Today is pay day...

[anewyear]

its 5.55pm and my colleague's and I still havent been paid.

Pay day as per our contracts is the 23rd of each month.
For the last 5 or 6 months prehaps more, our wages are not being paid into our accounts until well after close of business

I would welcome suggestions on how to bring this up with the owner, She is not easy to talk to, she is very good at talking over you and making you seem unreasonable.

Our manager, talks the talk, wont call up and ask if theres a problem.

If it is a small employer then she might be using faster payments rather than BACS. Faster payments go into the recipients bank account within two hours of the person making the payment request. It doesn't sound like she is using traditional BACS as that would usually process into your account at either midnight or 9am on the intended day.
Did you get your wages before midnight yesterday?

If your wages have gone in on 23rd in previous months then I dont think that you can grumble - what time it actually clears is presumably not in her control. However you do need to find out the policy for when the 23rd is at a weekend or bank holiday.

Yes if it specifically says the 23rd in your contract then it should be paid by the 23rd. It sounds like this is the first time it hasn't been though.

Just check with her this morning whether it will be paid today and whether in future she could ensure if the 23rd doesn't fall on a working day you are paid the preceding Friday as your contract does say the 23rd.

I run a small business (drama classes) & pay on the 1st of the month using online banking

I log in sometime during that day (usually evening as I do all my admin in the evenings at home) & pay everyone. I have no idea what day the money reaches people's accounts. I think it depends who they bank with.

If you use fastpay it will arrive within minutes.

If you're making a date a critical payment it is far better to arrange it beforehand and specify the date of payment. What if you should be ill, or delayed, or have a tech failure?

I can't arrange it beforehand because it depends on hours worked up to 31st of the month. So January hours paid in 1st Feb. February hours paid on 1st March.

Our wages went in at a few minures after 9am.

Our manager couldnt find the Handbook.
So Im going to email the owner ask for a copy.

Hi anewyear,
Firstly with regards to Banks - it depends on the Bank. I bank with Natwest and if I am due to be paid on a Monday (or a Tuesday after a Bank Holiday Monday), my wages will always show up on the Saturday before. However, I have a friend who banks with HSBC and while theirs will always show up on the exact day, they can use their debit card to pay for things the day before their wages actually go in - weird I know but it must be the way the banks systems work.
Secondly, I have never heard of people being paid late regurlarly. I think you are exactly right - if the 23rd is on Saturday or Sunday the I would expect the money to be in my account on the Friday before.
Small companies can notoriously be very diffcult to keep their time - I remember working for a small company years ago and they paid everyone by cheque and sent it by post, 2nd class! So if you were due to be paid on a Friday they would send your cheque on the Friday. By the time you got it say the following Wednesday, and managed to bank it by the weeken if you were lucky, you basically ended up with the money about 12 days after the initial payday. It was many years ago and I was young so it wasn't so bad for me but you try telling that to a guy who has bills to pay and a wife and kids to feed!