- 22 per cent of all employees have been paid late, increasing to 29 per cent for those employed by small businesses
- 68 per cent who had been paid late reported feeling stressed as a result, while 45 per cent missed payments for financial commitments like bills
- 43 per cent felt less engaged and productive at work following a late payment, while 34 per cent considered leaving their job
Xero has today released new research revealing that payday problems are widespread across Australia with 43 per cent of workers experiencing issues with their pay, rising to 49 per cent for those employed by small businesses.
In a survey of Australian workers, Xero found almost one in three (29 per cent) of those employed by small business owners had been paid late. Further to this, close to half (49 per cent) had mistakes in their pay.
The report found the late payments and pay errors were leaving employees in the lurch with 68 per cent of respondents saying they felt stressed as a result. 45 per cent had missed payments for financial commitments such as household bills and mortgage repayments. While slightly more than two in five (43 per cent) felt less engaged and productive at work, and one in three (34 per cent) considered leaving their job as a result of being paid late.
Matthew Prouse, Head of Industry at Xero Australia said There are a number of reasons why employees might be experiencing anomalies with their pay.
“The majority of employers try to do the right thing when paying staff. Small businesses can sometimes have issues due to manual payroll processes, where the likelihood of error is much higher.”
Prouse believes the implementation of Single Touch Payroll which becomes compulsory for all businesses from October 1, 2019 will help ensure small business owners pay their staff on time.
“Single Touch Payroll is a new way of working that will help small business owners to streamline their operations. It makes it easier for employers to do the right thing and will be a catalyst for greater accuracy, security and efficiency when paying employees,” Prouse said.
Other key findings from the research included:
46 percent of all workers, and 54 percent of small business employees believe improvements could be made to payment processes
The number one improvement sought is to be paid on time (25 percent)
The most common payment errors are incorrect salary payments (24 percent), late salary payments (22 percent), underpayment of salary (22 percent), and overpayment of salary (10 percent).
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