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?

Same!
It makes January seem never ending, and I always struggle to make it the 5/6 weeks to the January payday! I wish they would just stick to the end of the month, like every other month of the year.

I work in payroll and paying early for Christmas was the worst. We stopped it about 14 years ago because it caused so much hassle.

The amount of emails/calls we would get between Christmas and New Year from people complaining they hadn't been paid, when they had 10 days previous and then panicking that they had spent the money and had nothing to live on for 4 weeks was astronomical.

Exactly. So we are talking about people who are struggling, living beyond their means or not budgeting effectively…

Having fallen into all of those categories at one time or another, my experience is that getting paid early creates as many problems as it solves. You get paid the same in total regardless so, in the grand scheme of things it shouldn’t make a difference. If it does then I suspect there is a larger financial issue.

OK, a few 'hostile' responses

Not sure how you get from people putting different viewpoints, to "hostile".
I mean, you specifically asked if YABU. Currently 79% say you are.

People aren't being hostile, they are answering your question.

Just because " it's how it's always been" doesn't mean it's the best way. What is the point of putting yourself in penury for what's effectively 5 weeks for the sake of one day.

I understand where you're coming from but most people don't get paid until the end of the month and manage well enough.

You will have only had three weeks between November and December paydays. Try to save some of that money and then January won’t be as painful.

The problem is we’re all under pressure to spend at Christmas and if you haven’t got it you’re less likely to spend money you can’t afford. When I was just starting out I used to get paid 10th December and it was awful. We’d all go and see the scheduler by the 16th and beg to be out on the January audits with loads of overtime and meals allowance 🤣🤣

I don’t disagree, paying early creates problems for January as money is spent in December.

In an ideal world everybody would put away £x each month so that in December they have the money there and ready to go for Christmas shopping, that’s the best way to budget for it and doing it that way means no need for an early pay in December.

If payday is 24th of the month then so be it.

It's possible they won't have the liquidity to paybit early and for cash flow reasons meed to stick to the actual pay day this year.

The early payments previously were clearly discretionary and this year they can't exercise their discretion to pay early for whatever reason and you will gave to accept that is the case .

It really shouldn’t make that much difference - you get the same amount of pay across 2 months.

If people choose to spend it all on one go that’s up to them.

Ours only does this so they don’t have to pay hr in the holidays. I don’t think it means they’re financially in trouble.

as others have said 2 paydays is plenty of notice; if people are that reliant on their December salary to fund Christmas perhaps they should be saving more of the year? or spend Less on it?

Spectacularly unreasonable of you. Christmas is the same day every year, so you plan for it if you intend to spend extra. Charities are under huge financial pressure, so it's hard enough just covering wages at all.

I've worked in HR and allowing payroll staff to have time off between Xmas and new year is probably a major factor in an earlier Dec payroll, not the letting staff have money got christmas early ( although it may be positioned as such)

I think you create more problems paying early to be honest, because if you're relying on that to buy things in for Christmas, then you can't afford them, especially when you then need that wage to then last 5 weeks, with most of it already spent. Paying on time, gives you the ,money for it needs to be used for

No it's October. You've just been paid October's wage? And then you'll get November's. It's silly for people to assume they will always get paid early.

Exactly it absolutely messes things up for some people on benefits who are presumably some of the staff with lower income

Why would they go into debt being paid their monthly salary at the usual interval?

I hated this when I worked as a temp agency worker.

The last ten years in two private companies are paid at the usual time and I much prefer it.

we have a lot of low paid staff and that might affect their financial planning how exactly? Of anything it means their pay will last them exactly the same as any other month for both December and January. If they can't budget the organisation should consider running a class.

You can always put Christmas on a credit card and pay it off on the 24th when you get paid if you want.

Personally, I’d cut my cloth this Christmas and enjoy a much nicer January.

OP there's a lot of misinformation on this thread. Depending on how long your employer has been paying you early this is likely to constitute a 'custom and practice' implied contract term.

If so then your employer would have to do a consultation process to change it or could be considered in breach of contract. I'd ring ACAS for advice.

If it's a change to usual practice then yes, more than two months notice would have been appropriate. People may have made plans around the early pay date, and it doesn't matter whether those plans seem desirable or sensible to others.

But I don't see how 'mean' is appropriate here, because it's not inherently better or worse to pay on the usual date. Some people like it and others don't.

Not everyone can get a credit card

We always made it clear each time we paid early that it was a discretionary thing, only confirmed to be happening when the email saying about December pay date was sent out in early December.

I don't think something like this becomes custom and practice.

Unless emails saying it's happening said things like -we will always be paying payroll on date x in December.

If they get paid on, for example, the 25th usually, but we're expecting it to be the 20th in December, then it's basically one pay check between now and Christmas. November's.

Even if you don't go wild, it's the difference between £50 and £100, or £100 and £200 or £200 and £400. And potentially means doing the fresh food shop on Christmas eve, so you're getting the dregs and hoping that there's stuff stocked.

For low wage workers, it could be the difference between a pleasant Christmas and a shit one.

I get it from the business POV but also completely understand why some employees would be distressed and disappointed.