Why did most of society charge rent by the month, and pay every two weeks?

Monthly rent is a bit of a standard. It’s easier for landlords to process monthly and it gives tenants time. Paychecks used to be weekly, most people don’t want to wait a month for their money. Biweekly pay is a compromise. Employers save on payroll costs.

When I first started working, I only got paid once a month which worked very well with paying the rent!!! Then some companies began paying once a week to attract new employees. After a while those same companies realized that it cost them MORE in payroll to pay weekly, so they started paying twice a month…on the 1st & 15th. Only a few paid every 2 weeks which was nice when one of the 2 weeks fell to where there were 3 pay days in a month instead of 2. Even when I got paid twice a month, I put aside half my rent out of each paycheck so I’d have my rent on the 1st of the month. When I got paid weekly, I’d set aside 25% of my rent each week. I found setting aside the rent a better idea than the thought of being homeless!!!

May I ask, WHY are you so hung up on paying rent lately??? Maybe you need to speak with your landlord to see IF you can set up a different method of paying!!!

@LadyMarissa I don’t know? I’m just wondering. Questions pop into my mind, all the time, and I ask Fluther. There is madness to my method.

Most of my problems are resolved, money is the next on the list.

@RedDeerGuy1, “There is madness to my method.” One of your stealth one- liners. GA.

I have rented a fairly large number of apartments over the decades, and I have never, ever, paid every two weeks.

I have looked into renting far more apartments than that, and I don’t remember ever seeing one that said it wanted to be paid for every two weeks.

Just saying.

Why are hot dogs sold in packs of 10 and buns in packs of 8? It’s just the way it worked out. With hots dog buns, the pans were 4 buns per pan, but that’s arbitrary. It easily could have been 5. But it wasn’t.

With rent, landlords don’t really need the money very frequently, and collecting more often probably doesn’t provide more advantage. Whereas wages, a person has to buy food and other things, not just rent. So a longer schedule was problematic.

But that doesn’t mean a different schedule couldn’t have evolved. Weekly pay? Biweekly rent? It probably could have happened. But it didn’t. Sometimes in history, things happen arbitrarily, not for profound reasons. I can see some logic why wages would be on a shorter schedule than rent as mentioned above, but the exact timeframes…probably arbitrary.

In the US, workers who make low wages are typically paid weekly. Sometimes the industries that have a lot of low wage workers also pay their executives weekly.

Being paid monthly is unusual, but there definitely are companies that do it, especially at the upper management level.

I also think biweekly was a compromise as mentioned by another jelly. Weekly payment costs the company more money, but a lot of employees have trouble budgeting a full month.

Rent is paid in advance, and it’s a lot of work to have to track payment more often than monthly.

@RedDeerGuy1 I always felt that I was aware of your madness & your method. This time you seem to be more obsessed with the subject than usual. I love you my friend & just making sure that you’re OK!!!

@LadyMarissa I’m ok just a bit sad. I’m experimenting with not watching the news for a week or two or a whole month. News is mostly bad news.

I have been listening to guitar riffs and classical music, and video game music ( like Final Fantasy and Chrono trigger)

I will get my computer from the shop in the first week of November.

I stopped “watching” the news over 2 years ago & I NO longer miss it!!! The first week or 2 are the hardest, but you will be just fine!!! I would find it harder to go without my computer than go without the news!!! You are getting really close to the first week of November, so you should be OK really soon!!! IF you need someone to rant at, I’m ALWAYS here to listen!!!