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?

2 months notice is enough. And Christmas is the same time every year so you have a year to save for it.

It may be that employees on benefits have been adversely affected by the early payment in years past - which would be a HUGE incentive to return to business as usual.

We have just been advised 24th, is normally around the 22nd.

However, I have a Monzo account and you can have your money at 4pm the day before you get paid so I will have it on the 23rd

Some places address this by paying staff early in December and January, and because February is a shorter month it's a shorter wait to get back to your normal pay day.

OP - My initial reaction was that this change is not fair, however given you are paid before Christmas Day anyway I don't think it as much of a big deal. Often people are paid earlier because otherwise they wouldn't get their pay cheque until it's almost New Year. I've never worked anywhere that you would get paid as far in advance of Christmas as you seem to have been.

At any company where we have been paid early no one has ever expected it to come early. Always wait for communication to come out that it will and never assume

I'd prefer not getting it early to be honest, allows me to budget better and not hate the long January between pay days

I'm paying my staff as normal, I believe in the past they have been paid early and some have had advances on their pay but not this year. They all knew when I brought the business though.

I’m surprised to see that people think you’ve been given enough notice. Lots of people spread Christmas expenses across October, November and December pay. Finding that out now means you don’t have time to plan ahead so will have to fit most of the expenses into two months (or put it on a credit card?).
I don’t actually disagree with the decision to keep it in line with other payroll dates but it should have been communicated at the beginning of the year.

I'm on the fence too. Getting your salary early could be very helpful at the time, when you've Christmas expenses to cover, but it means a rough landing in January, when it's cold and dark and the bills are rolling in. Then there are the complications for those on UC. . .I'm not surprised that some people would rather wait till just before or after Christmas to get paid.

We have historically been paid early, but not as a favour, or to be able to plan Christmas better. It's because payroll usually goes through on 28th of the month, and with 2 (or more bank holidays) just before that, and a Christmas shut down, it gets processed early so there is certainty that is has cleared on time.
It could well be that that's the reason you've been paid early before, but the way the days of the week and the bank hols fall, it makes the most sense to process payroll for 24th.

My employer pays the last day of the month, so just in time for NYE😂 Will be handy for January bills I suppose....

I don't have YNAB, but I do have a spreadsheet. I don't spend my December pay until it's due, if I get paid early. We didn't where I am now last year, which was apparently a change (hoohah ensued, as they only said in December!).

In my first teaching job, early '70s, we were paid July and August salaries together and as we both worked for them it was a very long September!

It doesn't affect Universal credit. Not since the 2019 Permanent Easement was introduced. If it does then the company Payroll dept are not processing the payment correctly.

If they are in that much need for it to be paid early then how are they going to cope throughout January once they’ve spent it on Christmas?

It might be wise to cut back on the presents you were planning to buy and start stocking up on any Christmas cupboard food where possible now so that come the 24th you only need to do a fresh food shop and pay bills as normal.

Thank you everyone for the feedback! I did not expect so many replies.

This does not affect me as I don't have a big family or need to spend a lot of money over Christmas/New Year.

But I am concerned that:

• we have a lot of low paid staff and that might affect their financial planning
• I do think the organisation should have communicated this better and done a little staff survey on the various measures they are rolling out (this is not the only one but I don't want this to be too outing...)
• I am a bit concerned about how this was worded as something that would help the organisation's 'financial planning'.

I completely understand the points made about UC and about people not wanting too big a gap between December and January payslips.

I would be wondering if you are going to be paid at all.

Banks are not going to trace any money if it isn’t received on 24th until at least 27th December and if the H/O of this charity is closed or it isn’t fully staffed it could be 3rd January before you get answers.

Any chance that the charity is going under

What are its accounts looking like (HMRC.gov and the charity name will bring up their accounts)

They did this a few years ago where I work, but iirc they gave us a bit more notice (I think we were told some time in September).

A lot of people moaned, but by the end of January a lot of them realised how much better it was not to have to make the early December pay last 6 weeks.

But their November pay only had to last three weeks so why is there none of that left? Anyone desperate to get paid a week early must either be really struggling, living beyond their means or terrible at budgeting. Any one of those scenarios suggests a bigger problem than just how to pay for Christmas…

Hmrc guidance to employers says that if wages are paid early in December due to Christmas to use the normal pay date for reporting to hmrc becuase otherwise it effects universal credit so paying early should not be an issue for uc

But Christmas Eve is a Tuesday so many will still be working and unable to get to the shops, and obviously it's too late to order anything by then.

I think it's a shame they have changed it but at least they have given some notice so you know what to expect.

Because of Christmas presents surely? It's not the timeframe of each pay that's the problem, but the extra money people need (or feel they need) ahead of Christmas for presents

I think translating decision to stop an admin-heavy salary "perk" to "you might not be getting paid" is scare mongering, @Yalta

A large number of charities are feeling the pinch and are tightening their belts, true. There are some high profile cases of job losses and cut backs right now. True. But sending the OP to the charity commission website doesn't make much sense. Last year's published accounts might help spot a trend. It won't show what's going on right this minute or what might have been happening in context with the reserves policy timings.

Companies who are about to go under don't just postpone Xmas payroll by a week with 2 months notice.

It really makes no difference to company cash flow to delay for a week.

I don't think the charity is going under as it has decent reserves/contracts as well but I do think it is not in a great financial place, which is why I am job hunting and expect that they will be making redundancy next year...

You’re concerned about the low paid staffs financial planning but are they even thinking beyond Christmas? Have they considered how they will manage throughout January?

It seems January would be a struggle for them.

Because it’s November and especially December that are the big spending months for Christmas. Anybody who is bothered about getting December’s pay early is clearly somebody who needs that money to pay for Christmas whether that is presents, food, drinks, meals out, trips etc.

Nobody who has already budgeted/saved for those Christmas expenses would be bothered when they get December’s pay because they’d already have the money there regardless. The only reason you’d want it early is if you need to spend it early, and so especially for those people having to wait 6/7 weeks for your next pay is going to be a long wait.