USA, why do you use yearly salaries when discussing remuneration?

[bremon]

I have a hard time believing the average person could budget their way out of a paper bag on a monthly pay plan. Biweekly was all I ever experienced until I began working industrial construction and got paid every Friday.

I briefly worked a job where I was paid bi-weekly and it was awful because it was just out of sync enough with monthly bills that I could never keep it straight in my head whether or not I was in the red.

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If you can afford it I've always found the best way to manage that is to treat your month as 2 cheques and the 2 months that have extra cheques just go straight to investment/savings.

 

[Damaniel]

I get paid twice a month, on the 15th and the last day of the month. I don't know if that's a British company thing, but it's very different than the 'every other Friday' that I was used to with my previous jobs.

 

[Septy]

This thread is also reminding me that Americas don't really use the word fortnight, instead retaining "bi-weekly" which is inherently ambigious.

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Bi means two… two weeks. Of all the things to shit on Americans over, them taking a dumb word like fortnight and making a logical successor word isn't one of them.

 

[FliX]

Bi means two… two weeks. Of all the things to shit on Americans over, them taking a dumb word like fortnight and making a logical successor word isn't one of them.

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bi-weekly can also mean two times a week.

 

[viral]

Monthly, never thought that other countries do it differently. Monthly bills, monthly pay. It just makes sense.

 

[Forsaken82]

Monthly, never thought that other countries do it differently. Monthly bills, monthly pay. It just makes sense.

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I live by planning ahead and budgeting. Having an annual salary is just easier to budget long term with than month by month.

 

[Kraid]

I've only seen discussions of annual salary (for exempt employees) or hourly wage (for non-exempt employees) when talking about wages. When I think about budgeting or whatever, I get 24 equal checks. It's as straightforward as can be for my weird brain.

 

[cwmartin]

I actually do pay my car insurance bill yearly, so there's that

 

[John Caboose]

Practically everyone in Sweden is paid monthly.

Bills are also monthly, generally. Some things/companies do it every 3, 6 or 12 months instead

 

[VegiHam]

I have a hard time believing the average person could budget their way out of a paper bag on a monthly pay plan. Biweekly was all I ever experienced until I began working industrial construction and got paid every Friday.

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I don't understand how the average person can budget with fortnightly pay. Do you pay your rent with one, wait two weeks and pay your bills with the other? Much easier to pay all your monthly outgoings with a monthly income.

Or do bills work differently in America?

 

[Accoun]

I have yet to meet anyone not being paid monthly and I'm just used to think in monthly wages when comparing offers etc. I've only heard about the two weeks thing from _some_ people online, all American IIRC.

 

[Shemhazai]

UK here. We talk about yearly salaries too. Just makes sense since most people aren't changing jobs every couple of months, and those that do (retail for example) tend to have hourly rates.
One of the areas where it's useful is stuff like taxes, since that's based off of your annual income. Not that we do our own taxes if we're salaried, but it's less complicated if you do need to talk to the tax man.

 

[Mukrab]

See my other post on page 1. Ireland, UK, Germany, Portugal are examples.

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While that answers the titles question. I was more asking about your post specifically. Those have a yearly salary listed but it doesnt mean they arent paid on a monthly basis.

 

[ResetGreyWolf]

Uh, it's not just the USA. Same in parts of Europe.

Some people do not get paid every month either, so then you have to ask the question "Uh, per week? Per month? Every two months?" etc.

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Fixed :)

In Sweden no one talks about annual salaries. I always have to divide by 12 when I see people discuss annual salaries in forums online, haha.

 

[VanWinkle]

For people who get paid monthly and that's the norm in their country, does that also apply to those who are paid by the hour? Because typically those people get less money than salaried workers, and thus I'd have to imagine would have a rough time trying to budget through the whole month. I know from my perspective in the US as an hourly worker, I couldn't imagine trying to have to budget for the whole month instead of just two weeks.

 

[pbayne]

For people who get paid monthly and that's the norm in their country, does that also apply to those who are paid by the hour? Because typically those people get less money than salaried workers, and thus I'd have to imagine would have a rough time trying to budget through the whole month. I know from my perspective in the US as an hourly worker, I couldn't imagine trying to have to budget for the whole month instead of just two weeks.

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As someone who works in payroll ive never seen a monthly paid hourly contract. Id never say never cause im sure it exists somewhere in some fashion but i just dont see what the benefit to it would be for the employee or the payroll department.

 

[Wilf Netherton]

Some people receive seasonal wages, like fishermen or teachers. Some work multiple jobs. Some have jobs with commissions so the weekly or monthly rate can vary wildly, like working at a wedding dress shop might be much more lucrative in May than in November. People like farmers may get income only twice per year in huge lump sums. Etc etc. Annual income seems like a good way to generalize across most of the income cycles.

 

[Lylo]

Here in Brazil we get paid monthly and we do not use yearly salaries for any discussions at all. I know that we are the exception.

 

[Pirateluigi]

I'm in the US. I'm currently paid monthly but every other job I've had was either twice monthly or every other week.

 

[Zoe]

I don't understand how the average person can budget with fortnightly pay. Do you pay your rent with one, wait two weeks and pay your bills with the other? Much easier to pay all your monthly outgoings with a monthly income.

Or do bills work differently in America?

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It's just... budgeting. You adapt to whatever is offered.

 

[the-pi-guy]

People that get paid monthly, I am assuming you get paid at the start or end of a month?

I feel like that could be hard on people, to start just after the pay period, to wait a month before getting paid.

 

[LudicrousSpeed]

In the US I've only had one job where I was paid monthly. That actually became a huge problem at first, because I started that job on the second of the month and was then told "yeah, we pay out monthly on the 1st".

I had to talk to someone at the company that we'd have to do something else at least for the first month, because I had just been unemployed and there was no way I was going to be able to afford to work for them for a month before receiving any pay.

EDIT:

As someone who works in payroll ive never seen a monthly paid hourly contract. Id never say never cause im sure it exists somewhere in some fashion but i just dont see what the benefit to it would be for the employee or the payroll department.

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Job I was just referring to was, in fact, monthly paid based on hourly rate.

 

[Klotera]

I don't understand how the average person can budget with fortnightly pay. Do you pay your rent with one, wait two weeks and pay your bills with the other? Much easier to pay all your monthly outgoings with a monthly income.

Or do bills work differently in America?

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If you get paid every two weeks, it works out that you get two paychecks a month 10 months out of the year, and 2 months you'll get a third paycheck. So, most people I know budget assuming two paychecks a month and treat that third as "extra" in the months they get it.

It is actually good to be able to say you have that third check outside your normal budget that can be sent straight to savings or paying down debt or put toward a large purchase outside your normal monthly budget.

 

[VegiHam]

It's just... budgeting. You adapt to whatever is offered.

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Sure; but the other poster said that monthly would be harder to budget. In my country most of the big expanses are monthly, so having all the money come in and go out in one swoop is easier than getting payed in two goes.

If you get paid every two weeks, it works out that you get two paychecks a month 10 months out of the year, and 2 months you'll get a third paycheck. So, most people I know budget assuming two paychecks a month and treat that third as "extra" in the months they get it.







It is actually good to be able to say you have that third check outside your normal budget that can be sent straight to savings or paying down debt or put toward a large purchase outside your normal monthly budget.

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I understand the structure of the paychecks; it's the when to pay which expenses that's throwing me off. Are there different bills to pay with each of the two checks, or do you have to sort of space it out?

 

[Zoe]

People that get paid monthly, I am assuming you get paid at the start or end of a month?

I feel like that could be hard on people, to start just after the pay period, to wait a month before getting paid.

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End of the month for the preceding days. Doing start of the month would make things messy with fiscal/calendar year budgets and filings.

Sure; but the other poster said that monthly would be harder to budget. In my country most of the big expanses are monthly, so having all the money come in and go out in one swoop is easier than getting payed in two goes.

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Even though all of my bills are monthly, that doesn't mean they're all due at the same time. They're spread out throughout the entire month, so if you really are bad at budgeting, you run the risk of using up your whole paycheck before you get to the bills at the end of the month.

 

[Klotera]

Sure; but the other poster said that monthly would be harder to budget. In my country most of the big expanses are monthly, so having all the money come in and go out in one swoop is easier than getting payed in two goes.


I understand the structure of the paychecks; it's the when to pay which expenses that's throwing me off. Are there different bills to pay with each of the two checks, or do you have to sort of space it out?

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Most bills are monthly in the U.S., too, but they're not all due on the same date each month. Rent may be on the 1st, credit card on the 8th, electric on the 16th, etc. Are bills generally all due on the same date elsewhere? Since the bills aren't on the same date each day anyway, when you get paid, you just earmark the money from the paycheck for what needs to be paid in that next pay period.

 

[MrKlaw]

End of the month for the preceding days. Doing start of the month would make things messy with fiscal/calendar year budgets and filings.



Even though all of my bills are monthly, that doesn't mean they're all due at the same time. They're spread out throughout the entire month, so if you really are bad at budgeting, you run the risk of using up your whole paycheck before you get to the bills at the end of the month.

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its fairly common for a lot of bills to allow setting of the due date. We pay by direct debit and I normally try and move as many as possible to the week of payday (so eg 5th of the month)

 

[LudicrousSpeed]

Sure; but the other poster said that monthly would be harder to budget. In my country most of the big expanses are monthly, so having all the money come in and go out in one swoop is easier than getting payed in two goes.


I understand the structure of the paychecks; it's the when to pay which expenses that's throwing me off. Are there different bills to pay with each of the two checks, or do you have to sort of space it out?

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A lot of expenses in the US are not billed strictly on first of the month. For example, my electricity bill is billed once a month but on the date I signed up with the provider, so power bills are always due on the 11th of every month. My phone bill is due on like the 23rd each month. In terms of most bills, the only bill that's actually due the first of the month for me is my rent.

(EDIT: I just remembered, not strictly true, but the other example is a Japanese-based streaming service where they always bill the first of the month, such that you basically only ever want to sign up on or shortly after the first because if you're signing up on the 15th your first month costs full price for half the service time.)

 

[Rosebud]

I have a hard time believing the average person could budget their way out of a paper bag on a monthly pay plan. Biweekly was all I ever experienced until I began working industrial construction and got paid every Friday.

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99% of people in Brazil do that lol

 

[Neuroxia]

People that get paid monthly, I am assuming you get paid at the start or end of a month?

I feel like that could be hard on people, to start just after the pay period, to wait a month before getting paid.

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I get paid at the start of the month (4th or 5th day) for the previous month.

Nowadays i have a decent pay that would last me for a few months easily, but even before that, when i had a shitty salary i never had a problem with receiving the money once a month.
I set aside the amount i needed for my rent and utilities and whatever was left i knew i could use for other things without being worried.

In the end it's the same amount of money regardless if you receive it once or twice a month. The rest is just budgeting.

 

[Man with Knife]

.

 

[Dekuman]

A lot of wellness statistics, like GDP per capita are represented in annual income.
I'm not as convinced it's about estimated, since the annual figure itself is an estimate due to how the bi-weekly payments do not lineup easily with 12 months.

It's just a quick shorthand, we use it in Canada too, though monthly income or bi-weekly is advertised, when discussing total compensation its usually expressed annually to account for one-time events like bonuses, total employer contributions to health care, employment insurance, and perks and to even out income in some sectors where there are heavy and light seasons.

It also more accurately reflects part-time/seasonal income if people only work for part of the year.

 

[hiredhand]

In Finland, salaries are also always either monthly or hourly in job listings and in conversation. In both cases they are paid monthly.

 

[hikarutilmitt]

Most of my previous jobs were bi-weekly, but my current job (since 2016) has been weekly. It's been nice counting on it on a weekly basis because it makes taking care of certain oddly timed bills easier, but I also make enough now that it's less of a concern than it used to be.

 

[Kasai]

I get paid weekly, which is a godsend because it means I'm always a few days away from being paid. It also let's me save easier since there's always money coming in.

 

[alex.magnus]

'Europe' is not a country, I live in Europe. All the job offers I've seen from abroad also show monthly pay.

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live in Europe as well (Italy) and although the job offers talk about monthly salary (usually after taxes) the actual contracts have the yearly number before taxes... also because with permanent contracts we have either 13 or 14 months paychecks per year (some jobs even have 15)

edit: also whenever we get a salary increase we discuss about it using the yearly gross pay (i.e. it's a 2k increase)

 

[Deleted member 59]

UK here, current job of 11 years. my salary is annual rate (gross), my pay is monthly, 12 times a year.

Before this I was paid every fortnight at a retail job where I was hourly rate.

The first month or so between the two was difficult but eventually i caught up and now manage my budget easily. You get one lump sum a month to pay bills, mortgage,s savings etc and then you budget the rest to last the month. I rarely ever go over budget so im not really penny pinching by the end of the month, but next payday is always a relief and time to start over again.

 

[Frankfurter]

Germany over here and we get paid monthly. But when discussing wages with others and also when say negotiating your salary, it's about the annual salary. Partly definitely because you often times don't just get 12 salaries, but e.g. a 13th one and a bonus. So if I were to state my "typical" (i.e. outside of 13th salary or bonus salary months) it'd be significantly lower than my yearly salary divided by 12.

 

[Rahvar]

In Sweden essentially the entire population gets paid on the 25th of every months. Every bill is due at the end of every month. Works great.
No one really speak yearly wages unless for tax reasons

 

[Deleted member 30077]

Discussions here always use monthly wage to comapare but I always found it weird because 2 people can have a salary of 3000€/month while one of them can earn way more thanks to bonusses and other benefits. Using a yearly salary just makes more sense imo.

 

[NSESN]

Brazil, everything is monthly

 

[Cipherr]

Sure; but the other poster said that monthly would be harder to budget. In my country most of the big expanses are monthly, so having all the money come in and go out in one swoop is easier than getting payed in two goes.


I understand the structure of the paychecks; it's the when to pay which expenses that's throwing me off. Are there different bills to pay with each of the two checks, or do you have to sort of space it out?

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We handle it in my house the same way you do more than likely. We have salaries that get paid out to us every 2 weeks instead of once a month. So 26 per year I believe. And we just set all of our important bills to sync with the mortgage due dates. And once a month we pay everything. The fact that its two payrolls per month for both of us is sort of ignored. We treat it as one and just sync up all of the outgoing expenses one time per month.

 

[Ragnar]

As someone who works in payroll ive never seen a monthly paid hourly contract. Id never say never cause im sure it exists somewhere in some fashion but i just dont see what the benefit to it would be for the employee or the payroll department.

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In Sweden, even if you work on a per-hour basis, your paycheck comes once per month on the 25th. No one has an issue with it because it's the way everyone gets paid, regardless of employment.

 

[raspberrymousse]

As someone who works in payroll ive never seen a monthly paid hourly contract. Id never say never cause im sure it exists somewhere in some fashion but i just dont see what the benefit to it would be for the employee or the payroll department.

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In Germany, the UK, France and Italy hourly contracts are paid monthly (or every 28 days) in 95% of the cases, it's very rare to see anything different for jobs that are paid hourly (retail, hospitality etc.). Salaried jobs are almost always paid monthly.

 

[Nacho]

As someone who doesnt get paid a salary, it's kinda the best way to average. Would vary wildly month to month

 

[Pepito]

i'm paid weekly but negotiate via my day rate. unless i get a higher rate, i always estimate my earnings in a week to whatever it'd be for the whole year.

 

[ChrisR]

Bi-monthly wasn't an option so I picked "other"

 

[Panquequera]

Here where I live is monthly, bills are also monthly. I only started hearing about yearly salaries when I started to be more in contact with US work culture lol. It was freaky reading "oh I make 106k" and thinking it was monthly.

 

[fatigues_gasolini]

Bimonthly, 1st and 15th

 

[DBT85]

UK era.

Always been paid monthly but if anyone talks salary they talk about the gross annual, not monthly or net amount.

Only variance to that I can recall is when discussing football players where it is always per week.