January 30, 2005

Everybody loves payday

In Sweden, the 25th of every month is payday for the entire country. The guy who stamps your coupon before entering the subway, the woman plastering a parking ticket on your car, the teenager selling burgers at Max, the CEO of Electrolux, the head curator at the Hallwylska Museum. They all get paid once a month on the same day.

In this country that sometimes seems to have a collective alcohol problem, you can always tell it's the first Friday after the 25th, because you can spot businessmen in suits tottering helplessly along the street, shamelessly drunk to the point of complete incoherence at only 6:30 p.m.

As we sat drinking expensive wine on this payday weekend, my friends were shocked when I told them that in the U.S., some people get paid monthly, some every two weeks, some every week, and that there might even be some people who get paid on a daily basis.

Which got me to thinking, are there any other countries where everyone gets paid on the same day? Is this some kind of vaguely socialist thing, or more one of those wacky Teutono-Nordic ideas about efficiency? How did it ever get started, and why?

Then I took another sip of expensive wine - it's early in the pay period so why not live it up? - and forgot all about it.

Posted by Francis at January 30, 2005 10:52 PM
Comments

It is pretty weird, and I don't know how it got started, only that it must have started the last 20 or 30 years or so. I seem to remember that in the 60s, my dad, who worked for Televerket, got paid every second Friday, in cash in an envelope. That would sound very strange to most Swedes these days. There may even have been a time when he was paid every Friday. Here in Taiwan, many people, but not everyone, get paid on the 5th every month. That way the employer can earn another week's interest.

When I was still living in Sweden, that first weekend after pay-day was always a good candidate for a movie and a dinner in a nice restaurant. The bar hopping would be left for the other weekends. It was a good way to avoid rowdy bar fights caused by too much drink.

By the way, Hallwylska must be one of the nicest and weirdest museums I've been to. Many times.

Posted by: Perry at January 31, 2005 02:11 AM

Here, the first of the month is pay day. It also means that the first weekend of the month, the weekend grocery run results in having to say "pardon. PARDON!" just to get through the aisles.

It's always amusing to see so fewer people on the last weekend, though (especially months like this one with five weekends heh).

Posted by: kim at January 31, 2005 07:36 AM

Yup. We live in Norway and it's the 20th for payday here. That's also when all the bills are due. And the weekend that everyone has parties, as they can finally somewhat afford the exhorbitant alcohol prices. Convenient!

Posted by: karla at February 3, 2005 08:49 PM

That is an interesting difference from my home, Canada. I think it'd be fun to have everyone paid at the same time -- a happy, living it up time. Too, I can see business might work around that and have slightly higher prices as they payday came with 'sales' happening later in the month when further from payday.

Posted by: Desiree at February 10, 2005 03:45 AM

Paydays in Italy:
27th for public workers
most of private sector employers get payd on the 10th, but I think that there are difference between company policies
And alcohol is not such expensive as Nordic countries

Posted by: Dario B. at March 16, 2005 03:05 PM