In Norway, payday is on the 15th for almost everyone- except that it falls on a Sunday this month. Friday was payday. Since I am salaried, I received a full month's pay- after working only two weeks. I don't think that would happen in the US, but I may be wrong. I feels like I received an advance. The way most payroll cycles lag, I'm sure I could work six weeks before getting paid in the US (depending on how the start date and pay cycles interact). For me, this means that I was without income for only two months, which is truly amazing. The trouble is, my tax card didn't arrive in time, so I was taxed at a rate of 50%! This is normal for these situations and it will be sorted out next month.
Payday here also involves direct deposit through what is called a SWIFT transfer. In most of Europe, checks are not used for anything. All of our business uses these transfers as well. We can send money back and forth to Lise's relatives the same way. It confounds me how far behind the times the US is in personal banking. Sure, most people have direct deposit and online billpay, but there is no uniform set of standards that govern these. I cannot send a friend some money unless I use paypal, or a worse service.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment