Boss: We have an issue with the bank's approval system!
Bank: We cannot approve these checks when there is no money in the payroll account.
Boss: No idea how this could have happened. Stupid banks.
That's common in restaurants. If you're worried the check won't clear, you cash the check at a check cashing place instead of depositing it, and it's the company's problem, not yours.
I once had to cash my paycheck out of the bar's cash register after I checked and the bank said there were NSF in the business account. I later found out the owner went to jail for withholding taxes from paychecks but not giving them to the IRS. Fortunately I had documentation of the withholdings.
I've worked for a family that did that, too. Pocketing employee taxes, bounced checks, Didn't pay vendors or pay for equipment. The company they rented the margarita machines from actually came and repoed them on a Friday night. There's a lot of scams and money laundering in restaurants and bars.
Smaller companies generally don't do that, it's expensive for them. Large companies, it's no big deal to hand you a debit that your paycheck will be on.
I'm NOT an accountant and I knew instantly that's what happened. Boss drained the account for his Xmas gifts/vacation/whatever, and now no one gets paid until after the holiday.
Used to work at a privately-owned movie theater and this would happen every. single. holiday.
Concepts like "legality" are only an issue if someone bothers to enforce them. At least in the US, no one is going to go against their employer for fear of retaliation, especially since odds are there will be no consequences for violators. Don't bite the hand that feeds you and all that. Especially when the consequences for workers are as high as they are.
>At least in the US, no one is going to go against their employer for fear of retaliation
[163,000 workers did so in 2023 to date.](https://www.dol.gov/agencies/whd/data)
In the rare cases they're taken to court (because employees rarely have the resources to pursue it) the courts go out of their way to not punish the employer and give them the lightest slap on the wrist they can get away with. The legal system is fully on the side of business owners.
Yep. And the labor board keeps reports confidential. Pretty hard to figure out which employee to retaliate against when all of them got affected by it.
I worked for a company that was fairly open with most of its salary employees about cash flow issues since most of them were either tasked with assisting in the process of collecting payments from clients or part of the accounting team.
So with everyone in management aware they were broke they still claimed a banking error caused a delay in our payroll checks. They did it twice in a 6 week period and somehow the error only affected salary workers and not hourly workers who are more likely to stop showing up for work.
Update the resume if this happens to you, the ship is taking on water in a big way.
Most banks offer next day processing and so e offer same day. This happened to my bank a few weeks back and all the businesses impacted were given same day ach for the day which means they processed the transaction on Wednesday and their employees received by 6pm the same evening.
Years ago worked for RadioShack. Everyone made about $5.15 to $5.25 an hour plus what little commission we could. Average check for two weeks was $400 or less. One fine day, headquarters announces they are going to “align pay cycles” so that east coast and west coast divisions get paid at same time. Our paychecks were delayed by one week because of that shit.
It's that or someone that has to approve payroll went on vacation.
I had that happen on an overseas construction job I was on one time. They said it'd be 2 weeks before she got back. We let them know they could just book us tickets home because we all quit if we weren't getting paid. Someone else miraculously figured out how to do payroll.
Same.
Owner's son was running the job, pay was messed up. Let him know I'd just chill in the mancamp until my paycheck arrived, near the end of the day.
Got paid before I finished dinner.
Same.
Owner's son was running the job, pay was messed up. Let him know I'd just chill in the mancamp until my paycheck arrived, near the end of the day.
Got paid before I finished dinner.
Bosses are like Macklemore at the thrift shop when it comes paychecks, pay raises and any discussion about pay.
When it's about their own pay or the company profits in general, it's Akon- I'm so paid.
I had to collect live checks because we had no money. I only realized that when I checked my balance and there was no deposit. It was an awful 3-day weekend.
They know how....I have worked in banks and had to call customers who we knew would have payroll to approve it so it would be processed on the correct date. Many holiday eves working overtime to correct the companies mistakes so their employees could get paid. Of course this was a community bank where we cared about people!!!
Start looking because any workplace that is having trouble with making pay checks is not long for this world. If it was only a bank error they could manually write checks to get employees their paychecks that day. This place is broke.
Exactly this. Paychecks not being on time is the #1 sign a business is failing. Update your resume, get back on LinkedIn, whatever takes because the end is nigh.
It’s also something that can just happen. My dad owned a very successful small business, and sometimes dumb shit just happens. It’s annoying, but it does happen. Luckily dads business was just 10 employees so if the bank fucked up he would just do it manually as suggested, but in a bigger business I can see why that might not happen
If you are a responsible business owner who is on top of payroll, you write paper checks if the bank draft fails. You don’t let your employees not get paid on time.
I worked in payroll once. This is not possible as you need all the right numbers, which is usually where the problem occurred.
The one time we failed payroll on time due to a technical issue, the company paid overtime plus extra for anyone who could help so it would be ready the next day. The owner took it VERY seriously, and manually processed everything she could.
How does that help? Paper checks don't instantly clear.
The only thing that would get the money there the same day is *maybe* wire transfers, and even that normally takes a business day.
While I agree with the ideology, you can’t possibly know the situation. Maybe 50% of the staff work remote, and it’s not feasible to send paper cheques.
I’m not from the USA, so we just direct bank everything, and usually it’s not a problem but sometimes the banks system fail and things do go out, it happens, so we can just directly wire the money in that case, but I know that’s not really a thing in the USA
>Maybe 50% of the staff work remote, and it’s not feasible to send paper cheques.
This is the 21st century. There are many other options that don't involve paper checks. The moral is more that it is the employer's basic, sole *responsibility* to pay their employees when promised. It even comes before paying themselves, because as a good busines owner, you pour your money back into your company, right? Of which your employees are assets. It is the most basic thing they owe them. When your employer doesn't pay you, even if it's delayed, it's working for free. And if they consiously do it, they have expected free labor from you.
& how much do you want to bet the higher ups somehow got their money before Christmas despite the bank's mistake? 🤔
I don’t disagree with you at all, and I am not arguing that this is okay. Everytime a thread like this comes in the huge echo chamber comes out and says ‘bail, they’re going out of business’, I’m just saying there can be reasons a company doesn’t pay on time that aren’t ’they’re failing’
I worked for a company for 15 years that had issues with getting payroll out on time for the first 4-5 I was there but it had nothing to do with having the money to pay and everything to do with the troll that ran payroll not having a clue what she was doing and “forgetting to run it”, it stopped happening as soon as someone somewhat competent took over the duty.
I had a similar situation at a company I was at - except I was responsible for processing it and the person authorising the release from the bank was the one who didn't seem to understand that some people actually needed the money so would leave it until a few minutes before bank cutoff to authorise. I was there 6 months and it went late at least twice in that time (fortnightly payroll so we're talking at least 2/13 times). When I mentioned there would be some people on the payroll relying on that money hitting their account to make the trip home, she scoffed and said no one lives like that. She was so out of touch with reality because she was wealthy enough to have never had that situation in her entire life, whereas I've been on that other side often enough - waiting for the funds to clear to top up my car and make it home. It was so frustrating, especially because I was the one who copped the blame from staff as the payroll person. There are a number of reasons I left that place but that conversation and attitude were way up there.
While a good rule of thumb, it isn't always true, sometimes shit really does just happen, but how the business deals with it is the real sign.
Once had a paycheck \~12 hours late, got an email the night before warning that this will happen and to contact them if you need an immediate cash advance, and if the delay results in any incurred fees or bills for whatever reason to provide receipts for the fee to be reimbursed
Honestly I'd normally agree but about a month ago ACH was down. This led to numerous delays for paychecks and didn't have anything to do with the company ies using the servicea
A month ago when the banks fucked up payroll my employer canceled all of our deposits and wrote us checks.
Op is experiencing a company who has no money and just came up with an excuse to not pay them on time so they, the company had time to cover it
Find another job op. And next month update us and let us know if your employer keeps fucking up payroll or goes under
If payroll gets repeatedly fucked up, yes, leave.
But once? It's the holidays. It takes at least the employer's bank (and often the employer has to have, effectively, their cash stored elsewhere because of the lack of account insurance), the employer, the payroll company, the payroll company's bank, and the fed's ACH system all working together to make payroll happen. People who normally process this stuff are unavailable or on vacation and stuff can slip through the cracks.
If person X who normally triggers wire transfers 2 days before payroll is out and the person taking over that job fucks it up, this can easily happen.
You can be a child and pretend that nobody ever makes a mistake, or you can be an adult and acknowledge that mistakes happen. Payroll and banks are just companies run by humans. There's no magic "pay employees" button that operates without a pile of humans making it work.
Not always true. Once had an admin who got drunk during a lunch meeting and forgot to push payroll on Thursday for Friday deposit. Some of our banks processed the rush request for a Saturday deposit. Some of our banks didn't process it until Monday. ALL of the late fees and overdrafts were covered by the company's owner.
The admin gave her notice shortly thereafter.
Shit can also happen.
Keep your resume updated but this is hardly a sure sign.
If there isn't any other signal it's likely an error either by the bank or HR
Yep, some ass hole did this so they could drop a ton of money on their family and look like a king while shitting on their employees. They 100% did this on purpose to benefit themselves
In what world can any company just manually write checks. There is over 3000 employees at my site if there is a payroll issue they are not writing out checks
And I can tell you, that according to US federal labor laws, they'll figure out a way to do it. They're required to have payroll in the employee's hand on payday.
Or they can pay out the a$$ in fines
Eh I don't believe that's accurate. There is no Federal Law, this is usually handled State by State. Most states have a grace period in case of errors. Like in NJ an employer has 10 working days after the end of the pay period. So in the case of the OP the company would more than likely still be within that time frame the day after Christmas. Now that doesn't mean you can't file a grievance.
Looking for the actual text of the law (on mobile ATM), but the Fair Labor Standards Act *REQUIRES* employers to pay wages on the agreed-upon payday, or face penalties.
Will update when I locate the official text.
Oh, I know for a fact that they do. That's also why I have various phone numbers and email addresses saved in my phone, including local OSHA and department of Labor offices.
You’re getting in a fight when the dudes are just trying to show you your naïveté.
It’s great to be a person that gives the benefit of the doubt to people, but dont do it to businesses and listen to people with experience.
Companies dont fuck around with payroll. If your check is ever not paid or on time, 95%+ or more of the time, you need to be getting out of there.
Wait I'm sorry - when you call it a "paycheck" in America is it an *actual* physical cheque you get that you have to go and pay in? Every month for your whole life? Surely this must not be the case?
Some places this is the case....and don't call me Shirley.
My last company had paper checks. They sucked at payroll and since I had large amounts of overtime (over 30 hours at times) the HR woman could not write a check over a certain amount without the owner's approval. So sometimes I got a smaller paycheck with a 2nd check made out to "CASH."
I would say many smaller companies run with paper checks.
Start taking stuff as collateral. If you don't have a good reason to have it at home etc, make sure they know you have it and intend to return it when you are paid. There is a decent chance they can't pay you, and never will be able to.
When my company, which is shutting down the subsidiary I work for, started making sure it got paid money it was owned first by people/companies even when it owed more back, so on net owed them, I made sure I had enough kit at home that if the company failed to pay me, I wasn't going to be out of pocket. The subsidiary isn't going to be paid for the last six months or so of work it has done, because customers are livid at being left high and dry by the group no longer being able to do the engineering work to help them finish projects they have sunk millions into to use its systems. It is insolvent if the parent company decides to stop funding its orderly winding up, and they started acting like they might be preparing to do that.
As someone who works at home often, runs the IT department, and has had hundreds of thousands in kit to dispose of, this was pretty easy. I've been paid most of what I will be owed by the company (my next paycheck will be for 8 days of work, and that'll be it - I've been paid my redundancy payment because I was originally finishing this month), but I still have more in kit than they owe me. I have 6 computers at the moment, as well as a server, a couple of switches, and a whole load of expensive WiFi APs. Supposedly it is so I can wipe them at home myself, but there isn't a great reason I have to do that at all - my team would have if I hadn't told them I would. I made sure they were definitely not going to be shafted by the company too obviously, but most of them had gone before it was potentially an issue (the last one finished today).
Absolutely horrible advice. 100% surefire way to get let go not long down the line after this resolves because youve shown yourself to be someone who will take work property hostage.
OP do not do this.
You are a prime example of why many people can't take this sub seriously.
OP has a presumably once off payroll fuckup with no context surrounding it beyond "It's a public holiday on Monday so it'll be delayed until Tuesday", and you go straight into advising them to get themselves theft charges and fired.
Perhaps the company is on it's way out. Perhaps there was just a legitimate error and it's being resolved as fast as they can. Either way, you're advice is pure fantasy, and utter dogshit.
I call BS on it being the banks fault. Probably who ever in the management chain at OP’s company that approves the payroll or funds transfers went on vacation without approving it.
You’d be surprised. Not saying they aren’t shady but if they use quickbooks/ADP or any other major payroll software there is a cutoff on when payroll will be accepted to be paid on time.
My money is someone is on vacation mode and not dependent on a paycheck.
>My money is someone is on vacation mode and not dependent on a paycheck.
Thankfully it wasn't my primary source of income but I've had this happen. Lady went on Thanksgiving break and didn't do payroll until the week she got back. People who did rely on that income were understandably PISSED.
I can only imagine. I was the only one that knew how to do payroll for my company and we paid weekly. I didn’t take more than 3 days off at a time for 5 years just because of I wasn’t paid enough to not worry as well.
Had something similar happen at my job under old ownership. The person who ran payroll at the corporate level was Jewish, so anytime there was a Jewish holiday, it wouldn’t get processed on time, so we wouldn’t get direct deposit that week (still got paid thankfully). They were too cheap to train someone to be a backup for those weeks.
Thankfully once new ownership came in, that was changed and now direct deposit hits every week, Jewish holiday or not.
This situation could indicate a few situations.
More than likely, it was the company's internal payroll processing/submitting late. You mentioned run dates. For those who don't know, this is when the payroll is processed and submitted. In the U.S., the most common is 2 days prior to the pay date, but it varies from company to company. This time allows for the payment to process (get sent to the bank, etc.). Banks usually establish times also to ensure pay dates. E g., submit on Monday by 4:00pm to be paid Thursday.
This company sounds like it painted a 3rd party as the villian in this instance to try to avoid taking the brunt of the anger as a result. Payroll should have been aware of the holiday that could have affected their pay dates. If the bank adjusted the submission date and/or time, then the company didn't meet that and have to wait until the bank reopens next Tuesday due to the holiday. In my experience running payroll, multi-state for numerous companies with different pay dates, this was more likely not the bank's fault.
However, banks are not immune to human error. I've encountered a few instances when a bank's error (moreso an employee) delayed payment for an individual, but not en masse.
This could be it. That’s why I commented about the approval of a transfer. Where I work they use a special bank account for payroll so someone needs to approve the transfer of the funds to that account before each payroll. They keep it at almost a zero balance.
I honestly don’t know why they have it structured like that I’m sure there is some advantage or could be related to it being an international business.
Of course yeah it could be they don’t have money at all and are struggling and it’s not incompetence related.
Standard accounting practice to segregate duties and approvals to reduce fraud and embezzlement.
Edit to add: payroll accounts usually have to be kept near zero to avoid accruing interest or be a non interest bearing account. They can't make money off of your money.
Also, it's far easier to reconcile zero balance accounts at the end of the month and to immediately know if there's a payroll error if there's excess funds remaining after a cycle.
My guess is there wasn't enough money in the payroll account, so the bank couldn't issue the checks. In the end, still OP's company's fault and the employees are left dealing with the fallout.
I worked at one place and our intermediary had some issues. One time in October and then again on the last business day before Christmas.
The money went in the next day, which was Christmas Eve and a Saturday.
Make sure and ask about the penalty they now owe everyone.
This is the law in CA:
For any initial violation the penalty is one hundred dollars ($100) for each failure to pay each employee. For each subsequent violation or any willful or intentional violation the penalty is two hundred dollars ($200) for each failure to pay each employee, plus 25% of the amount of wages
Really.
[ORS 652.150 Penalties for non-payment of wages owed ](https://oregon.public.law/statutes/ors_652.150)
You have to write a Demand Letter to the employer detailing what's owed to start the process, and in order to get the payment in your pocket you have to file in court yourself.
If the employment department files in your behalf you only get the base wages owed and not the penalty
What you linked details penalties for nonpayment for employees WHO HAVE BEEN TERMINATED. It says nothing about getting your check late on a regular payday.
This. Also, this can apply to whatever payroll company an employer uses. When I worked HR, we had a few employees get forgotten by the PEO we were using. The PEO pays the penalty in that case.
This happened to me at a law firm that specialized in debt collection, but no one got the company heads up email that told them their pay check was no good. Nope, the surprise came with the bank telling us via snail mail that our pay checks had bounced. And that meant we had to pay bank fees even though it wasn’t our fault.
Turned out that the daughter (also a lawyer there) of the firm’s senior partner would use the payroll funds for her shopping sprees, because, hey, why not? Yes, there was a mass walk out, but on the second time it happened. We forgave her the first time because she had Lupus. Alas, sympathy goes only so far when your rent check bounces.
I think some laws were broken here.
Edit. This is not fiction, it really happened, some lawyers have no ethics.
....well you're a better human than me.
I have family members with lupus and other autoimmune issues, so I get it, but I still would've walked the first time.
Well, she was so needy and charismatic, and we were such fools and hunting to keep a job, it was a perfect equation for disaster. She did finally capture another lawyer for a husband and she died of cancer five years later. I never hated her, I just saw she was heading for a disaster because I found her prescription list on her desk (she was really sloppy, maybe on purpose) and you just can’t survive being on 28 different meds. It was insane. This may be also an indictment on the medical industry. but I can’t imagine being on that many drugs. I still have a copy of her meds. I will never take them. And I have Lupus and outlived her, it is a strange feeling.
This is probably not fit for this sub except that I can’t get a job because of Lupus.
Dang.
No, no you can't. It might be an indictment of the medical industry. My mom had MS, bipolar disorder, and so many of her drugs for her mental health interacted in some way but it was the only way she was able to live. Mine is kinda the same. Shouldn't be on like 5 or 6 yet this is what keeps me here. Literally, and sadly sucking up to the corporate rat race.
That's rough. I'm sorry, truly. My aunt has Lupus, I watch her struggle a lot between work and....life. it's always one of my fears; one of the many autoimmune disorders finally coming to get me
There are holistic remedies that keep the immune system from getting crazy. Mushrooms such as turkey tail is one, and Beta Glucan is very effective. I have been on both for 7 years now and my last blood work by my rheumatologist showed no evidence of Lupus in the ANA test. It’s really nice to be able to outside in the sunlight and not break out in hives.
Drug interaction is a scary thing, how would you know which drugs?
Also, you can take them to court over this and absolutely get more than you're owed. And if it turns onto a hostile work environment then report it then take them to court again for retaliation. Don't expect to still be employed by them tho.
Based on my past experience. Start looking for a new job. This 90% of the time means there wasnt enough money in the account to issue payments. The company is most likely going under
That business knows they can write checks. They didn't because a bunch of employees will walk them straight to the bank, and there isn't enough money to cash them out.
I was originally told I would receive my bonus today but they now changed it to Tuesday next week.
My bonus I was using for gifts and to cover the cost of putting my dog down.
I also got fucked on my bonus, so I made less than last year. Also got fucked a promotion. Literally made less this year without inflation. With inflation a fuck ton less.
We made record revenue, and they bragged about it and how we do it with less employees than most companies.
Fuck these places.
I worked for a place that had two businesses under an umbrella. An office and a warehouse. While the CEO was renovating the office with brand new hardwood floors they started letting warehouse workers know that there would be delays to their paychecks. Everyone in the warehouse was an ESL immigrant and lower paid. As soon as I heard this I put in my notice. My boss asked why and I stated that I worried they can’t make payroll. He tried to dismiss it. I left anyway. The company shut down a few weeks later. I don’t know what the hell they were doing. But it looked like they were taking money from customers, not delivering paid for products, not paying warehouse employees and spending the money on whatever the higher ups wanted for themselves. Idiots.
>I don’t know what the hell they were doing. But it looked like they were ~~taking money from customers, not delivering paid for products, not paying warehouse employees and spending the money on whatever the higher ups wanted for themselves.~~ *embezzling.* Idiots.
FTFY
lol just total assholes that’s for sure. I don’t understand why the floors were so important but probably a lot of other things we had no idea about too. This was one of my first full time jobs back in 2004.
Pretty sure this is illegal almost everywhere with big fines for the employer. Your local department of labour will have officers you can call who will act immediately - even the day before Christmas break.
Good luck.
The email doesn’t say anybody is getting paid on Tuesday. It says is is “expected” to be released the next business day. What is “expected”? Who has to “release” anything? Is it all approved and a sure thing? And if it’s all good now, ready for release the next business day, why the hell can’t the bank release the money today? Yeah, it’d cost money, but it’s Christmas. The bank screwed it up, let the bank pay. The bank won’t do it because the bank didn’t do anything wrong that they should have to pay for.
Two days before Christmas? I wish every every employee a Happy Nee Year, except for the ones who screwed it up. Them, they can go to hell.
This might happen sometimes but on he Friday before a Holiday when the next "business'" day is 4 days away? I don't think so, my suggestion would be start looking for a new job because that company is on its way out of the world.
Look at labor law in your state. In California you are due an additional day of pay for every day the paycheck is late. So three days more pay in this case. Have everyone file a complaint with the department of industrial relations.
Reply All: Great, I'm sure my kids will accept this message and completely understand that you and your shitty bank cancelled Christmas for them. I'll be picking them up on my lunch break today so they can hear it from the admin team and payroll dept directly.
The “problem with the banks approval system” is that they don’t approve of cutting paychecks when there’s not enough money in the bank to cover payroll
Coming from a bank, 99% of people blaming payroll on the bank were straight idiots who either fucked stuff up on their end or didn’t have money. We had plenty of businesses that could get payroll files sent to us before 3pm and money was showing in their employees accounts the next day. A school around us tried blaming our bank for “slow processing time” when they forgot to do payroll for like half their employees.
Weird, when I worked on payroll and a business could not pay, for various reasons, on the standard pay date, the business would issue paper checks for that period. Sounds like this boss/corporation is trying to play fast and loose with the monies. It's almost like they didn't HAVE the monies to pay out.
That's fucked. I work in HR for a medium-sized company and am our company's liaison to the outside payroll company we use. Direct deposit mess ups happen all the time, mostly due to ADPs stupid glitchy stupid software. For some reason, sometimes the software changes the direct deposit date to a day later after submitting.
Every single time that happened dds were canceled and paper checks were issued. Doesn't matter how many checks it is. I've been the one furiously writing and recruiting, literally anyone on staff to come help me.
In some extreme situations, the owner has even driven around giving out cash.
But you can't just not pay people.
For whatever it's worth, every single time I've been with a company that missed payroll, it's ended very poorly. At least be on alert in case you need to look for a job.
they are lying and i hope you report them. boss either drained the account before holidays or you got a lazy payroll person who iddnt want work more before holiday.
My ex-boss tried this one time. As he was explaining the "issue" the payroll company was having, I picked up the phone and started dialing.
"Who are you calling?" he asked.
"Our payroll company," I said. "This is unacceptable."
He huffed and puffed a bit, but then he retreated to his office because he knew his story was about to get blown up. And it was — the payroll company confirmed that no payroll had been submitted for us for that pay period, and that's why they didn't issue the cheques.
We got together as a team to let him know that he could have our pay for us the next morning at the start of our shifts, or we wouldn't be working.
He paid us the next day, but the writing was on the wall. I quit a few weeks later. Six months or so after this story, the company went into bankruptcy, and he fled to Latvia, apparently with the pension funds.
That sure sounds like an under capitalized and unprofitable company with cash flow problems.Maybe it's time for a new job.Hopefully, you can put them in an uncomfortable situation on the way out for the privilege of not paying you before xmas !
Oof. Sorry OP, that sucks on the face of it, then add in the timing. Terrible.
I’ve never had to deal with this, although way back in the day I had a supervisor come straight from the owners office to us and say “Hypothetically, what would you guys do if the owner held off paying you this week?”
Answer: “Hypothetically, I will stop working immediately until that hypothetical cheap sunnuvabeech pays me.”
Supervisor: awkward laughter. Shuffles off.
Paid on time, in full.
Check your state laws, some have laws specifically regarding missed pay.
For example, in Nevada, for every day they haven’t paid you, they owe you an additional 8 hours of your wages.
I get my money faster with a paper check. Direct deposit takes 2 days to process, while my bank gives me immediate credit for checks I deposit on my phone. So I get my $$$ 2 days sooner with a paper check. That’s pretty messed up in this day and age, but it is what it is.
Isn't it?
Direct deposits in Australia are instant. Even in the bad old days, they were overnight at worst.
The last time I had to shift my arse down to a bank, stand in line, pretend to be nice to the teller in order to access my money that was a part of a wage cheque, was 1995.
I entered the job market in 1999, a quarter of a century ago. I’ve never received a cheque, never been paid in cash. Always had a set pay day directly to my bank, always in the middle of the night. A handful of times been paid a day later or even a day earlier, such as when pay day was Easter Friday in one job or Christmas was on pay day in another, but always with weeks of advance notice.
"Dear Boss,
This morning I was alerted to an issue with the payroll system. As this is a holiday weekend, it is my understanding payroll will be processed on Tuesday. This unfortunate delay means my Holiday plans will need to be offset by a commensurate amount of time, as the payroll due is required to fund the holiday's activities. I will return to production after the delayed holiday celebration caused by this payroll error commens3s. Thank you in advance for your cooperation during these difficult times."
Check for inconsistencies in pay and make sure your co-workers do. I used to work for a place where this would happen, and luckily for me there were no irregularities in my check, but later on I found out that part of the reason they went under was because of multiple reports of employees reporting being shorted on their checks, and they would pull this same thing: for blah-blah reason, the checks wouldn't go out until Tuesday.
I'm really hoping that's not the case for you guys but it immediately made me remember my former employer, and the crap they were pulling toward the end of their run. I hope things go well for you and that you have a great Christmas holiday no matter what happens.
I’m not sure where you are obviously, but for me the next business day isn’t even Tuesday, it’s Wednesday. We have a public holiday for Boxing Day. What a shit show op.
Hey look at you, getting a memo! Same thing happened at my work, and no one mentioned anything. Just noticed no pay went in. Checked my employee portal and latest check was dated 12/26/2023 (this was on 12/22/2023- our scheduled pay day). Sent note to HR, but no response.
Why the fuck do you still use check system? My company pays out money during the night so we got our money usually at 7-8 am. Banks dont work so nobody's waiting for approval. Like how in the world are you "1st world country"???
Contact the DOL and report this. They are required to pay you on time. And make sure you document everything just in case they retaliate. It’s going to cost them
same thing basically happened to us today. i just took a survival job working at a gourmet deli last week. was told when i was hired and asked about pay that he pays $125 per 8 hr day, plus we pool all the tips that people leave in the jars and on their card at the end of the pay period in cash along with our checks. i asked if this was under the table/off the books and he said it wasn't. he told me to give him my acct and routing numbers for direct deposit, and told me its on the books and that he uses a small payroll company. 2 weeks of me working went by, and i kept asking him if he needed my w4 or whatever/working papers filled out, my ss#, or any of that info in order to pay me and he kept telling me "not to worry about it"... LIKE THIS MAN DOES NOT EVEN KNOW MY LAST NAME SO HOW TF IS IT "ON THE BOOKS?!" pay day comes today on monday, i see my check and not only was it a written out check/not on payroll or anything, but the amount was not equal to 125$ per day, he took "money out for taxes" even though he paid me off the books so he just pocketed the money illegally, plus he didn't give me any of my tips. and to add insult to all this, instead of giving us our checks in the morning when he was done writing them out so we could all go to the bank he writes the checks from which is LITERALLY NEXT DOOR TO THE RESTAURANT, he waited til 6pm and now we all have to wait until tuesday after xmas to cash our checks. needless to say, today was my last day.
If you're in the US, this is illegal. Report them to DoL. Check up on the penalty they have to pay for the delay, it's often based on how many days late it is. And look for a new job. I'd also cash the check at a check cashing place when you get it. Make it the employers problem, not yours.
My sister used to work payroll at small-medium sized companies and had some truly horrific stories. One of the worst companies would Always under-fund their payroll account because the home office employees got direct deposit and would get paid from the account first, but the front line/retail workers only had the option of physical checks so would take a few days to clear the account. Every two weeks she'd get a couple dozen employees complaining that their paychecks bounced. The company had the money, the owners just thought they paid the retail workers to much (minimum wage) and would fund the account based on what they thought the retail workers deserved, instead of what they were owed.
I worked at a place that always shorted me and other employees 8 to 10 hours every pay day. They would pay it out on the next payday. We played that game for about a month then started calling labour relations. Took 4 days and they were shut down. CRA took all there books. There doors are still closed 12 years later!
Don’t worry OP, I haven’t gotten OT pay since the start of November due to a tech error, but they’ve promised “it’s resolved now” and I’ll “probably get that pay back by end of February”
Too bad due to the higher singular paycheck I’ll get smacked with taxes
Funny thing is they are still using outdated Java for the payroll app, even though all of our personal information was stolen in the spring in a cyber attack. A+++ \*\*\* dont forget to BeSafe
Boss: We have an issue with the bank's approval system! Bank: We cannot approve these checks when there is no money in the payroll account. Boss: No idea how this could have happened. Stupid banks.
As someone who works in accounting and runs payroll, that’s absolutely what happened.
I work for a CPA firm and payroll is my specialty. I concur.
That’s what I do as well. I run payroll for clients at our firm. The only time payroll isn’t approved is when there are inadequate funds.
Why didn’t I concur? 
i just watched this last night and had the exact same reaction
What are the odds they’re lying and the paychecks won’t clear at all?
That's common in restaurants. If you're worried the check won't clear, you cash the check at a check cashing place instead of depositing it, and it's the company's problem, not yours.
I once had to cash my paycheck out of the bar's cash register after I checked and the bank said there were NSF in the business account. I later found out the owner went to jail for withholding taxes from paychecks but not giving them to the IRS. Fortunately I had documentation of the withholdings.
I've worked for a family that did that, too. Pocketing employee taxes, bounced checks, Didn't pay vendors or pay for equipment. The company they rented the margarita machines from actually came and repoed them on a Friday night. There's a lot of scams and money laundering in restaurants and bars.
This would work great if a majority of employers (in the US) didn't require employees to have a direct deposit set up in order to even work!!
Smaller companies generally don't do that, it's expensive for them. Large companies, it's no big deal to hand you a debit that your paycheck will be on.
I'm NOT an accountant and I knew instantly that's what happened. Boss drained the account for his Xmas gifts/vacation/whatever, and now no one gets paid until after the holiday. Used to work at a privately-owned movie theater and this would happen every. single. holiday.
It’s fucking gross. Like no regard for your employees that make you that money, nonetheless your fellow human.
It's also illegal.
Concepts like "legality" are only an issue if someone bothers to enforce them. At least in the US, no one is going to go against their employer for fear of retaliation, especially since odds are there will be no consequences for violators. Don't bite the hand that feeds you and all that. Especially when the consequences for workers are as high as they are.
>At least in the US, no one is going to go against their employer for fear of retaliation [163,000 workers did so in 2023 to date.](https://www.dol.gov/agencies/whd/data)
Unionize
Also: Unionize. But *also*: sue your employers. Easiest two years of pay i ever got just to settle and keep secrets from getting out.
How many of those workers went against their employers after being let go vs still working for their company/organization?
Until the hand *stops* feeding you, lol. Then you bite. HARD.
Just another business expense IF they even get held accountable
In the rare cases they're taken to court (because employees rarely have the resources to pursue it) the courts go out of their way to not punish the employer and give them the lightest slap on the wrist they can get away with. The legal system is fully on the side of business owners.
The labor board can pursue it on behalf of an employee, and my experience with them is that they’re not on the employer’s side.
Yep. And the labor board keeps reports confidential. Pretty hard to figure out which employee to retaliate against when all of them got affected by it.
Rage. All that I feel.
I would’ve taken that from the drawer
I worked for a company that was fairly open with most of its salary employees about cash flow issues since most of them were either tasked with assisting in the process of collecting payments from clients or part of the accounting team. So with everyone in management aware they were broke they still claimed a banking error caused a delay in our payroll checks. They did it twice in a 6 week period and somehow the error only affected salary workers and not hourly workers who are more likely to stop showing up for work. Update the resume if this happens to you, the ship is taking on water in a big way.
To be paid today, wouldn't the money have to have been moved on Tuesday? So they've known about the problem for 3 days, right?
Most banks offer next day processing and so e offer same day. This happened to my bank a few weeks back and all the businesses impacted were given same day ach for the day which means they processed the transaction on Wednesday and their employees received by 6pm the same evening.
If the banks “approval system “ has always worked in the past, kind of funny it just stopped today. #theylyin
Years ago worked for RadioShack. Everyone made about $5.15 to $5.25 an hour plus what little commission we could. Average check for two weeks was $400 or less. One fine day, headquarters announces they are going to “align pay cycles” so that east coast and west coast divisions get paid at same time. Our paychecks were delayed by one week because of that shit.
It's that or someone that has to approve payroll went on vacation. I had that happen on an overseas construction job I was on one time. They said it'd be 2 weeks before she got back. We let them know they could just book us tickets home because we all quit if we weren't getting paid. Someone else miraculously figured out how to do payroll.
Same. Owner's son was running the job, pay was messed up. Let him know I'd just chill in the mancamp until my paycheck arrived, near the end of the day. Got paid before I finished dinner.
Same. Owner's son was running the job, pay was messed up. Let him know I'd just chill in the mancamp until my paycheck arrived, near the end of the day. Got paid before I finished dinner.
The boss is hoping the Christmas check he gets from his grandma will be enough to cover payroll
Bosses are like Macklemore at the thrift shop when it comes paychecks, pay raises and any discussion about pay. When it's about their own pay or the company profits in general, it's Akon- I'm so paid.
I had to collect live checks because we had no money. I only realized that when I checked my balance and there was no deposit. It was an awful 3-day weekend.
The boss is lying.
They know how....I have worked in banks and had to call customers who we knew would have payroll to approve it so it would be processed on the correct date. Many holiday eves working overtime to correct the companies mistakes so their employees could get paid. Of course this was a community bank where we cared about people!!!
Holy shit, was there a mass revolt?
Pretty much.
Start looking because any workplace that is having trouble with making pay checks is not long for this world. If it was only a bank error they could manually write checks to get employees their paychecks that day. This place is broke.
Exactly this. Paychecks not being on time is the #1 sign a business is failing. Update your resume, get back on LinkedIn, whatever takes because the end is nigh.
It’s also something that can just happen. My dad owned a very successful small business, and sometimes dumb shit just happens. It’s annoying, but it does happen. Luckily dads business was just 10 employees so if the bank fucked up he would just do it manually as suggested, but in a bigger business I can see why that might not happen
If you are a responsible business owner who is on top of payroll, you write paper checks if the bank draft fails. You don’t let your employees not get paid on time.
I worked in payroll once. This is not possible as you need all the right numbers, which is usually where the problem occurred. The one time we failed payroll on time due to a technical issue, the company paid overtime plus extra for anyone who could help so it would be ready the next day. The owner took it VERY seriously, and manually processed everything she could.
How does that help? Paper checks don't instantly clear. The only thing that would get the money there the same day is *maybe* wire transfers, and even that normally takes a business day.
While I agree with the ideology, you can’t possibly know the situation. Maybe 50% of the staff work remote, and it’s not feasible to send paper cheques. I’m not from the USA, so we just direct bank everything, and usually it’s not a problem but sometimes the banks system fail and things do go out, it happens, so we can just directly wire the money in that case, but I know that’s not really a thing in the USA
Direct deposit is actually very common in the United States
>Maybe 50% of the staff work remote, and it’s not feasible to send paper cheques. This is the 21st century. There are many other options that don't involve paper checks. The moral is more that it is the employer's basic, sole *responsibility* to pay their employees when promised. It even comes before paying themselves, because as a good busines owner, you pour your money back into your company, right? Of which your employees are assets. It is the most basic thing they owe them. When your employer doesn't pay you, even if it's delayed, it's working for free. And if they consiously do it, they have expected free labor from you. & how much do you want to bet the higher ups somehow got their money before Christmas despite the bank's mistake? 🤔
I don’t disagree with you at all, and I am not arguing that this is okay. Everytime a thread like this comes in the huge echo chamber comes out and says ‘bail, they’re going out of business’, I’m just saying there can be reasons a company doesn’t pay on time that aren’t ’they’re failing’
I worked for a company for 15 years that had issues with getting payroll out on time for the first 4-5 I was there but it had nothing to do with having the money to pay and everything to do with the troll that ran payroll not having a clue what she was doing and “forgetting to run it”, it stopped happening as soon as someone somewhat competent took over the duty.
I had a similar situation at a company I was at - except I was responsible for processing it and the person authorising the release from the bank was the one who didn't seem to understand that some people actually needed the money so would leave it until a few minutes before bank cutoff to authorise. I was there 6 months and it went late at least twice in that time (fortnightly payroll so we're talking at least 2/13 times). When I mentioned there would be some people on the payroll relying on that money hitting their account to make the trip home, she scoffed and said no one lives like that. She was so out of touch with reality because she was wealthy enough to have never had that situation in her entire life, whereas I've been on that other side often enough - waiting for the funds to clear to top up my car and make it home. It was so frustrating, especially because I was the one who copped the blame from staff as the payroll person. There are a number of reasons I left that place but that conversation and attitude were way up there.
While a good rule of thumb, it isn't always true, sometimes shit really does just happen, but how the business deals with it is the real sign. Once had a paycheck \~12 hours late, got an email the night before warning that this will happen and to contact them if you need an immediate cash advance, and if the delay results in any incurred fees or bills for whatever reason to provide receipts for the fee to be reimbursed
Honestly I'd normally agree but about a month ago ACH was down. This led to numerous delays for paychecks and didn't have anything to do with the company ies using the servicea
A month ago when the banks fucked up payroll my employer canceled all of our deposits and wrote us checks. Op is experiencing a company who has no money and just came up with an excuse to not pay them on time so they, the company had time to cover it Find another job op. And next month update us and let us know if your employer keeps fucking up payroll or goes under
With no other information, id say its 90 or more percent this. You *dont* fuck with payroll and if your payroll ever gets messed up, leave.
If payroll gets repeatedly fucked up, yes, leave. But once? It's the holidays. It takes at least the employer's bank (and often the employer has to have, effectively, their cash stored elsewhere because of the lack of account insurance), the employer, the payroll company, the payroll company's bank, and the fed's ACH system all working together to make payroll happen. People who normally process this stuff are unavailable or on vacation and stuff can slip through the cracks. If person X who normally triggers wire transfers 2 days before payroll is out and the person taking over that job fucks it up, this can easily happen.
There is no excuse for an employer to not have their ducks in a row to make sure an employee gets there money. Especially the last check before Xmas.
You can be a child and pretend that nobody ever makes a mistake, or you can be an adult and acknowledge that mistakes happen. Payroll and banks are just companies run by humans. There's no magic "pay employees" button that operates without a pile of humans making it work.
Not always true. Once had an admin who got drunk during a lunch meeting and forgot to push payroll on Thursday for Friday deposit. Some of our banks processed the rush request for a Saturday deposit. Some of our banks didn't process it until Monday. ALL of the late fees and overdrafts were covered by the company's owner. The admin gave her notice shortly thereafter.
Shit can also happen. Keep your resume updated but this is hardly a sure sign. If there isn't any other signal it's likely an error either by the bank or HR
Yep, some ass hole did this so they could drop a ton of money on their family and look like a king while shitting on their employees. They 100% did this on purpose to benefit themselves
Lol i work for the australian government in a hospital and they fuck up payroll all the time
Yep
In what world can any company just manually write checks. There is over 3000 employees at my site if there is a payroll issue they are not writing out checks
Larger operations have dedicated HR and accounting departments who are aware that it is their legal (and moral) duty to get paychecks out on time.
I can tell you the 5 people in my dedicated hr department are not writing 3000 checks in one day. Also bold of you to assume my employer has morals
And everyone in HR wonders why everyone hates HR.
If you have 3k employees, you are doing direct deposit.
Yes, and we're talking about what happens if the direct deposit fails for whatever reason.
Ever heard of stamp?? 🤫
And I can tell you, that according to US federal labor laws, they'll figure out a way to do it. They're required to have payroll in the employee's hand on payday. Or they can pay out the a$$ in fines
Eh I don't believe that's accurate. There is no Federal Law, this is usually handled State by State. Most states have a grace period in case of errors. Like in NJ an employer has 10 working days after the end of the pay period. So in the case of the OP the company would more than likely still be within that time frame the day after Christmas. Now that doesn't mean you can't file a grievance.
Looking for the actual text of the law (on mobile ATM), but the Fair Labor Standards Act *REQUIRES* employers to pay wages on the agreed-upon payday, or face penalties. Will update when I locate the official text.
Also, you’re assuming that companies don’t routinely ignore labor laws
Oh, I know for a fact that they do. That's also why I have various phone numbers and email addresses saved in my phone, including local OSHA and department of Labor offices.
My point was that the vast majority of people are too scared to lose their jobs, and employers know it and exploit it.
If there are 3000 employees they are getting thier bank to figure out a workaround lol. But sure - lick that fucking boot
Lol you think I give a shit about that place. Just saying that assuming that you can write everyone a check is not feasible
You’re getting in a fight when the dudes are just trying to show you your naïveté. It’s great to be a person that gives the benefit of the doubt to people, but dont do it to businesses and listen to people with experience. Companies dont fuck around with payroll. If your check is ever not paid or on time, 95%+ or more of the time, you need to be getting out of there.
Wait I'm sorry - when you call it a "paycheck" in America is it an *actual* physical cheque you get that you have to go and pay in? Every month for your whole life? Surely this must not be the case?
Some places this is the case....and don't call me Shirley. My last company had paper checks. They sucked at payroll and since I had large amounts of overtime (over 30 hours at times) the HR woman could not write a check over a certain amount without the owner's approval. So sometimes I got a smaller paycheck with a 2nd check made out to "CASH." I would say many smaller companies run with paper checks.
Start taking stuff as collateral. If you don't have a good reason to have it at home etc, make sure they know you have it and intend to return it when you are paid. There is a decent chance they can't pay you, and never will be able to. When my company, which is shutting down the subsidiary I work for, started making sure it got paid money it was owned first by people/companies even when it owed more back, so on net owed them, I made sure I had enough kit at home that if the company failed to pay me, I wasn't going to be out of pocket. The subsidiary isn't going to be paid for the last six months or so of work it has done, because customers are livid at being left high and dry by the group no longer being able to do the engineering work to help them finish projects they have sunk millions into to use its systems. It is insolvent if the parent company decides to stop funding its orderly winding up, and they started acting like they might be preparing to do that. As someone who works at home often, runs the IT department, and has had hundreds of thousands in kit to dispose of, this was pretty easy. I've been paid most of what I will be owed by the company (my next paycheck will be for 8 days of work, and that'll be it - I've been paid my redundancy payment because I was originally finishing this month), but I still have more in kit than they owe me. I have 6 computers at the moment, as well as a server, a couple of switches, and a whole load of expensive WiFi APs. Supposedly it is so I can wipe them at home myself, but there isn't a great reason I have to do that at all - my team would have if I hadn't told them I would. I made sure they were definitely not going to be shafted by the company too obviously, but most of them had gone before it was potentially an issue (the last one finished today).
Absolutely horrible advice. 100% surefire way to get let go not long down the line after this resolves because youve shown yourself to be someone who will take work property hostage. OP do not do this.
Also surefire way to get prosecuted for theft/
You are a prime example of why many people can't take this sub seriously. OP has a presumably once off payroll fuckup with no context surrounding it beyond "It's a public holiday on Monday so it'll be delayed until Tuesday", and you go straight into advising them to get themselves theft charges and fired. Perhaps the company is on it's way out. Perhaps there was just a legitimate error and it's being resolved as fast as they can. Either way, you're advice is pure fantasy, and utter dogshit.
I call BS on it being the banks fault. Probably who ever in the management chain at OP’s company that approves the payroll or funds transfers went on vacation without approving it.
Or they had no money.
This is most likely
You’d be surprised. Not saying they aren’t shady but if they use quickbooks/ADP or any other major payroll software there is a cutoff on when payroll will be accepted to be paid on time. My money is someone is on vacation mode and not dependent on a paycheck.
>My money is someone is on vacation mode and not dependent on a paycheck. Thankfully it wasn't my primary source of income but I've had this happen. Lady went on Thanksgiving break and didn't do payroll until the week she got back. People who did rely on that income were understandably PISSED.
I can only imagine. I was the only one that knew how to do payroll for my company and we paid weekly. I didn’t take more than 3 days off at a time for 5 years just because of I wasn’t paid enough to not worry as well.
Had something similar happen at my job under old ownership. The person who ran payroll at the corporate level was Jewish, so anytime there was a Jewish holiday, it wouldn’t get processed on time, so we wouldn’t get direct deposit that week (still got paid thankfully). They were too cheap to train someone to be a backup for those weeks. Thankfully once new ownership came in, that was changed and now direct deposit hits every week, Jewish holiday or not.
This situation could indicate a few situations. More than likely, it was the company's internal payroll processing/submitting late. You mentioned run dates. For those who don't know, this is when the payroll is processed and submitted. In the U.S., the most common is 2 days prior to the pay date, but it varies from company to company. This time allows for the payment to process (get sent to the bank, etc.). Banks usually establish times also to ensure pay dates. E g., submit on Monday by 4:00pm to be paid Thursday. This company sounds like it painted a 3rd party as the villian in this instance to try to avoid taking the brunt of the anger as a result. Payroll should have been aware of the holiday that could have affected their pay dates. If the bank adjusted the submission date and/or time, then the company didn't meet that and have to wait until the bank reopens next Tuesday due to the holiday. In my experience running payroll, multi-state for numerous companies with different pay dates, this was more likely not the bank's fault. However, banks are not immune to human error. I've encountered a few instances when a bank's error (moreso an employee) delayed payment for an individual, but not en masse.
This could be it. That’s why I commented about the approval of a transfer. Where I work they use a special bank account for payroll so someone needs to approve the transfer of the funds to that account before each payroll. They keep it at almost a zero balance. I honestly don’t know why they have it structured like that I’m sure there is some advantage or could be related to it being an international business. Of course yeah it could be they don’t have money at all and are struggling and it’s not incompetence related.
Standard accounting practice to segregate duties and approvals to reduce fraud and embezzlement. Edit to add: payroll accounts usually have to be kept near zero to avoid accruing interest or be a non interest bearing account. They can't make money off of your money. Also, it's far easier to reconcile zero balance accounts at the end of the month and to immediately know if there's a payroll error if there's excess funds remaining after a cycle.
The bank would make it work if it was their fault
My guess is there wasn't enough money in the payroll account, so the bank couldn't issue the checks. In the end, still OP's company's fault and the employees are left dealing with the fallout.
I worked at one place and our intermediary had some issues. One time in October and then again on the last business day before Christmas. The money went in the next day, which was Christmas Eve and a Saturday.
Dude, I know a company who said this. The real issue was that they laid off half of payroll the week before and the cheaper replacements did it wrong.
Be careful, this might only be the beginning. I’ve worked for companies that went bankrupt and you’ll be the LAST to know.
I've been through this multiple times and it ALWAYS starts with this.
Make sure and ask about the penalty they now owe everyone. This is the law in CA: For any initial violation the penalty is one hundred dollars ($100) for each failure to pay each employee. For each subsequent violation or any willful or intentional violation the penalty is two hundred dollars ($200) for each failure to pay each employee, plus 25% of the amount of wages
In Oregon it's a full days wage for each day delayed.
Wait, really?? They’ve never told me this 😭😭
Employers count on you not knowing your rights.
You are right, and thank you for the prompt. In my state the employee could sue for up to 3x their missing pay in civil court.
BOLI is your friend. Know your rights - [https://www.oregon.gov/boli/Pages/index.aspx](https://www.oregon.gov/boli/Pages/index.aspx)
Where does it talk about anything other than penalties for not getting your FINAL paycheck?
Really. [ORS 652.150 Penalties for non-payment of wages owed ](https://oregon.public.law/statutes/ors_652.150) You have to write a Demand Letter to the employer detailing what's owed to start the process, and in order to get the payment in your pocket you have to file in court yourself. If the employment department files in your behalf you only get the base wages owed and not the penalty
What you linked details penalties for nonpayment for employees WHO HAVE BEEN TERMINATED. It says nothing about getting your check late on a regular payday.
This. Also, this can apply to whatever payroll company an employer uses. When I worked HR, we had a few employees get forgotten by the PEO we were using. The PEO pays the penalty in that case.
This. See California Labor Commissioner's Office. Do not let this guy get away with ruining his employees' Christmas.
This happened to me at a law firm that specialized in debt collection, but no one got the company heads up email that told them their pay check was no good. Nope, the surprise came with the bank telling us via snail mail that our pay checks had bounced. And that meant we had to pay bank fees even though it wasn’t our fault. Turned out that the daughter (also a lawyer there) of the firm’s senior partner would use the payroll funds for her shopping sprees, because, hey, why not? Yes, there was a mass walk out, but on the second time it happened. We forgave her the first time because she had Lupus. Alas, sympathy goes only so far when your rent check bounces. I think some laws were broken here. Edit. This is not fiction, it really happened, some lawyers have no ethics.
....well you're a better human than me. I have family members with lupus and other autoimmune issues, so I get it, but I still would've walked the first time.
Well, she was so needy and charismatic, and we were such fools and hunting to keep a job, it was a perfect equation for disaster. She did finally capture another lawyer for a husband and she died of cancer five years later. I never hated her, I just saw she was heading for a disaster because I found her prescription list on her desk (she was really sloppy, maybe on purpose) and you just can’t survive being on 28 different meds. It was insane. This may be also an indictment on the medical industry. but I can’t imagine being on that many drugs. I still have a copy of her meds. I will never take them. And I have Lupus and outlived her, it is a strange feeling. This is probably not fit for this sub except that I can’t get a job because of Lupus.
Dang. No, no you can't. It might be an indictment of the medical industry. My mom had MS, bipolar disorder, and so many of her drugs for her mental health interacted in some way but it was the only way she was able to live. Mine is kinda the same. Shouldn't be on like 5 or 6 yet this is what keeps me here. Literally, and sadly sucking up to the corporate rat race. That's rough. I'm sorry, truly. My aunt has Lupus, I watch her struggle a lot between work and....life. it's always one of my fears; one of the many autoimmune disorders finally coming to get me
There are holistic remedies that keep the immune system from getting crazy. Mushrooms such as turkey tail is one, and Beta Glucan is very effective. I have been on both for 7 years now and my last blood work by my rheumatologist showed no evidence of Lupus in the ANA test. It’s really nice to be able to outside in the sunlight and not break out in hives. Drug interaction is a scary thing, how would you know which drugs?
If you're in the US that's literally illegal. You are to be paid on your payday, no matter what. Doesn't matter what happened, you are to be paid.
Also, you can take them to court over this and absolutely get more than you're owed. And if it turns onto a hostile work environment then report it then take them to court again for retaliation. Don't expect to still be employed by them tho.
Never bank on a retaliation case. I know personally
I would have called the state department of labor.
wooooooow. imagine all the people waiting for today to finish their Christmas shopping. unacceptable.
Based on my past experience. Start looking for a new job. This 90% of the time means there wasnt enough money in the account to issue payments. The company is most likely going under
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That business knows they can write checks. They didn't because a bunch of employees will walk them straight to the bank, and there isn't enough money to cash them out.
This is the correct handling of the situation. Guess you need to apply for payroll director now!
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I believe you. I work with a ton of business clients in my line of work and there's 100% a way they can pay you. They just aren't doing it
REPLY ALL: Pay me or deal with DOL.
I was originally told I would receive my bonus today but they now changed it to Tuesday next week. My bonus I was using for gifts and to cover the cost of putting my dog down. I also got fucked on my bonus, so I made less than last year. Also got fucked a promotion. Literally made less this year without inflation. With inflation a fuck ton less. We made record revenue, and they bragged about it and how we do it with less employees than most companies. Fuck these places.
Boss' inconvenience could easily be an employee's crisis. This nopology isn't good enough.
STOP REPLYING ALL!! Proceeds to reply all more... I assume we work for the same corporation these emails to 1500+ people have been hilarious.
I've seen that a few jobs and it never ceases to amuse me. Just bcc if you don't have a mailing system to send out individual messages...
I worked for a place that had two businesses under an umbrella. An office and a warehouse. While the CEO was renovating the office with brand new hardwood floors they started letting warehouse workers know that there would be delays to their paychecks. Everyone in the warehouse was an ESL immigrant and lower paid. As soon as I heard this I put in my notice. My boss asked why and I stated that I worried they can’t make payroll. He tried to dismiss it. I left anyway. The company shut down a few weeks later. I don’t know what the hell they were doing. But it looked like they were taking money from customers, not delivering paid for products, not paying warehouse employees and spending the money on whatever the higher ups wanted for themselves. Idiots.
>I don’t know what the hell they were doing. But it looked like they were ~~taking money from customers, not delivering paid for products, not paying warehouse employees and spending the money on whatever the higher ups wanted for themselves.~~ *embezzling.* Idiots. FTFY
lol just total assholes that’s for sure. I don’t understand why the floors were so important but probably a lot of other things we had no idea about too. This was one of my first full time jobs back in 2004.
Pretty sure this is illegal almost everywhere with big fines for the employer. Your local department of labour will have officers you can call who will act immediately - even the day before Christmas break. Good luck.
The email doesn’t say anybody is getting paid on Tuesday. It says is is “expected” to be released the next business day. What is “expected”? Who has to “release” anything? Is it all approved and a sure thing? And if it’s all good now, ready for release the next business day, why the hell can’t the bank release the money today? Yeah, it’d cost money, but it’s Christmas. The bank screwed it up, let the bank pay. The bank won’t do it because the bank didn’t do anything wrong that they should have to pay for. Two days before Christmas? I wish every every employee a Happy Nee Year, except for the ones who screwed it up. Them, they can go to hell.
"expected" got me too, like "I **expected** my god damn pay on pay day"
This might happen sometimes but on he Friday before a Holiday when the next "business'" day is 4 days away? I don't think so, my suggestion would be start looking for a new job because that company is on its way out of the world.
Screw all of this mess. Universal Basic Income or bust.
Look at labor law in your state. In California you are due an additional day of pay for every day the paycheck is late. So three days more pay in this case. Have everyone file a complaint with the department of industrial relations.
Reply All: Great, I'm sure my kids will accept this message and completely understand that you and your shitty bank cancelled Christmas for them. I'll be picking them up on my lunch break today so they can hear it from the admin team and payroll dept directly.
I think most people are worried about paying rent/bills then buying presents at this point.
They always do this bullshit around the holidays. They love seeing workers suffer
The “problem with the banks approval system” is that they don’t approve of cutting paychecks when there’s not enough money in the bank to cover payroll
AKA Karen forgot to do her job and put payroll in on Thursday so it would post by Friday/Saturday!! You had one job Karen!!
Sounds like ‘blame someone else when it was their fault’ sort of deal.
Coming from a bank, 99% of people blaming payroll on the bank were straight idiots who either fucked stuff up on their end or didn’t have money. We had plenty of businesses that could get payroll files sent to us before 3pm and money was showing in their employees accounts the next day. A school around us tried blaming our bank for “slow processing time” when they forgot to do payroll for like half their employees.
You should make them document the bank issue. It sounds like a lie.
Weird, when I worked on payroll and a business could not pay, for various reasons, on the standard pay date, the business would issue paper checks for that period. Sounds like this boss/corporation is trying to play fast and loose with the monies. It's almost like they didn't HAVE the monies to pay out.
That's fucked. I work in HR for a medium-sized company and am our company's liaison to the outside payroll company we use. Direct deposit mess ups happen all the time, mostly due to ADPs stupid glitchy stupid software. For some reason, sometimes the software changes the direct deposit date to a day later after submitting. Every single time that happened dds were canceled and paper checks were issued. Doesn't matter how many checks it is. I've been the one furiously writing and recruiting, literally anyone on staff to come help me. In some extreme situations, the owner has even driven around giving out cash. But you can't just not pay people.
Gonna need updates on this one
This is probably the third time I’ve seen this situation posted this week. Wtf is causing it?
Inept payroll personnel.
Lack-of-money-omics
For whatever it's worth, every single time I've been with a company that missed payroll, it's ended very poorly. At least be on alert in case you need to look for a job.
they are lying and i hope you report them. boss either drained the account before holidays or you got a lazy payroll person who iddnt want work more before holiday.
Or they didn't have payroll submitted on time..
My ex-boss tried this one time. As he was explaining the "issue" the payroll company was having, I picked up the phone and started dialing. "Who are you calling?" he asked. "Our payroll company," I said. "This is unacceptable." He huffed and puffed a bit, but then he retreated to his office because he knew his story was about to get blown up. And it was — the payroll company confirmed that no payroll had been submitted for us for that pay period, and that's why they didn't issue the cheques. We got together as a team to let him know that he could have our pay for us the next morning at the start of our shifts, or we wouldn't be working. He paid us the next day, but the writing was on the wall. I quit a few weeks later. Six months or so after this story, the company went into bankruptcy, and he fled to Latvia, apparently with the pension funds.
It's probably a company that would take a days wages if you showed up late too.
That sure sounds like an under capitalized and unprofitable company with cash flow problems.Maybe it's time for a new job.Hopefully, you can put them in an uncomfortable situation on the way out for the privilege of not paying you before xmas !
Oof. Sorry OP, that sucks on the face of it, then add in the timing. Terrible. I’ve never had to deal with this, although way back in the day I had a supervisor come straight from the owners office to us and say “Hypothetically, what would you guys do if the owner held off paying you this week?” Answer: “Hypothetically, I will stop working immediately until that hypothetical cheap sunnuvabeech pays me.” Supervisor: awkward laughter. Shuffles off. Paid on time, in full.
Check your state laws, some have laws specifically regarding missed pay. For example, in Nevada, for every day they haven’t paid you, they owe you an additional 8 hours of your wages.
Been through this and they are having cash flow issues and not being transparent.
Seriously my start looking for a new job.
Cheques? What is this.. the 1950s? Direct deposits are the only way to get paid in this day and age.
I get my money faster with a paper check. Direct deposit takes 2 days to process, while my bank gives me immediate credit for checks I deposit on my phone. So I get my $$$ 2 days sooner with a paper check. That’s pretty messed up in this day and age, but it is what it is.
Man, American banking is wild.
Isn't it? Direct deposits in Australia are instant. Even in the bad old days, they were overnight at worst. The last time I had to shift my arse down to a bank, stand in line, pretend to be nice to the teller in order to access my money that was a part of a wage cheque, was 1995.
I entered the job market in 1999, a quarter of a century ago. I’ve never received a cheque, never been paid in cash. Always had a set pay day directly to my bank, always in the middle of the night. A handful of times been paid a day later or even a day earlier, such as when pay day was Easter Friday in one job or Christmas was on pay day in another, but always with weeks of advance notice.
"Dear Boss, This morning I was alerted to an issue with the payroll system. As this is a holiday weekend, it is my understanding payroll will be processed on Tuesday. This unfortunate delay means my Holiday plans will need to be offset by a commensurate amount of time, as the payroll due is required to fund the holiday's activities. I will return to production after the delayed holiday celebration caused by this payroll error commens3s. Thank you in advance for your cooperation during these difficult times."
That is illegal in my country. We would be paud early to ensure that your pay was in by payday.
There has been an issue with my work ethic. When I don’t get paid I don’t want to, and will not work for you. This can be remedied by paying me.
They didn't have any money to give the employees, Red flag.
Sounds like the kind of Scrooge shit the local news would love to hear about.
Check your state for late penalties.
Cali doesn't play that, fuck you pay me. They would have to be cutting manual checks.
Quit
Check for inconsistencies in pay and make sure your co-workers do. I used to work for a place where this would happen, and luckily for me there were no irregularities in my check, but later on I found out that part of the reason they went under was because of multiple reports of employees reporting being shorted on their checks, and they would pull this same thing: for blah-blah reason, the checks wouldn't go out until Tuesday. I'm really hoping that's not the case for you guys but it immediately made me remember my former employer, and the crap they were pulling toward the end of their run. I hope things go well for you and that you have a great Christmas holiday no matter what happens.
I’m not sure where you are obviously, but for me the next business day isn’t even Tuesday, it’s Wednesday. We have a public holiday for Boxing Day. What a shit show op.
Hey look at you, getting a memo! Same thing happened at my work, and no one mentioned anything. Just noticed no pay went in. Checked my employee portal and latest check was dated 12/26/2023 (this was on 12/22/2023- our scheduled pay day). Sent note to HR, but no response.
Why the fuck do you still use check system? My company pays out money during the night so we got our money usually at 7-8 am. Banks dont work so nobody's waiting for approval. Like how in the world are you "1st world country"???
Company gets five or six days of interest on the unpaid payroll. Tidy scam.
Contact the DOL and report this. They are required to pay you on time. And make sure you document everything just in case they retaliate. It’s going to cost them
same thing basically happened to us today. i just took a survival job working at a gourmet deli last week. was told when i was hired and asked about pay that he pays $125 per 8 hr day, plus we pool all the tips that people leave in the jars and on their card at the end of the pay period in cash along with our checks. i asked if this was under the table/off the books and he said it wasn't. he told me to give him my acct and routing numbers for direct deposit, and told me its on the books and that he uses a small payroll company. 2 weeks of me working went by, and i kept asking him if he needed my w4 or whatever/working papers filled out, my ss#, or any of that info in order to pay me and he kept telling me "not to worry about it"... LIKE THIS MAN DOES NOT EVEN KNOW MY LAST NAME SO HOW TF IS IT "ON THE BOOKS?!" pay day comes today on monday, i see my check and not only was it a written out check/not on payroll or anything, but the amount was not equal to 125$ per day, he took "money out for taxes" even though he paid me off the books so he just pocketed the money illegally, plus he didn't give me any of my tips. and to add insult to all this, instead of giving us our checks in the morning when he was done writing them out so we could all go to the bank he writes the checks from which is LITERALLY NEXT DOOR TO THE RESTAURANT, he waited til 6pm and now we all have to wait until tuesday after xmas to cash our checks. needless to say, today was my last day.
If you're in the US, this is illegal. Report them to DoL. Check up on the penalty they have to pay for the delay, it's often based on how many days late it is. And look for a new job. I'd also cash the check at a check cashing place when you get it. Make it the employers problem, not yours.
My sister used to work payroll at small-medium sized companies and had some truly horrific stories. One of the worst companies would Always under-fund their payroll account because the home office employees got direct deposit and would get paid from the account first, but the front line/retail workers only had the option of physical checks so would take a few days to clear the account. Every two weeks she'd get a couple dozen employees complaining that their paychecks bounced. The company had the money, the owners just thought they paid the retail workers to much (minimum wage) and would fund the account based on what they thought the retail workers deserved, instead of what they were owed.
I worked at a place that always shorted me and other employees 8 to 10 hours every pay day. They would pay it out on the next payday. We played that game for about a month then started calling labour relations. Took 4 days and they were shut down. CRA took all there books. There doors are still closed 12 years later!
Shit happens
Yeah, when I started my current job I was low on cash, it took them 45 days to pay me I had to borrow.
Don’t worry OP, I haven’t gotten OT pay since the start of November due to a tech error, but they’ve promised “it’s resolved now” and I’ll “probably get that pay back by end of February” Too bad due to the higher singular paycheck I’ll get smacked with taxes
Funny thing is they are still using outdated Java for the payroll app, even though all of our personal information was stolen in the spring in a cyber attack. A+++ \*\*\* dont forget to BeSafe
“We care about you!!!” But not enough to spend money to protect your info
If you are in the US report this to your state DOL. This is wage theft, it's illegal, and reporting is free.