I was considering the past this week,the early day’s and remembered the wage packet,the friuts of your labour handed to you on a Friday in a buff coloured packet bulging with a wad of notes and loose change sliding across the bottom.This packet taken home to ‘she who must be obeyed’ who then by magic slid out the loose change and as your bottom lip started to tremble handed over the change and told you to make it last,don’t waste it while at the same time like a sleight of hand expert sliding the notes into her ■■■■■ and into her handbag,never to be seen again.Then holiday pay double the wad and you felt like you were rich for a while.What do you get today for your labour an anonymous computor printout,a slip of paper and money you never see placed in a bank you no longer trust and taken out or used through a plastic card system now famous for fraud.Does anyone still get a ‘wage packet’,would you prefer a wad of notes on a Friday which you could hold for a bit might just make the job seem more worthwhile or is the past the past■■?
Used to get a wage packet on a coach job I did until aroud 2005, it really is a nice feeling. But much easier to spend, and not always on the bills it should’ve been spent on 
Not great if you pass the pub in the way home either. I worked at a firm who paid cash and one blokes wife used to come down and get it as he couldn’t pass a betting shop without going in.
Any medium or large firm phased out pay packets in the 1980’s, the “wage ■■■■■■” was a common ploy used by London criminal gangs and even before that, numerous people were hanged for killing a farm or factory hand returning from the bank on Friday with a satchel of his employer’s money.
The place I worked at just before leaving the UK still paid in cash, it was decent money too, had a few scary moments when it felt a bit thin, but soon had a smile back on my face when it turned out to be full of fifties 
I was able to save a lot more money that way too, when you have to put your hand in your sky rocket and pul out a wad of notes, it makes you think, whereas swiping a card through a machine is a painless exercise…until you get the bank statement at the end of the month 
I used to pay my drivers in cash too, for the record they earned 500quid a week for Mon-Fri and 120quid a day for weekends, one bloke was on 550quid Mon-Fri, I had to offer him a better deal than he was already on, so had to swallow the extra nifty, worth every penny though. I used to let the accountants work out the tax, NI and my contributions after the take home pay was worked out, that’s a real minefield, different tax codes, the CSA and all that crap meant that a set wage less deductions would mean different take home pay on a set before tax wage 
To be honest, as an employer, giving someone 500quid a week take home is an awful lot of money, the percentage of revenue is way too high, but that isn’t the driver’s problem, it was up to me as the business owner to make sure I generated enough revenue to make sure that I made money, a driver should not earn crap money to subsidise somebody’s bad business practices 
Most of the pay packets had a flap that only covered about 3/4 of the envelope width so that the pound notes etc had the corners exposed for counting before you broke the seal and they had a window so you could see the coins 
By the way … I remember my very first pay packet after leaving school, july 1969
6 pounds, 4 shillings and 6 pence, I bought my very first 45 rpm single … Thunderclap Newman, something in the air’
Pat Hasler:
Most of the pay packets had a flap that only covered about 3/4 of the envelope width so that the pound notes etc had the corners exposed for counting before you broke the seal and they had a window so you could see the coins
By the way … I remember my very first pay packet after leaving school, july 1969
6 pounds, 4 shillings and 6 pence, I bought my very first 45 rpm single … Thunderclap Newman, something in the air’
Mine was like a brown envelope with the gross, tax, ni and net written on the front.
My old job used to pay in cash. I used to love having four hundred odd quid in notes.
I remember when I first started docking in the early nineties we were payed weekly in cash and that little buff coloured envelope had kind of air holes in them so you could count the money before opening it up.
Then we went to monthly pay straight into the bank, well there was uproar and strike action was even mentioned, those were the days.
bald bloke:
Then we went to monthly pay straight into the bank, well there was uproar and strike action was even mentioned, those were the days.
Yes, I remember being paid cash at Rainbows of Southwell in 1987; the year after it all went into the bank albeit still weekly.The older drivers had an opt-out to still be paid in cash, and several of them stuck to that; with hindsight of recent events it has to be said that their distrust of banks seems to have been justified.
Back in the day you could pay for everything in cash though, even the rent; nowadays it’d be a total PITA having to go to the bank to pay the cash or cheque in every week so that your bills were covered. So many things nowadays it actually costs you more to pay cash, or even by cheque.
I wouldn’t want to go back to being paid cash today … well, not officially anyway! 
Most of the pay packets had a flap that only covered about 3/4 of the envelope width so that the pound notes etc had the corners exposed for counting
…and if you sand papered a pencil so it was rough and slid it into the opening you could roll up a note and extract it without breaking the seal!
Armagedon:
I was considering the past this week,the early day’s and remembered the wage packet,the friuts of your labour handed to you on a Friday in a buff coloured packet bulging with a wad of notes and loose change sliding across the bottom.This packet taken home to ‘she who must be obeyed’ who then by magic slid out the loose change and as your bottom lip started to tremble handed over the change and told you to make it last,don’t waste it while at the same time like a sleight of hand expert sliding the notes into her ■■■■■ and into her handbag,never to be seen again.Then holiday pay double the wad and you felt like you were rich for a while.What do you get today for your labour an anonymous computor printout,a slip of paper and money you never see placed in a bank you no longer trust and taken out or used through a plastic card system now famous for fraud.Does anyone still get a ‘wage packet’,would you prefer a wad of notes on a Friday which you could hold for a bit might just make the job seem more worthwhile or is the past the past■■?
And you never had to pay that £1.75 a pop to get your cash out, as all the banks where advertising they had thousands of ‘cash points’ at readily available places. Yep, wad of notes on a Friday was miles better. You could choose what to do with your money instead of now paying for the privelege of how you use it.
I must be the odd one out - I hated that cash at the end of the week. I have always had a somewhat casual attitude to money and whnever I needed some , something always seemed to turn up. Just follow the Micawber principle and you don’t go wrong. In my youth I sold ice cream - No wage, just 12½% commision on all I could sell and I have never been as well off as I was then.
These days with internet banking I can move what money I have around as much as I want, and I can be sure not to spend more than I earn.
Santa:
I must be the odd one out - I hated that cash at the end of the week. I have always had a somewhat casual attitude to money and whnever I needed some , something always seemed to turn up. Just follow the Micawber principle and you don’t go wrong. In my youth I sold ice cream - No wage, just 12½% commision on all I could sell and I have never been as well off as I was then.These days with internet banking I can move what money I have around as much as I want, and I can be sure not to spend more than I earn.
How does internet banking prevent you from spending more than you earn as opposed to getting cash paid weekly? I’d love to know. Infact, whilst not specifically internet banking, the whole concept of transfering money at the push of a button is responsible for the world crash we have now.
Mike-C:
Santa:
I must be the odd one out - I hated that cash at the end of the week. I have always had a somewhat casual attitude to money and whnever I needed some , something always seemed to turn up. Just follow the Micawber principle and you don’t go wrong. In my youth I sold ice cream - No wage, just 12½% commision on all I could sell and I have never been as well off as I was then.These days with internet banking I can move what money I have around as much as I want, and I can be sure not to spend more than I earn.
How does internet banking prevent you from spending more than you earn as opposed to getting cash paid weekly? I’d love to know. Infact, whilst not specifically internet banking, the whole concept of transfering money at the push of a button is responsible for the world crash we have now.
I Move £200 or so every month to my savings by Internet banking and I cant touch it as its such a long process, now if I had the cash in hand I would so spend it
We don’t even get a pay advice anymore, we have to have an Email address and they post your pay details on weds mornings every week and the money goes in your bank on fri mornings.
keebs26uk:
I Move £200 or so every month to my savings by Internet banking and I cant touch it as its such a long process, now if I had the cash in hand I would so spend it
Are we talking about the same thing? Any savings account i’ve had or seen you can get your money out pronto when you want it. Unless you’re depositing in one of them convoluted guaranteed deposit/interest schemes? Which, in any case would not matter whether you transfered or took the cash in, you’re either in the scheme or you’re not.
wasnt there a law years ago called the truck act, whereby you could insist on being paid in cash.
jeffreyk:
wasnt there a law years ago called the truck act, whereby you could insist on being paid in cash.
I thought there was mate yeah. I think all the big banks lobbied to get the whole act revoked. So succesfull where they that there is not even a trace of it now. But like you i do remember it.
the truck act(nothing to do with trucks) was introduced to stop greedy bosses paying workers in tokens etc which could only be spent in the companies own shops etc.
could be on its way back soon if things continue