Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by rdl 1199 days ago
Most companies in the US do payroll on either a 2 week cycle (which sucks because some months you do 3 and some times you do 2), or 1st and 15th (or otherwise twice a month). March 15 is a very common payroll date.

They're batch processes, done by dedicated payroll firms, since there are lots of tax/other obligations as well.

Missing payroll by even one day causes 1) lots of drama with employees 2) starts some legal problems 3) potentially screws up people's healthcare/other benefits 4) potentially causes tax problems. Some of this is with the state, some federal.

Payroll is basically the second to last thing you want to miss (certain government obligations above it, since they have liability for the officers directly).

(This is mostly because employers are presumed to have a lot of power vs. employees, and generally do, and there have been a lot of historical abuses of companies paying people slowly, withholding wages, etc., which puts the employees in a position of "do I quit and guarantee I don't get paid, or do I work a little bit more and maybe collect what I'm owed" and then companies continuing to abuse it...)

3 comments

Quite interesting, here in the U.K. it’s generally monthly payroll, usually towards the end of the month, something like closest working day after the 25th is common
In Puerto Rico (where I live) there's an even weirder system -- people usually get/expect (and certain classes of employment obligate) a "13th month" check. Pretty common in LaLtAm; exists in some of Southern Europe too.
In Argentina we changed the mandatory "13th month" in December to a mandatory "half month" in July and another "half month" in December.
Some contracts are even getting a 14th one. 13th is fairly common in Italy and it’s usually bundled together with your December one.
Western Europe as well, it's called a holiday allowance in the Netherlands
Yep, in Germany too, hence my surprise.
Some people like the "extra" checks of a 2 week cycle. Others prefer twice monthly cycles because it better aligns with expenses like mortgages and utilities.
Lots of people like the extra checks, but very few companies like paying that way; it makes modeling so much harder. If you were doing weekly financials maybe but most companies do monthly.
I'm not sure. I've been with a company that's switched to a bi-weekly. But not sure of the reasoning. But probably something to do with payroll predictability.
What’s the first thing? Can you expand on that part. Ty