But they had to find money for living!! Bet they found it harder than you think to get through the summer closure.

We had 12 month contracts that just rolled over from one year to the next unless you resigned (or the school kicked you out!).

The schools were closed from the end of July until around the 12th or so of September ............. so about 6 weeks off. It was because they were officially closed that we got the double pay cheque at the end of July, and you had budget to make the money last all the way through to end of September ............. and it wasn't easy to get in to bank at that time. They worked the proverbial "Banker's hours", so we had to find the time to deposit our cheques and then get money out when many of them didn't open on Saturday morning (some did).

It's certainly tempting to spend early and run out of money when you get more than usual but that's not two months pay to last three is it. The normal payday is the end of the month, so end of July sees you to the end of August and end of August sees you to end of September. It's a standard monthly pattern.

All that's happened is that (end of) August pay was paid early. Don't touch it until the end of August and it sees you to the end of September just like any other month. Willpower is what's needed and I'm sure you have that,

Dunno.

We were not a single income household, my mom worked worked year round as a paramedic.

I just talked to my dad and asked him how his district did things.

Those on 10/11 month contracts had 2 choices to receive their pay, they can take full salary and go without a check during the months they don't work, or they can spread their salary over 12 checks and receive a check each month of the year.

Now, yes I do ............. but that was my first full time job, I was 24 and I had to change my clothing from university comfort to teacher "as well dressed as you can be because you are an example to the girls". At the same time I also had go home at least once a month if not more often because my Dad was still recovering from the very sudden death of my mother 3 years before.

I was hired to start in January 1964, so was not really aware of what it meant to have that double cheque in July and then nothing until the end of September, even though I had learnt to skimp and save all through university. I did make it through to the end of that first September without going into debt or taking out an overdraft, but barely!

Lunches were the most difficult ........... I was in digs and got breakfast and dinner, but I had to buy lunch, no refrigerator in my room so couldn't buy for a week. I was more-or-less restricted to going to the little newsagents shop on the estate near the school and buying cheese or a meat pie.

The second September was easier because I'd moved into a large 2 bedroom flat with 2 others,and there was a large fridge in the kitchen, so we could buy lunch food for a week at a time.

I don't know of any teachers on that kind of 10/11 month contract up here or when I taught in England back in the 60s, other school staff might well be.

Something that is available here in Canada in some positions, including teachers and government employees up in the Yukon, is to take a reduced salary every month for (for example) 5 years, with the excess being put into a special account by the employer, and then taking a year's leave of absence but receiving a monthly salary using that "banked" money.

Good to learn these sorts of lessons early in life.
I was weekly paid in 1973 (£9.92 after 57p for NI ). In 1974 after my 'probation' ended our weekly pay was rounded to the £. I'd get £13 each week with the bits carried forward and then £14 every now and then to make up for it. Everyone felt so rich in those weeks.

Then I got promoted and had to switch to monthly pay. Fortunately my employer recognised the difficulty of going weekly to monthly and would do mid monthly advances for three months.

That still meant a week's pay having to last 2 weeks for the first mid monthly payment and then, at the end, half a month's pay to last for the next month, but at least you could stagger things.

By 1975 I was on £60 a month take home - the riches! - and borrowed £300 from the bank for a 'once in a lifetime' trip to Canada (who knew? ) and paid back £30 a month, so that was half my take home pay gone for almost a year.

I know what that adjusting means ................

OH was on bi-weekly salary for several years, while I was on monthly. Then the university decided to put the faculty on monthly. Oh Boy!!!!

We had standing orders going out from our account based on the bi-weekly payment .............. we didn't miss any, but it took some juggling for a couple of months to get it straight.

When he retired, we went back to money going into the account twice a month ....... his private pension goes in mid-month while the Canada pensions go in near the end of the month!

I am glad monthly pay isn't common in the private sector and at least in BC and California* isn't generally permitted. Both BC and California largely require employees to be paid 2 times a month minimum.

BC could learn a bit from California though, like if you quit your job in BC the employer has 6 calendar days to issue the final pay vs California which requires final check to be provided on the last day of work, provided the employee has given 72 hours or more notice they intended to quit. If fired in BC employer has 48 hours to issue final check, where California is must be provided on last day of employment.

*California has some exceptions such as government workers who can be paid monthly, executives and other high level management can be paid monthly as well. No idea if BC permits exceptions for certain employee types.


I had one job that paid weekly, and on Wed of each week, it was nice having a weekly pay check.

The only time I've had weekly pay was back in the UK in the 1950s and 60s, doing the low paid work that students did back then, both while in school and at university.

I started at age 12 working on Saturday at a dress shop in town. I was handed my pay plus any commission I'd managed to get, in a twist of paper at the end of the day.

The same happened at Woolworths where I worked on Saturdays for about 2 months one year for about 1 shilling a day more.

Work followed in the local Pac-a-mac factory one Easter and then again in the summer, only this time the week's pay was in a proper envelope.

The summer after I left school, I worked in a hotel (and for the next 2 summers), paid in a folded piece of paper.

I worked delivering mail before Christmas for 3 years after the university term was over ............ paid once a week in a proper envelope!

The problem I found was that banks were only open Monday to Friday, 10 am - 3 pm, and most of them didn't open on Saturday, so I could never put the money into an account quickly ............ I used to hoard it in a drawer until I did have time.

That led to another problem .............. my mother discovered where I hid it, and would raid my store if she ran out of money mid-week and didn't want to tell dad (it was a pretty regular occurrence!).

More often than not, I would find less than I expected tucked away, sometimes there was nothing left

I ran out of hiding places

I liked the weekly as I wouldn't have to go as long without money.

Bi-weekly once bills are paid, and rent money set aside (1/2 from each check) it was rare to have any money by next pay day.

Easier to go 2-3 days without money then a week.

My first 2 jobs didn't offer direct deposit, first time I worked anywhere that offered it was when my then current employer started in 2001, prior to that, paper checks, not only had to go pick up the check (if not working on payday) then had to go to the bank to deposit it. A bit of a pain, I was so happy when B of A installed an ATM at the airport I was working at in 1999, I promptly switched to them so I could deposit my check while at work..

I remember my mom on her payday as she was a paramedic so people worked all over the place, and all their checks were kept at head office and she didn't work at head office so every other Friday had to drive like 30 miles each way just to go get her paycheck.

It was always cash when I had the weekly pay!

When I started teaching was the first time that I had cheques but they would be delivered to the school for distribution by the School Secretary .... x number separate envelopes addressed to the staff.

There was no means of electronic transfer then

It was similar when we started working here ........... we all got our pay envelope with cheque attached delivered to our university place of work, then had to deposit the cheque ourselves, hopefully the same day!

If your bank branch decided to be sticky, then they could refuse to allow you to withdraw money immediately, although that was a rare occurrence for us as we happened to have chosen a branch of the same bank that the university used.

The big advance was when they went to electronic transfer, and we just got the pay statement

Strange, my former husband was a teacher at a school in Devon in the 70's (before we moved to Hong Kong where he taught for years) and was paid every month - no 'double pay' for the summer months. Perhaps it was down to where you were teaching rather than a generic 'teachers get paid double in July' scenario.

He spent a good part of the 6 weeks 'off' preparing for the new school year. in September, so not much of a break!

It is interesting the different ways and lives we all have.

I also had a part time job and a Saturday job during my school years. Like many girls it was Saturday at Woolworths over school holidays. When I started work full time I was still at home. My mother took me to that first job in my school uniform. In fact I started full time work in my school uniform minus the tie. All those assorted wages went direct to my parents as part of the total family kitty. I was given back what it was felt I may need by way of bus fares, lunches etc. The first full time job paid monthly but I was given a loan part way through that month to help re the bus fare thing as one bought a monthly ticket.
Really I wanted to go on to college. I could have gone onto a noted art school but it was all a no-go.

My parents never took any of my money, what I earned at work was mine. They didn't expect either me or my sister to even work while in school. When I turned 16, I decided to get a job at the zoo, I had been spending every weekend there for the prior 3 years and knew a fair amount of zoo keepers and bus drivers who encouraged me to apply once I was old enough.

For a teenager it wasn't bad money either, above min wage, my first year was $5.15.hr and min wage was $4.25 and the following year min wage went to $5.15 and the zoo upped the pay to $5.75.

When I left the zoo for the airline, I was making I think $6.50 and the airline was paying $6.94/hr with flight benefits.

Those were the good old days, have never been able to find a job as good as those 2 were.

You may well be right ........ only a couple of my friends went into teaching, and the only one I discussed salary with was paid the same way as I was, so I made an assumption. Maybe it did depend on the school district .... or possibly changed between the mid-20s and the '70s?

OH taught at a private school in Devon before we married and left the UK, and strangely, we've never discussed how he was paid though we have discussed lots of his other experiences there!! I do know he was told by the Headmaster that the school buildingsclosed the day after term ended and opened the day before the next term opened. In other words ............ don't think of coming back during the holidays to do any research!