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?

I'm on the fence with this one. As you can tell by previous people's posts, there are people that prefer getting it early and those that hate it.

It is also true that the irregular payment could mean that it screws up people's UC claims if they've received two salaries in one period.

It might also be contractual that you're paid on the 24th of every month, so they're not doing anything wrong by paying you on 24th.

But I too would be a little suspicious of the timing, especially if there haven't really been any grumblings amongst staff about the long time in between pay slips or UC problems.

If you're part of a larger charitable organisation (for example, you work for a branch of the RSPCA, rather than the main charity), then it might be a case that they've been told to stick to the contract.

Or, it could be, that they're foreseeing some financial difficulties and are buying some time.

With staff retention issues generally, has there been changes at the top? New Trustees coming in and rocking the boat?

Have you checked the accounts on the Charity Commission website? The last accounts will be out of date, but will give you an idea of the running costs and how much money was in the bank at the last year end.

One place I worked used to pay everyone early but that was stopped because so many people were then looking for advances in January. Another place I worked paid us a third of our monthly salary the week before Christmas and the other two thirds on our normal payday.
As others have said, HMRC makes a big thing of employers reporting the December wages on the normal payment day (last day of the month, last Thursday of the month, etc) even if the wages are actually paid earlier so that no one's UC is affected.

Not mean at all. Ive never had my salary paid early - always last working day of the month and have always managed. Last year one of my DC had theirs paid early ( & despite my advice to not touch it until it was normally due to stop over spending), they had spent it all by end of Dec and really struggled to mange January. They are now asking for their wage to be paid as normal and not early as it was too much of a temptation and made managing January really difficult.

I do think though the employer in your case should have told everyone their new policy much earlier (at least 6 months in advance) so those that rely on getting their wages early had enough time to plan how they could manage christmas without their decemeber wage this year.

I understand where you are coming from OP .
It's about being respectful towards the staff and not moving goal posts .
Unfortunately I work for a company who have suddenly without any notice started making staff wait extra month for overtime, every month the pay is a day or two late, no apologies or explanation, underpayment by £100s and just a total disrespect for the people who work bloody hard for their profits..absolutely soul destroying !

Have you only just been told? I would say actually doing it is 100% fine. If adults know they need more money for a particular time of year, they should perfectly be able to save through the months to have the money they need. If however, work have waited until a few days before a pay packet is due to suddenly spring that you only have one more pay packet before Christmas and not two, that's bad form. A good way for employees to deal with the issue would have been to save a little more for Christmas from each pay packet. You can't really do that with two pay packets, one of which you are expecting imminently!

I wish my work would pay according to the normal schedule. It makes January a very long month.

They should just pay you when they normally pay you. It's up to you how you budget. You have the same amount of money coming in whenever you get it. If you need to anticipate your wage, put it on a credit card or something.

I’m surprised anybody would prefer it this way to be honest, for those who would really need the money early, presumably to spend it over Christmas, I can imagine it being a very long wait for the next pay in January

You should not have assumed though.

I don’t think it’s mean. And I don’t think it’s a good idea to encourage people on low wages to spend money that should last them until the end of January on Christmas meals and gifts! I usually get paid early in December but just ignore the money until my normal pay day. This year there will be three weeks between my Nov and Dec paydays and then six weeks until I get paid in January! I’m happy for payroll to do whatever works best for them but I’ll just carry on as if I’m being paid on what would be the normal dates.

If Christmas is going to be a struggle then people either need to cut back a little or save throughout the year. As others have said, it happens every year and is not a surprise. Relying on early December pay just makes for a miserable January.

Exactly.

YANBU, they should have at least consulted with staff.

FWIW we always get paid in the middle of the month and no later than 17th which is useful as it's always well before Christmas, but there is no big gap after Christmas either.

But December will have been very short so it all evens out…

Not mean at all. Although I like getting paid early and it's helpful for my family, most of my colleagues would welcome normal pay date as they then struggle later on.

They should have communicated beforehand regardless, if it's been custom for them to pay it early for years it's not unreasonable or wild that employees would assume it's going to be the same this year. As has been covered in the thread there are plusses and minuses for both and they can pay on the date it's meant to be on; but the late comms would be an issue to me.

If you are concerned about a charity’s finances you can check them out here https://register-of-charities.charitycommission.gov.uk/en/charity-search

It's actually financially irresponsible for companies to pay this early - it's not encouraging good financial decisions throughout the year.

As someone involved in the decision about paydays for a company, there was a significant business reason for paying early in December.

We pay on the 26th of the month (because bank clearing got awkward in February in the old days), or the Friday before then if the 26th falls on a weekend or BH Monday.

For December, there was an element of paying early because it helped staff with paying for Christmas. The main reason though was so the payroll could be run in time to pay people over Christmas.

Paying on the 26th is impossible because it's a bank holiday so the date ranged from the 21-24th. Also the office closes between Christmas and New Year. Some staff go on leave much earlier, so if the finance people were away it got complicated. We consulted on paying on the 20/21/22 (or the Friday before if a weekend) and 90% said the 20th.

It's now in the staff contracts.

Hope this helps.

The thing is though it doesn’t really even out. The people who desperately want their December pay early are people who need/want that money to then spend on Christmas presents/food/drink/outings. By doing that they then have to make whatever is left of that pay stretch until end of January.

If you were going to just spend as usual in December then there would be no desire to have that pay any earlier.

Yes it's probably because of the ridiculous way UC has been set up.
Can you get a credit card to tide you over? (Paid off full when you receive the bill you pay no interest)

@Startingagainandagain I work with and advise charities.

what size charity is it? Just wondering if it’s a small one you may be able to access minutes that have discussed this and the reasoning why.

I’d presume it’s generally down to cash flow - maybe some funding payments aren’t aligning to make it feasible to pay a week early.

It may have only become apparent in the last month if it’s a smaller charity. A larger organisation (British’s heart foundation etc) should have had plenty of notice and advised folks sooner.

I hate getting paid early in December. It makes for such a long month in January.

I agree they shouldn't have changed it without giving plenty of notice. People start to plan around it and them changing it short notice will cause some people some issues with their Christmas budgeting.

Personally though I don't agree with staff being paid early as it often causes issues with people budgeting through January, which for some reason is always about 13 weeks long every year anyway!

I thought the UC issue is a moot point though if the employer does payroll correctly - we pay early as it happens, but the payslip reflects end of December and it's just the bank transaction that's early.

This is what we do. We used to transfer it to a different account and transfer it back in on the normal payday. Now we use YNAB so it’s a similar thing but it doesn’t actually leave the account now.

I don’t think anyone really understands how crap this is unless your actually on the min wage or low wage.