Rather than weekly or bi-weekly
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Why is it the standard to be paid weekly in America?
Really it just comes down to “that’s how we’ve always done it” and it was likely much easier back when there wasn’t electronic payments etc, but it’s tradition and it stuck
Why not? It’s as reasonable as any other period. People who are permanently employed (I.e. not say laborers) know their expenses and income so they can plan monthly. For the employer it’s cheaper to run payroll once per month than more frequently.
Banking. Wages are moved by bank transfer and have been for around at least 50 years. Paying monthly reduces the admin considerably which was very attractive to companies. Also, the nature of employment in Europe is different, with paid holidays, public holidays, sick pay for which, with a few exceptions, you get paid for.
Press a button all staff get paid. National Insurance, tax and any pension contribution deducted.(UK)
Payslip shows tax code, earned, deductions, earned to date in tax year, pension contributions et al
In the UK it is 28 days holiday (including8 public holidays)
Cheques all but disappeared generally at least 20 years ago. Cheques are still used mostly for inter company/subsidiary “accounting” aka moving favourable numbers about.
When most bills are monthly, it’s easier to budget if your salary is the same. If you get paid weekly, you have to keep track of how much gets kept for various bills and larger ones like rent or mortgage may need multiple weeks pay to cover while still giving you money to live on. Whereas if it’s monthly, you have it all there and can sort it by need straight away
We also tend to have utilities billing us on a monthly schedule. We tend to have rent or mortgage payments running on a monthly schedule. It’s most convenient if these cycles are aligned with our income cycles.
I understand that in the US some utilities also run on monthly schedules. Surely that’s less convenient where you might feel more squeezed in some periods that others due to your income cycle delivering either 2 or 3 payments during any particular month?
Why would you be paid bi-weekly when most (if not all) your bills are charged monthly? It’s just natural to synchronize the two. Better for budgeting too.
There’s no explanation to be had. It’s an arbitrary system that’s been widely adopted. Largely, I would think, because it’s efficient for employers to only process salaries once a month.
But there’s no reason for it. Just as there’s no reason to be paid weekly. Why not daily? Or every 21 days?
I think most places in the world is paid monthly. US is the only country ive been to where its standard to get paid biweekly.
Standards and traditions. All of my bills are to be paid the couple days after I get paid in Sweden. So I get paid the 25th of every month, bills to be paid oftentimes before end of month. Entire society is built around it. Positive is that bills come once a month (rent, phone, etc), and job pay also comes once a month, that way I simply pay all of my bills before I spend any money. The money I have left after paying everything and saving whatever amount I’ve decided to save, is what I can buy food and whatever I want with for the following month. Makes budgeting very simple.
In the UK at least, wages tended to be for less professional or more informal working arrangements. A salary was for professional like positions.
Wages were often paid in cash (hence wage packet, literally an envelope with a pay slip and the cash) while salary was a bank transfer or cheque once a month. Wages were generally less, so the people receiving them tended to be living more hand to mouth and needed more frequent pay just to survive.
As an example, my father moved jobs from being a machinist (wage earning) to office clerk (salaried). He always maintained he used more brain power and skill on the machine floor…
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