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Comment by 0cf8612b2e1e | Hacker News Reader

So people are not receiving their promised money on time? Sounds like the title is accurate. Not everyone has the float to handle an unexpected delay in money. People can also suffer liquidity events.

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"Clickbait" doesn't necessarily mean something that's inaccurate - it can (and usually does) mean something that's phrased in a way - often by omission - so as to imply the most sensational possible interpretation of the words' literal meaning.

There’s a huge difference between “oops we had a payroll issue it will be there tomorrow” and “oops lol our money is gone we can’t make payroll, maybe we can get a loan next week”.

Deposits are insured. Payments will resume Monday. But headline is accurate. Payments delayed.

If you were an employee at a typical startup, would you be able to tell the difference? Because leadership is never _that_ transparent with the rank-and-file around these kinds of things. I've seen it happen (thankfully never to me) - over and over again they would say "whoops, it will be there next week". Two months later people - one by one - just stop showing up...

"I've seen it happen (thankfully never to me) - over and over again they would say "whoops, it will be there next week". Two months later people - one by one - just stop showing up..."

That's the kind of delay one expects from reading the headline and why it is clickbait. In actually the payouts are already on their way via JP Morgan Chase and will have arrived by Monday for everyone.

I dunno. I've seen management be sketchy on transparency before. But when it comes to people's money getting into their hands, I've actually never had management do the "whoops, it will be there next week" thing. It's always been straight forward with what happened and with expectations. Which makes sense, as you said, people won't show up if they don't get there money.

It's all circumstantial anyway. I don't think it's fair to call this a case of a "typical startup". Although it's definitely a stereotype of startups.

I don't know how I would reword it, but the current headline gave me the impression that Rippling had money deposits stuck in the bank and hence couldn't pay people on time.

Is it typical for US companies issue pay on the last possible contractual day? I don't think this is usual practice in the UK - for example my contact specifies that I will be paid by the last day of the month, but typically we get the payment several days earlier, sometimes add much as a week.

Yes, in my experience (US and Canada), if paydays are the 1st and 15th, or every second Thursday, or whatever, then the money appears on precisely that day (adjusting for holidays, weekends, etc. by paying sooner).

Pretty much always the 1st and 15th. If either of those fall on a weekend or bank holiday then paid the nearest business day before. That sounds very annoying to not know what day you're getting paid.

Especially +/- a whole week.

I think getting paid every two weeks (eg every other Friday) is more common. This makes it easier for everyone to plan. Also how you get the payroll situation where every few years, people get an additional pay period [0].

[0] https://www.thebalancemoney.com/paying-employees-in-a-year-w...

Oh they let us know in advance. Anyway, being paid early isn't really a problem. If you're planning when outgoings should happen then you just need to plan on the contractual day, not assume that it will get there earlier. I think most larger companies usually pay on that same day but modulo weekends, so the last Thursday of the month or similar.

Gp was adding nuance to the discussion that I found informative. Parent's post offers only a trite reminder with the goal, I suppose, of suppressing said nuance?

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