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Thread: Unusual payday?

  1. #1
    Join Date
    May 2007
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    Wellington
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    22

    Default Unusual payday?

    Hi all, need a bit of advice here.
    I have a job offer (yippie!! ) with a great-looking company for a 3-month contract. However, the Service Agreement they propose says that I need to provide an invoice for every calendar month and I get paid on the 20th of the following month.

    Since this is my first contracting job here in NZ I have no idea whether this is normal. Why the 20th, why do I need to wait so long for my hard-earned money?
    Should I accept this offer or do you reckon I should insist on a sooner payday?
    What's your experience with paydays?

    What I'd really prefer is fortnightly payment but maybe that's not something they give to contractors. Or is it?

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Feb 2008
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    Default

    I can't help you about NZ practices.

    However, I've done various work on an hourly paid basis for various education authorities here in the UK, and for this there is a similar system of invoicing for what you've done at the end of the month - only they don't pay till the LAST day of the month following. Yes, it's tough on the workers, having to put in all the effort and spend out for your travel before you see a penny, but that's just the way their financial system is set up, and they're big enough that they don't actually have to care.

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Jun 2008
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    Scotland - rural England
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    Default

    Again, can't specifically comment on NZ, but yep, I've dealt with this before doing bank work - submit monthly timesheet before 30th of each month, get paid on 15th of following month. And yep, it's a bit crap. Having said that, if you don't ask, you don't get, so you've got nothing to lose by asking if there's any way they can pay you sooner.

    P

  4. #4
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    May 2007
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    Wellington
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    Default

    Thanks, it's good to know that this practice exists in the UK - may be the reason some companies adopt it in NZ.

    Really puts me in an awkward situation though, as starting on 1 December my first payday will be 20 January!

    Quote Originally Posted by JandM View Post
    but that's just the way their financial system is set up, and they're big enough that they don't actually have to care.
    Yeah, I guess they don't.
    And if I start mentioning this I might look like some cheapo trying to bargain. Eh.

  5. #5
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    Wellington
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    Quote Originally Posted by Parsley View Post
    if you don't ask, you don't get
    I'll definitely ask but there's not much I can do if they just say 'that's the way it is', is there?
    Maybe not accept the job offer But no, totally can't afford to turn them down.

  6. #6
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    Jan 2008
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    kaitaia
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    Quote Originally Posted by Zeeta View Post
    Why the 20th, why do I need to wait so long for my hard-earned money?
    from what I have seen most bills are paid in or out on the 20th of the month so seems pretty standard.

  7. #7
    Join Date
    May 2007
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    Wellington
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    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by marybelle View Post
    seems pretty standard.
    That's the kind of lesson a new immigrant like myself has to learn.
    Where I come from (Hungary, EU) almost all companies pay by the 5th of the month. In the worst case it can be drawn out as far as the 12th, but never farther than that.

  8. #8
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    Dec 2007
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    Stanley Bay, Auckland, NZ
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    I'm a salaried worker so different from contracting but my pay day is the 20th of the month as that is when the companies pays all of its bills.

  9. #9
    Join Date
    Nov 2008
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    Wellington
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    Thats really tough - working 50 days before you see any dollaroonies. Perhaps you could negotiate a 'pay me half now, half later' kinda thing just to see you through the christmas period. Congrats on the job offer btw.

  10. #10
    Join Date
    Mar 2007
    Location
    Whitby, NZ
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    I had the same deal with my contract when I first came here. What was great though was that when I started as a permie after the contract had expired, I got a month of overlap!

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