[chrisBob]

I think the standard was to be paid on the 1st and the 15th, but you could opt for one monthly pay check if you had trouble saving for rent with the twice a month schedule.

I never really thought about it. Are weekly or monthly that much more common?

[icebraining]

I'm not from the US, and I've never heard of anyone paid biweekly, that's why I found it weird.

According to the US Bureau of Labour Statistics, it's actually the most common schedule over there: http://www.bls.gov/opub/btn/volume-3/how-frequently-do-priva...

[umanwizard]

Out of curiosity, how often is it standard to be paid where you are from?

I've been paid twice monthly, and monthly. I also know of people being paid weekly.

[icebraining]

Here in Portugal, almost everyone I know is paid monthly. Even the person who comes to my house weekly to clean asks to be paid once a month.

The only people I can think of who have a non-monthly regular pay schedule (not paid per job like freelancers) are door-to-door salespeople and mail ads deliverers.

[thedaemon]

Bi-weekly means you would get 2 paychecks a week. Did you mean bi-monthly? Also to chime in a bit, I get a paycheck every week.

[icebraining]

Bi-weekly means you would get 2 paychecks a week.

That's not the definition everyone uses :)

From the Bureau link I posted above: "Biweekly is the most common length of pay period, with 36.5 percent of U.S. private businesses paying their employees every 2 weeks."

(Check out online dictionaries too: http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/biweekly#Adjective)

It seems the difference between biweekly (using this definition) and bimonthly is that occasionally you might get paid three times in a month, since the weeks don't align with the months.

[icebraining]

By "That's not the definition everyone uses" I meant "that definition isn't used by everyone", not "the definition used by everyone isn't that".

[dagw]

Certainly in Norway and Sweden I've never even heard of anybody being paid on any other schedule than once a month (normally on the 25th). Until right now it never really crossed my mind that people with 'regular' jobs would get paid any other way.

[learnstats2]

This is quite problematic in the UK.

It's common to get your first paycheck ~6 weeks after starting a job, and then always one month in arrears.

I've noticed that employers like to offer bridging "loans" to appear kind and generous, but then this identifies cash-poor employees who are set up for unfair treatment later.

Your employer is struggling to make payroll and can't pay you? You won't find out until you've worked out the whole month.

This situation is not right.

I'm surprised to learn that the US has more a employee-friendly practice in this sense.