Paying people for services delivered has been around for millenia. In the early days, the currency of pay was commodities such as food, salt, grain, clothes, land grants, shelter and even beer. But payroll as a term started to gather pace in the 17th century and Payroll as a term can be traced back to around the middle of the 18th Century. Payroll itself being an amagulation of two words to indicate how much pay is given to a list of employees (ie roll). Taxes have been also around for a long time and in the UK, there have been taxes on fireplaces, windows, printed wallpaper, hats, playing cards and even candles. But in 1798 Income Tax was introduced in the budget by William Pitt the Younger, to help pay for weapons and equipment for the upcoming Napoleonic Wars. This new tax started at 2 old pence in the pound on incomes over £60 and forms the modern day concept of payroll taxes. Since then, the frequency of payroll has been reasonable stable. Generally stabilising into weekly or monthly pay cycles. But, in recent times, we have had a crippling pandemic. We have seen war in Europe. We have seen significant increases in costs of living and wage freezes. We are starting to see strike action and worker discontent across many UK sectors demanding pay increases to keep pace with inflation. All this has led to significant employee hardships across many industries. So what can be done to help? Today, we will be exploring how organisations can help employees who are struggling with earned wage access, also known as pay on demand.

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