British banks urging companies to stop paying workers in cash by the week

Britain's banks have launched a publicity campaign to persuade more employers and over half the country's wage earners to switch from weekly pay packets full of cash to monthly payments through bank accounts.

It is believed that almost 55 percent of working people in the United Kingdom receive wage packets from employers, whereas about 5 percent of employees in France, West Germany, Canada, and Australia are given packets, and only 1 percent of American wage earners are paid in cash. Twelve of the UK's leading banks have formed a "payment of wages working group," a research and publicity body established to show employers and work people the advantages of processing wages through bank accounts.

The new group will have the assistance of a computer program intended to show private companies how to make savings in switching to bank payments for employees. A spokesman of the banks' working group has said that the Confederation of British Industry, the Trades Union Congress, and the police are supporting the objectives of the scheme to extend the banking system to cover wage payments.

(It has been reckoned that the cost of processing cash payments to weekly UK wage earners is around L30 [$60] each annually, and the police are keen to see a more secure system of paying wages.)

The banks expect it to take a long time to convince the majority of British employees that it would be better to be paid with monthly checks for handling at banking houses or post offices. Many British households manage budgeting on a weekly basis. Some families dislike the idea of having to pay large grocery bills, especially if food bills become tied up in monthly accou nting.