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Comment by markdown | Hacker News Reader

LOL, Silicon Valley tech workers aren't living hand to mouth, and they have credit cards. They'll survive a week without pay.

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Not everyone at a tech company, SV or anywhere else, is a tech worker. There are plenty of administrative and other support personnel that aren't paid nearly well as developers are and they are going to have a much greater need to be paid on time.

You underestimate how wide spread SVB's depositor base is and who all these "tech workers" are. SVB has offices in Georgia, North Carolina, three in Texas, etc, etc. A lot of them will have trouble if payroll isn't met (not to mention the company's legal obligations to pay people on time for work already done).

If your company doesn’t make payroll, how long would you keep working there? Most people don’t/won’t/shouldn’t work for IOUs.

Everybody works for IOUs. It's just a question of how much credit you want to give them.

Huh. From the downvotes, I'm confused. Does anybody get paid in advance? As far as I know, "do the work today, get paid soon" is how it works for basically everybody in the US.

Almost no one is paid in advance. Most people expect to be paid on a regular schedule, e.g. biweekly, semimonthly, monthly.

If you do the work and don’t get paid soon, what’s your expectation going forward?

Depends a lot on the context. In this specific one, where $250k is getting freed up immediately and some large percentage of the account will be available within a week, then I'd be totally fine if the CEO says, "Oops, we got caught up in this, we'll do a partial payroll with what we have and get you the rest with a special check a week later."

On the other hand, if the CEO were saying, "Gosh, our company managed our cash so poorly that problems with one bank mean the company might go under," then I'd be looking for a new job pronto. Because not only would that mean notable financial mismanagement, but would also suggest that the business was not healthy enough that they could get a bridge loan or emergency investment.

If you know your boss got screwed by his bank, but that you can bank on being paid within a week, then you'd stay, wouldn't you.

I'm under the impression that every American adult has a credit card, so I don't understand what all the fuss is about.

A worked who understands this situation and still leaves because they got paid a week late is a worker who was going to leave soon anyway.

Exactly. Companies go under all the time for all sorts of reasons. A worker who has absolutely zero margin to delay a paycheck is in trouble for all sorts of reasons. Bank failures are tiny fraction of the things that could wreck their world.

Yep. Only a very few industries technically pay in advance.

And these startups could announce they’re going to “monthly pay period” and glide out two weeks. Questionably legality.

Depends how the job market is right now :)

I’d rather work for a job that’s most likely going to pay me in the near future and start to look around than quit and not be able to find anything else.

Don't some states make directors personally liable if their companies miss payroll?

Personally, I agree with you. I've always kept a sizable emergency fund, something that everybody should do. But I've had someone tell me with a straight face how they're living paycheck to paycheck because their household income is barely $500k/year. So I think there are some people who may be in for a rude lesson in how emergency funds can really help in emergencies.

If your company didn’t pay you, would you work there? For how long?

It’s not necessarily about the finances of the employees, it’s about the finances of the startups.

Any employee who left after our bank screwed us, despite knowing they'd get paid within a week, is a person I wouldn't anywhere near my business anyway.

> It’s not necessarily about the finances of the employees, it’s about the finances of the startups.

This has nothing to do with that. This has nothing to do with the employer. They got screwed by their bank.

Anyone making $500k/year who doesn't know this:

a) needs this lesson

b) will also be totally fine when they experience the hardship of learning it

I am having trouble finding sympathy for someone wealthy with no savings who is suddenly going to get some late marks on their credit report (who won't miss any meals and will remain wealthy).

Let them learn.

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