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Original poster

Random question for those aged 50+

87 replies

ShopTattsyrup · 28/08/2020 01:07

Random question that stemmed from a meandering conversation with my mother this evening.

For those of you aged 50+, and therefore doing jobs pre 1985, at what point did getting paid in cash stop being the norm?

My mother remembers getting paid cash in the early 80's for her saturday job in a cafe, but cannot remember if that was still the case five years later when she was working as a waitress and bar staff and no memory of when she started getting pay cheques and when she started getting paid directly into her bank account.

Anyone out there with better memories than her?

OP posts:
Aposterhasnoname · 28/08/2020 06:47

It was around 1988 when my work switched to the bank. They had a union vote on it and bribed us to vote yes by tying it to a bigger pay rise. It caused much outrage among certain ranks who were convinced it was a trick and the amount paid into our bank would differ from our payslips and there’d be nothing we could do about. Some even resigned.

Mummyoflittledragon · 28/08/2020 06:47

I was paid by bank transfer in about 1987 on one Saturday job. When left there maybe a year later and got a better paid Saturday / holiday job, I was paid cash and continued working there for a few years during university holidays. I graduated early 90s and was paid by transfer from then on.

TheNemesisOfLame · 28/08/2020 06:48

I worked full time at Tesco in 1988 and was paid weekly in cash. I got a tax refund and I still recall seeing the notes in the pay envelope...

Tomatoesneedtoripen · 28/08/2020 06:48

i got summer factory work and was paid in cash in 1982

daisypond · 28/08/2020 06:51

I’m 50+ and was still at school pre-1985. My Saturday job, I was paid cash.

Tomatoesneedtoripen · 28/08/2020 06:52

dd was also being paid in cash two years ago for her evening/weekend work, i had to go to the post office in my lunch to put it in her bank, even the post office were complaining about doing this service.

bloodywhitecat · 28/08/2020 06:52

I started work in 1981 aged 18 and have never been paid in cash.

Tomatoesneedtoripen · 28/08/2020 06:56

in fact i did weekend care work 1999- 2002 and was paid in cash in a brown envelope

PaperMonster · 28/08/2020 07:18

I’m 51 and started work in 1987 and that was bank transfer. My Saturday jobs prior to that were cash.

FallonsTeaRoom · 28/08/2020 07:55

I was paid in cash in all my jobs until 1987. Then got a job with the Civil Service and it was bank payments.

Breathmiller · 28/08/2020 08:13

I think it's job dependant and maybe more to do with a salaried pay rather than per hour.
I was paid in cash up to 1989 in casual jobs never had a salary. But my partner got a salaried job in 1990 and it wasnt cash. I think direct into bank account. But then after children i got a job in a bar in 1994/5 and was paid in cash until i left for another job in 1997? that was paid weekly but into my account.

corlan · 28/08/2020 08:17

I worked for the BBC in 1985 and you could still choose to be paid in cash.

Fairybatman · 28/08/2020 08:23

Yes actually that reminds me that I worked in about 1999/2000 there were still a couple of people who chose to be paid in cash, everyone new was bank transfer.

MrsMoastyToasty · 28/08/2020 08:24

I worked for Midland Bank (became HSBC) and was paid into my bank account that also had to be with them.
The branch manager would also look at the cheques drawn on staff accounts (bank cards were only a cheque guarantee card, not a debit card) on a daily basis.

chomalungma · 28/08/2020 08:24

Probably my job in a pizza restaurant in 1991.
Used to quite like getting paid in cash.

MrsMoastyToasty · 28/08/2020 08:25

That was 1985.

diplodocusinermine · 28/08/2020 08:29

Mid eighties - I used to do payroll and remember sitting in a locked office on Thursday mornings with 2 other staff counting the money that had been picked up from the bank by 2 quite elderly male employees - one used to carry a walking stick 'just in case'. Then we'd count each employees wages, and recount, then put it in a little glassine envelope with their payslip. Used to be a bit of breath holding until we'd finished and didn't have any money left over, or were 20p short for the last pay packet, in which case they'd all have to be checked again.

We were given a sweetener of 1 weeks wages to go onto direct payments in about 1985 - lots of complaints from people.

DesdemonaDryEyes · 28/08/2020 08:30

I know a girl who dances in a nightclub and pre Covid she was paid in cash after her Sunday night shift.

Not sure what will happen now they’ve reopened.

TheSeedsOfADream · 28/08/2020 08:32

Paid in cash by WHSmith until Feb 1991 when. You queued up every Thursday for your pay packet.

TheSeedsOfADream · 28/08/2020 08:33

*when I left.

FedUpAtHomeTroels · 28/08/2020 08:34

In 1982 I was working for the NHS I was given an envelope with a check in each month and had to deposit it at the bank.
I was only paid cash when I worked in a nighclub for extra money, we got paid cash once a week.

AuntieStella · 28/08/2020 08:37

I was paid in cash until I started a career in a major employer in the mid 1980s.

By then, big organisations had almost entirely moved away from cash wages.

Newbracelet · 28/08/2020 08:40

I'm 56 and have worked since 15. I've never been paid in cash but my friends were.

BikeRunSki · 28/08/2020 08:42

1989-1992 - casual farm work summer job, cash
1993 - graduate job in engineering consultancy, BACS

Nanalisa60 · 28/08/2020 08:44

I worked In Mothercare in Marble Arch until 1983, I use it go to the cash office ever Friday for my little brown envelope.