How would you have paid me?

[Halloweenbecominglikehristmas]

Asked last week to work this week daily fir a couple of hours during school holidays. Set time every day from X to X, fixed amount of hours and my price given. Organised working week, prepared for the work etc.
Today told only needed for half that time for today and tomorrow they have an appointment they forgot about.
Very pleasant person, paid for the hours i'd done

Would you, or would you pay for whole week as it was you who changed the days/time needed very last minute.

I would have paid you for the hours you actually worked.

But you asked someone to be available to work. I've had this row. You asked me to do some work between x and y. I was available between x and y, you changed you're mind...but I'd turned down other work to be there ...so I've lost money.

Irrespective if i had thd offer of other work I arranged my life to suit you, you changed your mind at the last minute so you have to pay for my time. End of.

From a moral aspect, no I wouldn't have paid you for work you didn't do. I might have paid from a wanting-to-keep-you-onside-so-you'd-take-my-bookings-again-aspect.

How is the moral, it's hardly treating with fairness, honesty and fair dealing, you asked someone to commit their valuable time and then wouldn't pay them for the time they made available. Immoral and unfair.

They should have paid for the hours they booked you for.

It’s hard to say without knowing the details (i.e. whether this is a one off casual job that you don’t normally do (e.g. babysitting), or whether its part of your normal full time job and you would have booked other clients if they hadn’t booked your time).

I don't think it's immoral to only pay for the hours worked for a casual agreement, no. Just as I don't think it would have been immoral for OP to cancel at the last minute.

It's poor business practice, but I don't think it's generally immoral. (There maybe a caveat or two to that stance depending on what the service/work being done is).

Edit to add: Don't think there's anything wrong with OP pushing back though.

I paid the teenager in full for cat sitting even tho I cancelled her with no notice ( I didn't go away )

I paid the same teenager in full even tho I came home from a weekend away early ( 2 cat visits early )

Just because my plans change does not mean I do not pay what is expected / required.

That’s horrible. The time was pre-booked so other work couldn’t be taken on. I think it’s immoral not to pay.

It's extra annoying as the reason was a forgotten appointment and was so obviously made up!

Very poor form.
Wouldn't oblige her again.

No contract?
I had said "Ok I'll leave you to it" and left. No way I had worked a few hours if I was booked for fixed hours.

If I understand correctly, she cancelled the 2nd half of the week when you arrived for your first 'shift'? Maybe because she gave 48hrs notice for the cancelled days, she thought you'd have time to book something else?

Majority if cancellation policies I've read eg my hair salon and dentist have a charge for cancelling within 24hrs. She should have contacted you earlier to say she was cancelling, but equally, you could have said something when you arrived or had some basic contract rules when agreeing to the job. I assume if you get a similar 'job' in the future, you'll make your cancellation policy clear.

No she cancelled for the next day and for that day only to work half-was told when I arrived

So you had 25% of the booked hours?
You need to set better boundries.

Yes I personally would have paid the full amount agreed if it was me cutting the time. They other person (you) have made themselves available, potentially turned down other work, and had agreed a date for the days/week of work

I think if you have in writing that you will work x number of hours for x amount of pay, then you do have a contract and it should be honoured.
She should at the very least have paid you for the booking you turned up for and she cancelled last minute.
Have you prepped/organised anything for this work or lost any other work because you were booked with her? If you have you should be able to recoup these loses.

I would pay the full amount but legally they probably don’t have to because it’s ad hoc with no contract.

Morally I'd pay for the hours I'd originally booked, especially if it was a small one-off job. You can't mess people around with last-minute changes when they've organised their week around this commitment.