What time should wages be paid?

[MammaMia05]

im Unsure of the law but should wages be paid in by a certain time or can this be right up until 11.59pm on the agreed day of pay set out in your contract?

my employer doesn’t put the wages into my account until the late PM (last month it was 8:30pm) and usually I message them to ask when they know what time they will be paid in and they will say ‘I’m going to be doing it later’, but in my circumstances I’m the only wage earner in my household and I have my child to support (boss is aware of this).

Today I need to top up the electric and need to do a food shop badly, but we do have enough to last us till the morning for breakfast and fortunately I don’t have any direct debits scheduled to leave my account today.

I haven’t messaged asking when they will be paid in because I do feel awkward asking every pay day 🙈 but I need my wages in the AM to get things in order within my household and keep things ticking over - but AIBU to be getting cheesed off being paid of an evening?

Ps please be kind in responses!

Anytime during the day. If you know they do it later I'd consider the following day as payday psychologically and use that date to budget.

I suppose its still today right up until midnight. A bit crap for you though.

depends what time the finance person hits the send button on payday and how quick the bank is. I would plan for the following day so you aren’t worrying.

That sounds annoying. Don't know the legalities but most pay goes in just after midnight so first thing on payday. Could you reframe things in your head and think of your payday as the day after and work round it like that?

Is it a very small employer? Usually it would be whatever the bank transfers it so out of the employer's control.

By midnight on payday

It's unusual as most prearrange it with banks whi pay much earlier but I guess some small employers do it through online banking themselves once they've finished work. Personally I find that disrespectful but I guess its allowed.

Mine comes in at 1am on payday so it's there when I wake up.

DHs pay is the last Thursday of every month but, it’s always there on 11:59pm on the Wednesday

I don’t know the answer but my best advice is to try to get just that tiny bit ahead so you’re not so dependent on it (and I say this lovingly, I’m not telling you off!)

I really recommend taking a look at YNAB (You Need A Budget) for some help with this.

I realise it doesn’t help you right now when you need it but I swear by it and it’s probably the route you’d have the most control over in the medium to long term.

Ours normally came in around 1-2am but unless your contract specifies a time, it could be at any point on payday I guess. I always have bills coming out the day after.

Yes that is a good way to look at it and I’ll definitely plan for an extra day.

I'd find it cheeky if it wasn't paid until nearer the end of the day. It doesn't really say "we value you" to keep employees waiting. If anything it says "do we have enough money to keep afloat". I think you need to adjust so your budget starts the day after pay day. But it's poor from your employer

Thank you I will have a look at this.

That's not how banks work though.

Each individual bank may well synchronise differently, with the payments taking place throughout the day even though they were all entered and approved days before.

I always have bills go out 2-3 days later, and my credit card renews 2 weeks later, allowing cover for any delays.

The employer's responsibility is to pay you by the end of payday, no sooner. They're not responsible for anything else, which is beyond their control anyway.

I work for a small company and get paid on the last day of the month. I've literally just been paid at 19:15 today, so pretty late in the day. It's different every month. It can be a bit stressful because all my DDs go out of account on the 1st of the month, and there's always a small part of me that panicks that I won't get paid in time.

My employer is a local authority, so they send the money well in advance of payday and it would be in my account at 12.00/1.00am of pay day.

However, I have it paid into Monzo so can request the money come into my account at 4pm the working day before.

If payday falls on a Monday I can get it at 4pm on Friday.

I don't think this is helpful for you OP at the moment. Could you ask your employer, if you have an open relationship, to pay earlier in the day?

They can pay up to 11.59 but why would they

Some employers just seem to love the control of making you wait

I think I do need to have a conversation, however I’m unsure of their schedule on actual payday so it could well be out of their control, or they are just flat out busy and not had chance to send it any earlier.

I work in HR and unfortunately not a legal thing as such. Payday date is contractual but actual time is down to all sorts of factors such as bank used, size of company, whether payroll is outsourced, how long transfers take to show up between individual banks etc. I remember having this issue myself in my last job and found it really frustrating tho as before that it had pretty much always been the case that I would be paid at midnight so it was always in my account straight away when I logged in in the morning. I guess the other posters recommendation to psychologically prep for the following day as payday may be helpful but if there are practical reasons why that may not be possible is there a trusted HR person you could speak to in confidence if you are feeling awkward to ask whether your payment could be done before a certain time? Depending on the size of your company I'm sure they can manage this

I’ve worked for 3 companies and I’ve always received my pay at 11:59pm the day before pay day. I can understand getting your pay late in the day on payday is annoying though, but I think if you know they always do this then just count the next day as payday?

Public Sector, larger companies/organisations and those who have outsourced their payroll use BACS and those files are sent ahead of payday for processing.
Those payments typically are sent (and therefore received) in the early hours of the morning of payday.

Where the employer does their own payroll, they'll be doing the bank transfers manually and it will be whenever the person makes the payment - which as you've discovered, can be any time at all.