When I got hired for my current job, it paid biweekly (which is what most jobs pay I assume). There were some trainees there lamenting that they had to wait TWO WHOLE WEEKS to get paid!
I’m wondering what kind of livestyle you gotta be in that you just simply cannot wait one additional week to get paid. I suppose its the same folks that, even though they have a checking account, refuse to do Direct Deposit 
Maybe some kind of cultural thing? Poverty?
a recent thread - Can you pay for a $1000 emergency expense without borrowing?
Well when you add in the extra processing time for that first paycheck, which can be a week or two, it can make you first paycheck a month off. And if someone was unemployed and struggling till they got the job, that extra week can make a real bitch of a time to wait.
Do people actually get paid by cheque? I thought ‘paycheck’ was just an expression. I haven’t been paid by cheque for more years than I care to remember. Alternate Thursdays are paydays for me and my pay is generally in my bank on a Wednesday evening, by direct deposit.
Someone who doesn’t trust the solvency of their employer. I know a guy whose bosses business is struggling. He has reached a point where he wants paid at the end of each day. In cash.
Last time I calculated what it would cost to direct deposit my employee’s paychecks it was somewhere in the area of a dollar per employee per month. 4 physical paychecks per month works out to 48¢ per employee per month (plus the cost of the paper check itself, the toner and the envelope…call it 55¢). Note that this is a small business and some of the high direct deposit cost is tied up in overhead. It would go down if we had more employees.
Most “real” companies in the US pay by direct deposit into a bank account. Small operations (< 10 employees), those with high employee turnover, temporary or casual owkers, or mostly poverty-level employees tend to pay by paper check.
Back to the OP: In my industry it’s common to get paid near the end of the month for the work performed the *previous *month. So just a few days ago I got paid for my July efforts.
When I started back up in the industry a while ago, it was near the end of a month. So I waited about 3 weeks for a paycheck that was a handful of dollars after deductions for benefits. And another 4-1/2 weeks for the first complete paycheck. Even that was about 20% short due to earning a lower rate while doing on-the-job training. I’d worked there for 2-1/2 months before I got my first normal-sized paycheck. Adding in the couple weeks off I had from my last day at my old job it was more-or-less 3 months with negligible pay while mostly working full time.
Whatchagonna do? It’s how the game is played in that industry.
And FTR, no it wasn’t a hardship for me. But it sure can be for some folks who spend everything they earn & always have.
Not all companies pay bi-weekly. It’s possible that the person complaining comes from a job where they were paid weekly and the idea of bi-weekly paychecks seems complicated to them.
How about just people who haven’t worked in while and need money for bills? Not everyone is cool with having to wait a couple of weeks and pay late fees because the job market blows and it took a while to secure employment.
When I was a kid, and heard that someone made $35,000 a year, I thought they worked a year and then got paid that sum. I thought that for a long time, actually.
The default is usually by paper cheque, even at “real” companies. You have to opt for direct deposit and submit a bunch of forms to activate it.
Will a bank cash a pay cheque or do you have to wait X number of days for it to clear? I can’t remember the last time I deposited a cheque into my account but I know I had to wait three working days to be able to draw on it.
Banks in the US will, for the most part, let you cash a check and take your money that day.
Most banks will at least let you access the first $100 on that day and the rest should be available the next day. However, you should always be able to take the check to the writer’s bank and cash it immediately, provided they have the funds in their account to do so.
Having said that, at my store, we allow people to cash their checks out of the register if they want, so they can have their money without even going to the bank.
OK, it’d suck to have to wait the extra time just to be paid, I think.
The only time I was paid weekly was when I was a union worker (CWA). One of the older guys told me it came from a contract negotiation. Management was paid monthly (perhaps done to offset the increased costs of paying labor twice as often).
Considering the high wages that CWA workers get, I don’t understand why weekly pay was such an important thing that it had to get worked into a contract.
Me too. 
I still wonder about finances, historically. In novels a character will have an income of, for example, 2000 pounds a year, from a trust or annuity. Was that paid annually? Was the money deposited in an account and they drew on it as they needed it? How about the housemaid who got five pounds a year? Did she wait a year to be paid?
Awhile back I read a book about a 19th century writer (forgot his name). He was constantly traveling, renting and buying houses and apartments in the US and Europe, but there was no mention of how he was paid and how he paid for everything. He’d be paid large sums but not on a regular basis. I got the impression that he left a trail of creditors.
How did people manage foreign travel before ATM’s, credit cards, traveler’s checks? Did they carry cash?
As for the OP, I don’t think bi-weekly is a problem for most people except in waiting for those first couple of checks. I’ve been paid monthly for years, and it was only an issue that first month, when I had to wait, without savings.
Some people live paycheck to paycheck. When I moved to San Fran, I lived in a weekly-rate roach motel for months. Weekly paychecks were helpful.
Joe
I am paid by check or PayPal. The checks mainly come from the individual I work for as a contract employee and they are dispersed weekly. Whatever his banking setup, he is unable to provide me with direct deposit unless I open a Bank of America account, which I have no interest in doing. Most of my web design clients pay via PayPal, though some also mail me checks.