What was worst case scenario if we hadn’t addressed Y2K?
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I worked on payroll software, converting 2 digit years to 4 digits years in the late 90s. For some companies there are factors in their payroll determined by length of employment (PTO days, retirement contributions, etc.). Those calculations would have resulted in a negative number (hired in 1998 but now running payroll in 2000, so 00 – 98 = -98 years of employment. Whoops. It probably would have just crashed the whole payroll run at that point, or at best resulted in some really messed up calculations that would have also resulted in a delayed payroll anyway.
So in that specific case, a good amount of people would not have been paid on time. For some people, getting paid on time could be very critical. It could also put the employers at risk for labor law violations, and in turn the payroll software company could have been sued into oblivion.
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