Create bi-weekly payment system
Maria Schmitt
Issue date: 11/5/09 Section: Opinion
I love getting paid. There is nothing better than logging onto my bank account Web site and seeing a big, fat deposit care of "Hillsdale College payroll" waiting for me. Most recently, I enjoyed this feeling while in Georgia for fall break. There was, however, something keeping my joy from reaching full-on glee.
My payroll deposit appeared a month and a half after I began working my job in Moss Hall this school year. Reforms to the college's payroll system could have helped avoid this.
Hillsdale's current payroll deposits an employee's monthly pay in his or her account two weeks after a month of work ends. Normally, this means we get paid every month. This semester, however, anyone who began working on campus in September had to wait a month and a half to see a cent of what they had been earning for 45 days, due to the tightened academic calendar.
In previous years, students arriving on campus would work a week or two in August, making their first paycheck available in mid-September. Albeit, that check would be smaller than most, but it would be something. This year, most of us began on-campus work at the beginning of September when classes started and so didn't receive our first paychecks of the year until mid-October, at the beginning of fall break.
Many students, myself included, struggled to make ends meet for those first 45 days.
When the college standardized a direct deposit payment system for the whole campus, most of us expected the whole payment process to run more smoothly; I assumed that at least we wouldn't have to wait 15 days after a month ends to be paid. If someone isn't hand writing or printing checks shouldn't the process be significantly faster?
As it is, we must wait 30 days between paychecks. Most students living off-campus pay rent at the beginning of each month. With the current system, this falls a while after our money has been deposited.
If the school paid its employees every two weeks, like most businesses do, students, faculty and staff would all benefit from added peace of mind when it comes to money management. I am all for fiscal responsibility and feel that students should be fully capable of handling their finances. But for the sake of convenience, I strongly urge the business office to consider, if possible, paying campus employees every two weeks.
Many students I have talked to confess they have a hard time paying for necessities when they see a deposit only once a month. Often, students will have bills to pay at times that don't fit in the widely-spaced payment schedule.
Additionally, students whose pay comes through Student Federation face difficulties. Collegian and other federation-funded staffers see checks for their work only twice a semester. While regularly inconvenient, this became even more of a problem this year with our tightened academic calendar.
Rather than being paid in September and November or October and December, federation-check employees won't see a dime until the middle of November - two and a half months after the start of school.
Students on this pay schedule have been on the brink of debt in order to afford food, books, and essential living items like toilet paper and shampoo.
A reconsideration of the current payment system would help everyone remain debt and worry-free.
My payroll deposit appeared a month and a half after I began working my job in Moss Hall this school year. Reforms to the college's payroll system could have helped avoid this.
Hillsdale's current payroll deposits an employee's monthly pay in his or her account two weeks after a month of work ends. Normally, this means we get paid every month. This semester, however, anyone who began working on campus in September had to wait a month and a half to see a cent of what they had been earning for 45 days, due to the tightened academic calendar.
In previous years, students arriving on campus would work a week or two in August, making their first paycheck available in mid-September. Albeit, that check would be smaller than most, but it would be something. This year, most of us began on-campus work at the beginning of September when classes started and so didn't receive our first paychecks of the year until mid-October, at the beginning of fall break.
Many students, myself included, struggled to make ends meet for those first 45 days.
When the college standardized a direct deposit payment system for the whole campus, most of us expected the whole payment process to run more smoothly; I assumed that at least we wouldn't have to wait 15 days after a month ends to be paid. If someone isn't hand writing or printing checks shouldn't the process be significantly faster?
As it is, we must wait 30 days between paychecks. Most students living off-campus pay rent at the beginning of each month. With the current system, this falls a while after our money has been deposited.
If the school paid its employees every two weeks, like most businesses do, students, faculty and staff would all benefit from added peace of mind when it comes to money management. I am all for fiscal responsibility and feel that students should be fully capable of handling their finances. But for the sake of convenience, I strongly urge the business office to consider, if possible, paying campus employees every two weeks.
Many students I have talked to confess they have a hard time paying for necessities when they see a deposit only once a month. Often, students will have bills to pay at times that don't fit in the widely-spaced payment schedule.
Additionally, students whose pay comes through Student Federation face difficulties. Collegian and other federation-funded staffers see checks for their work only twice a semester. While regularly inconvenient, this became even more of a problem this year with our tightened academic calendar.
Rather than being paid in September and November or October and December, federation-check employees won't see a dime until the middle of November - two and a half months after the start of school.
Students on this pay schedule have been on the brink of debt in order to afford food, books, and essential living items like toilet paper and shampoo.
A reconsideration of the current payment system would help everyone remain debt and worry-free.
Viewing Comments 1 - 1 of 1
Joy Pavelski
posted 11/05/09 @ 4:01 PM EST
I think part of the reason students are paid monthly is that some only work a few hours and thus would get, say, $40 paychecks every two weeks.
Still. (Continued…)
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