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?

Many people while they do appreciate early December pay AT THE TIME complain all January about the long period of time before they get paid and struggle badly afterwards

I hate being paid early in December. Far too tempting to splurge then we are short when direct debits come our on 1st Jan

No. It really used to annoy me at work when nearly every one else was moaning throughout January that they were broke because they'd spent their wages on Christmas stuff. Wed pretend we didn't have 2 months of wages sitting in our account.

They haven’t really given plenty of notice though have they?

2 months is not long to budget for Christmas if you’re on a low income. This could result in people having to go into debt.

We only get told a couple of weeks before if we will get paid early. Tbh I thought the aim of this was to accommodate payroll rather than employees. Personally I don’t like getting paid early and I move my salary to another account until “normal” pay day otherwise it can be nearly 6 weeks between pay days

I get paid early for Christmas and I hate it. Would much rather keep our normal pay rate. It makes January pay even further away.

Surely if you’re using your December pay for your Christmas you’re going to have even less in January?

I mean, they have told you beforehand? And no, they really don’t have to get feedback before making this decision.

I don’t think it’s ‘wrong’ of them but they should have announced it months ago, or ideally in December last year. I don’t think 2 months is enough time for people on a very low wage.

Saying that, I’d just work out the amount of early wage you’d usually spend before Xmas, use your credit card and then pay it off when you get paid on the 24th. It surely can’t be that much as you have to stretch the wage to end of Jan anyway?

Or it could result in people not going crazy over Christmas and having a much nicer January.

It's October.

Absolutely detest being paid early before Christmas but I think they should have said earlier about the change

Reasonable to do, not reasonable if only told just now.

I work for a charity too and we scrapped early Xmas pay a few years ago because it was causing hardship for some colleagues trying to make it through January.

As it is not part of your terms and conditions there is no need for them to consult you.

Two months is adequate notice.

Yes, this is my experience, having worked in payroll. The dates were determined by when the bank holidays fell and also determining shift patterns.

Ultimately, as pp said, it can affect so many people who get benefits, others who are bad at managing their money, and of course , company cash flow. It does not make a lot of sense to pay early.

Yabu. I hate getting paid early in December. It encourages you to overspend and then you've got longer to wait till next payday and are more likely to fall into a spiral of increasing debt.

It's far better for all Christmas purchases to be made from October & November wages so that December's wage can be spent on actual living expenses through to January's payday.

It's not mean to refuse to pay early. Paying everyone early just encourages irresponsibility and is not a kindness.

But they weren't planning to blow their entire pay check on Christmas, surely. It's not a 13th salary. Some budgeting would have needed to take place earlier in the year regardless.

Just because it's a custom does not mean that it's part of the contract and I would say it's a sensible decision to control admin costs better by keeping things "as in" in the world of payroll.

You're worried about the financial health of the organisation @Startingagainandagain - have you any grounds to back that up? Contracts or commissioned services lost? Funding withdrawn? Donations down?

What does your contract say? If it's last working day of the month then YABU, they don't owe you early payment just because they've managed to do it in the past.

That shouldn't happen. I run payroll and HMRC send emails out every year reminding employers that if they pay early at Christmas to still process the RTI return as the usual pay date precisely because of it affecting Universal Credit.

This is what it says i the Oct 24 Employers Bulletin

Guidance for employers on Real Time Information reporting obligations for payments made early at Christmas
Some employers need to pay their employees earlier than usual in December. This can be for several reasons, such as businesses closing during the festive period and needing to pay workers earlier than normal. This is to remind you of the permanent easement on reporting RTI (Real Time Information) that applies during this time.
If you do pay early over the Christmas period, you must report your normal or contractual payment date on your Full Payment Submission (FPS).
For example: if you pay on 20 December but your normal payment date is 31 December, please report the payment date as 31 December. In this example the FPS would need to be sent on or before 31 December.
Doing this will help to protect your employees’ eligibility for income-based benefits such as Universal Credit, as an early payment could affect current and future entitlements.

We have traditionally paid December salaries earlier than usual. This year the payments will be later, though not as late as Christmas eve. This is based on staff feedback - we did a survey and over 80% didn't want the earlier payment. I think it messes up a lot of people's budgeting because of the very long gap between December and January pay. Plus not everyone celebrates Christmas anyway.

I think your employer has given you a reasonable amount of notice of the change to be honest, and it might be that they have had feedback from other employees that has made them rethink.

Only lunatics (and people who dont give a shit about the staff having to work u til late in the evening) do "their last bit of shopping" on Christmas eve, most people, unsurprisingly want to have everything ready before then.

It might not be "mean" exactly but it is a bit inconvenient and at the very least they should have given staff a bit more warning so they could have spread spending out beforehand

God I used to hate working for a company that paid early in December. Just pay me at the end of the month, just like every other month. Why complicate something very simple.

Paying early like this would be a nightmare for anyone who’s relying on UC to top up their wage.

The company I work for don’t pay early when there’s a bank holiday. We have to wait until the Tues if pay day falls on a bank holiday. Same if it falls on a Sunday. Now that’s mean!

I can't imagine one week or so is because of cash flow issues in a company. In fact, if there were, and I was a cash flow accountant, I'd probably prefer to steer clear Christmas Eve, because there would be no time to extend a last minute overdraft to pay employees before a bunch of holidays.

Aside from the general implications for staffing of payroll, I think it's actually pretty irresponsible to pay early - you're actively creating a budgeting challenge when there's no need to do so.

If it's affecting Universal Credit then payroll is operating it wrongly.