To expect to be paid in December

[NigellaThornberry]

I started a new job on the 2nd of December and its a 0 hours contract where I will likely work 2 days a week, plus a bit extra over Christmas. At the interview I was told pay was monthly, but the contract states "pay is monthly in arrears and you will be paid into your bank account on the last working day of the month for hours worked in the previous month".
Surely they arnt expecting me to wait until the end of January to be paid, or are they?!
AIBU to expect to be paid in December, flr work done in December, which is what has usually been the case in other hospitality roles?

if its zero hours then you'll be paid at the end of January as they won't know how many hours you'll have worked in December when they run the payroll.

Our last submission day for payroll is the 6th of the month but we don't get paid until the 26th. If I have expenses after the 6th then it gets paid at the end of the following month.

So I'd assume you'll get paid at the end of January for hours worked in December.

Yes you are correct

my work, any overtime or zero hours is paid a month behind. The dates to be paid end of Dec are 1- 30th November, then that’s paid in December.

when you start as a new employee is absolutely sucks

Monthly in arrears usually means that you're paid at the end of the current month, so starting a job on 2 December would mean first pay day on a day in late December (obviously Christmas complicates things and often pay day could be moved forward to something like 21 December so it's all done and dusted before Christmas and there's a day available to solve any emergency fuck ups that would leave people without money over the Christmas holiday).

However, if you don't get paid the same amount each month, I can see that it will take time for them to work out everyone's pay and it won't be finalised until the end of the month, eg you work extra on NYE (plus they'll have to account for swapped shifts, people not turning up, being off sick etc).

But they shouldn't really make you wait until the end of the following month to be paid, there's no reason why they couldn't pay you a week or two into the new month, I agree with a PP, they're pretending that payroll is far more complicated than it really is.

But do they have any advance system? You could ask for enough to tide you over, but obviously if they're always going to be so late paying, you're always going to be playing catch up and how well you cope with this would depend on how much slack there is in your budget, whether this is your only household income, whether you're able to sensibly manage your cashflow using a credit card, and/or free overdraft facility etc.

They will pay you up to payroll cut off date. Eg 15th. So you’ll be paid for whatever you’ve worked in December until then. Then at end of Jan you’ll be paid for hours worked from 15th December to 15th Jan or whatever their payroll dates are

I would double check with payroll as I once had to go two months without pay when starting a new job. Check with them as there may be something they can do to tide you over, especially as it’s Christmas. If there isn’t anything they can do then you’ll need to be prepared to not be paid for December.

I've had an email back. I am paid end of January for work done in December. Which is a bit annoying as my financial situation is a bit rubbish for various reasons and I'm a single parent. I took this job to help a bit over Christmas but obvs that isn't going to be the case. It's a but shit employers can ask you to work 8 weeks without a single penny from them though.

As others have said, and how all my previous jobs have worked payroll is that pay is a week, two at most, after the end of their pay period so I just wasn't expecting to have to wait so long

As you don't have a set contract you have to complete the working month before they can tot it all up.
It's fell bad for you and i bet youll get emergency tax took off too however payroll should get you to fill a form out to avoid that but they never do.

Hi OP,

That is a particularly poor wait time!! My last place had it on 25th of the month for the previous month's work. It meant doing just the one payroll run with the salaried staff (who got paid on the 25th for the whole actual month, eg 25th Dec is for whole of Dec- so they got 5/6 days in advance!!). It felt really mean when you start but once you're over that hump it just all falls in place. As it was a small team it also meant there was time for someone to be on leave / part time people have time to authorise, so everything was properly completed. I think it was mostly a resourcing issue in the finance team as to run two payrolls is obviously twice the work.

I'd ask if you can have an advance of a certain number of hours that you've already worked. Make sure any amount you ask for you have definitely already worked so there is no concern you'll get paid then run away (new starters obviously there is higher risk of this). Their finance team will probably have some early cut offs for pre-Christmas payments so get in with your request now. Salary advances etc are quite a normal part of payroll and while it's a minor faff for the finance team to keep track it is not really more than 5 minutes work so they really should be able to do it.

That's so shit when people are taking these jobs to earn extra money for Christmas.

Slightly off topic but some people have some ridiculously early payroll cut off dates.

My previous employer worked like this for zero hours. You need to get your timesheet in, it has to be signed off and processed before you can be paid.

@Merryoldgoat our cut off is 4th of the month to confirm hours for month before for pay on 27th… NHS. So people starting on 10th won’t get paid until following month. Bank staff can use an app to draw down their already worked overtime payments early.

Would you not get paid on the last day of December? If cut off is a week or so prior to payday you should still get the first 2/3 weeks you have worked before cut off on last day of December. That’s how I’ve always known it but like others have said best to ask the company

That is a ridiculous cut off

I would ask for an advance for some of the pay, usually not a problem for us and completely understand the need especially new hires and especially around holiday times.

A month in arrears is not unusual. You signed the contract. Expect to be paid December's earnings on last day of January. January's earnings on last day of Feb etc.

We have zero hour staff at my work place and our cut offs for those tend to be mid-month to mid-month

For example pay received at the end of November was for hours worked between 23/10 and 19/11 so someone who started on the 2/11 still would’ve received 2 weeks pay at the end of the month. I think our contracts are worded the same as yours though which can make things confusing but wouldn’t worry too much until they have clarified.

A relation started job similar to this this year and yes it’s the folllowing month. So if you work December they pay you for that end of January and so on. In the case of my relation the employer is also holding the first two weeks worth of wages until the employment ends (it’s a permanent role). I found it very strange and if it was not a well known company I’d have suggested to relation not to take the job.

Im 52 and have never been paid monthly ever ……. It wouldnt bother me just never have.

So in my work set contracted staff I.e 38hrs etc
mare paid there salary on a set day each month any overtime or 0 Hr contract (bank) is paid the following month. This is due to the month having to be completed with the hours done and then submitted to payroll to be processed
quite often payroll runs a few weeks before the actual pay date. It couldn’t process your hours if you haven’t actually worked the full month yet
hope this helps

This is unusual for hospitality but if you reply back to them and ask if you can have an advance for say your first 4-6 shifts because you won't be able to pay your rent otherwise (give a serious reason, not something like to buy presents), then if they are decent, they should pay you something in December to help tide you over. Usually in hospitality, they'd get timesheets for zero hours staff around 20th-24th of the month, to then pay at the end of the same month. Your new place is a bit shit. Bad enough earning min wage without having to wait that long for it.

It's a but shit employers can ask you to work 8 weeks without a single penny from them though.

Yes. I find it interesting that these companies expect workers to give them a form of credit that I doubt they would extend the other way. Basically, any companies doing this are operating in debt, when you think about it.

I've had it happen a few times. At the moment, of various companies I work for freelance, only one does this and to be fair, they are very upfront about this when they take people on. In their case, people's workloads are very variable. But otherwise, I just wonder if it's a way for companies to stay afloat. Or they're just taking the piss.

It depends when payroll runs.

for us you get paid last working day of the month, arrears for 15-15 of month. So if you started 2 December you would be paid at the end of December for the first two weeks that you worked. The second part of December would fall into January pay.

At our work I am salaried but any overtime submitted before end of December will be paid end of January so it is very possible that anything you work December will be paid end of January

Definitely a pisstake