroll, the main reason for the organisation to have an early pay date is to give time to resolve payroll queries before January and the Christmas/New Year period. Inevitably with that many employees and 100+ starters a month there are going to be errors in pay. If the pay date was as normal it would mean almost nobody in the payroll department could have the week off between Christmas and New Year and would also mean some queries couldn't be resolved before the new year with line managers and the like off for Christmas.

Obviously in an ideal world people would notice pay errors from their pay slips which already are available a few days before the pay date, but in reality most don't check them and only notice an issue when the pay does or doesn't hit their bank account.