Employer not paying wage early this December -mean or not?

[Startingagainandagain]

I work for a charity, so most of the staff are on low-medium wages with no perks or bonuses and under stressful conditions.

The organisation for the past few years has paid the December wage about a week early so people can plan better and use the money for their Christmas meal/gifts.

We have just been told that this is no longer the case and people will be paid on 24th December.

AIBU to think that this is rather mean and should have been discussed with staff earlier on?

No, not mean.
Yes, I think they should have possibly told staff it would be done the following year, e.g last Christmas.

We all have to prepare and budget for Christmas and most of us don't get paid early. It's tough but it's life.

I worked for a company that did this. The big downside was the length of time before your next pay packet at the end of January. A lot of people struggled with it so they reverted to paying people at the end of the month and that worked much better.

I don’t think it’s mean. I think the employer is making a good decision. You will be paid on Christmas Eve - so you can do the last bit of shopping. Getting your pay earlier in December and then spending it before Christmas makes January very miserable. I won’t get paid until the 27th this year - I will do my gift shopping in November.

I do think they should have asked for employee's feedback first before doing this and announced it earlier.

This is happening in my work this year but it's because the employees want it that way. Most are in receipt of universal credit and if they get paid early it shows as them earning double what they usually do that month and so it reduces the universal credit. I'm not in the know about UC but if it makes their life easier I'm ok with it.

Hate being paid early in December. Makes it 5 weeks plus to pay day in January. I’d rather they stick to the correct day every month.

They're paying people on time as they should? Not sure why they'd need to seek feedback on this.

How much more notice do you want? Two months is surely plenty.
I used to get paid early in December and then wait 6 weeks until January pay day which was just as much of a stretch when rent and bills are not going anywhere. I imagine, people can just as easily whack christmas expenses on their credit card and pay it off on the 24th of December.

A lot of staff being on low wages probably means that a large percentage are claiming universal credit of some sort - so paying early would put them at a disadvantage (as seen by the numerous posts on here). So this is probably a good thing.

Early pay in December is the worst! Maybe they HAVE taken on others feedback due to complaints previously

'@TTPDTS

They're paying people on time as they should? Not sure why they'd need to seek feedback on this.'

Because it has been the existing custom for years...

They’ve given you plenty of warning.

I hate early pay in December. Just pay it as normal! Everyone should live within their means.

@Startingagainandagain

But it's not really a "custom" and they've given 2 months notice of a change to how it was done in the prior year.

IME normally the early payroll was due to processing times rather that giving people money early to help with Christmas.

We are considering stopping this because of the havoc it causes for those claims UC.

I’d be concerned there were cash flow issues and asking some questions about the financial health of the charity.

I think budgeting without longer gaps is actually easier. Plus you might be able to buy before Christmas and delay payment. I use Klarna for this and always pay it off. It means you can buy for Christmas and pay off any extra spending when you get paid for £0. I’m not advocating credit for any length of time.

Plus a charity paying early means loss of investment income for them I would have thought.

OK, a few 'hostile' responses (I live within 'my means', thank you very much...) so far and some sensible ones about UC, which is a very good point.

My concern is more than this organisation has some serious issues with staff retention and has been coming with more and more restrictive statements lately and that I know this yet another announcement that is not going to go down well.

'@Greyrocked

I’d be concerned there were cash flow issues and asking some questions about the financial health of the charity.'

This! absolutely this.

This is also what came into my head when I read the announcement.

Its not an entitlement though op
And they have give you plenty of time

I think if you look at this thread you will see that a lot of people don't want to be paid early in December because it makes January very, very long. So perhaps most people won't be against it.

NHS here and they always pay us early. But it's annoying as makes the january really long.

I don't think its mean. But they've clearly communicated it several pay days before to allow people to budget a bit. Its not like its a surprise on the 20th December. As an employer they're being somewhat shortsighted. I've heard one of the reasons they do it is to allow time to sort out any payroll issues, which are plentiful, before christmas. Paying people on the 24th is all well and good if no issues. But if someones not paid its difficult to correct on christmas eve!

Do you think they could have already had “feedback” from staff that you’re unaware of?

For some the early pay is great, in the past I’ve relied on it, but for others it can be a struggle to cope with the long period between pay days.

I agree they could have notified people earlier, especially if it’s been the norm to pay staff early for years. But the reality is they are not obligated to do this.

I think those early paycheques are problematic as they make the already depressing month of January even longer, and I think people's mental health is already sometimes quite fragile after Christmas and the long wait between paycheques can exacerbate it.

Christmas isn't a surprise, it happens at the same time every year. It sounds like some people just aren't planning/budgeting for it v not being able to afford it as the money spent is the same either way. If someone can afford hundreds out of an early December paycheque for Christmas, they likely would have been better off putting a little aside every month so they don't have to do that in the first place.

Lots of people hate being paid early as it's such a long wait for the next pay check. Perhaps your view is in the minority OP? We all know when Christmas is, we have a whole year to budget for it.

Same here we had a younger group of staff ( about 20 of them ) , who basically pissed their pay up the wall before the 1st week in January . We had peole off because they couldn't affort train fare, 2 separate faintings due to people not eating and 10+ requests for " subs" from January wages .
Was a shame because it had worked well in the past, however we had 9 months notice.