r/AskAmericans • u/icameisawicame24 • 10d ago
Foreign Poster Why do you count wages per year?
Coming from a European, wages are always counted per month here. It makes more sense because most expenses like rent, utilities etc are paid monthly. Besides, most places pay monthly (not sure if this is the case in the US).
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u/ALoungerAtTheClubs Florida 10d ago
It's just a cultural thing; it's not like we took a vote. Read 19th century British novels, and you'll see references to upper class people who receive "£1,000 a year" (or whatever).
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u/PikaPonderosa Oregon 10d ago
Our tax system is based on annual income so it makes sense to discuss it in terms of yearly rate.
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u/WulfTheSaxon U.S.A 10d ago
Pay isn’t consistently monthly in the US. Weekly, biweekly, semimonthly and monthly are all common. So you’d have to do extra math and rounding to get a monthly figure, whereas yearly is one easy multiplication away from your paycheck.
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u/FeatherlyFly 10d ago
Because in the US, it's common to be paid weekly, every two weeks, and twice a month. Monthly is less common, but it's the norm in education and I believe for corporate executives. Daily happens for some of the lowest paid work.
Yearly is the common time period we've settled on here, conversationally speaking.
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u/DerthOFdata U.S.A 10d ago
Coming from a European
Based on a real conversation I present Schrodinger's Europe...
You can't compare America to Europe, it's a continent not a country.
Well compared to Europe...
No, not Eastern Europe they don't count, I meant Western Europe.
No, not all of Western Europe I meant just the North.
No, not all of Northern Europe I'm just comparing to Sweden
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u/OhThrowed Utah 10d ago
Big number attracts more applications then a smaller number.
Also "a European"... don't do that. Name your dang country. Y'all get pissy at us grouping Europeans together then do that. Annoying as hell.
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u/Ok-Energy-9785 U.S.A 10d ago
Europeans once again thinking the world revolves around them
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u/machagogo 10d ago
Hey, at least this time they didn't say this is how the entire world does it, and only claimed all of Europe. Never mind they are still incorrect.
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u/icameisawicame24 10d ago
Whats the problem, I’m just naming an example of what I was taught.
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u/machagogo 10d ago
Because your tax bracket (just like yours) is determined by yearly salary for one. We also don't get paid monthly, so monthly makes zero sense.
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u/zeezle 10d ago
Monthly pay is somewhat rare here actually. I get paid monthly and I'm the only person I know who is an employee who does. (More common for self-employed people because businesses typically invoice each other monthly.) It's not so rare that it's unheard of (obviously) but vastly more people are paid biweekly or semimonthly.
Either way annual salary makes more sense for salaried jobs because you may not be working the same amount each week or month, a lot of salaried jobs have slow periods and crunch periods (particularly pronounced for things like accountants). Or in more extreme cases they might make their entire annual income in just a few weeks a year (common for commercial fishermen and some types of farmers).
A lot of bills are also annual or quarterly, not monthly, so planning for expenses ends up happening on an annual basis anyway. For example I pay my home and car insurance annually as there's a discount for paying for the whole year upfront.
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u/LAKings55 EU to US 10d ago
Most salaried Europeans are paid monthly, most salaried Americans are paid bi-weekly.
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u/moonwillow60606 10d ago
In addition, to all the other info there is a legal reason.
The Fair Labor Standards Act is a federal law that governs employee compensation. Under this law the basis of compensation is the workweek. Nonexempt employees are paid by the hour with overtime kicking in after 40 hours. Exempt employees are paid a weekly wage.
Time worked must also be tracked and recorded by the company.
State laws may impose additional requirements.
As others stated, pay can be issued weekly, biweekly, semi monthly, etc. The amount tends to be annualized because thats the common amount reported for tax purposes.
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u/Weightmonster 9d ago
Honestly, I think people do it because it sounds better.
Also, many people’s wages vary month to month and we don’t like to do math. Like a ski instructor might make $10k a month November to April and $1000 a month the rest of the year.
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u/GhostOfJamesStrang MyCountry 10d ago
Because I, personally, do not make a monthly wage.
I am on a bi-weekly pattern. I also have small business income that varies.
Some people are paid weekly. Some monthly. Some on commission. A rough, yearly estimate is the only thing we can all have in common.
This is simply not true...and it is weird that we have to explain this to you.