Promptly Paying Workers

Completely aside from the matter of livable compensation (although that issue is even more weighty than the one at hand here), if workers received their compensation for the day's work more quickly than a biweekly schedule allows for, the consequences would be enormously favorable for them.  The fastest payment schedule is one where workers receive their earned compensation literally the same day, up to moments after the completion of a task or shift.  This is precisely what Deuteronomy 24:14-15 prescribes, even more aggressively than Leviticus 19:13 does: "Do not take advantage of a hired worker who is poor and needy, whether that worker is a fellow Israelite or a foreigner residing in one of your towns.  Pay them their wages each day before sunset, because they are poor and are counting on it.  Otherwise they may cry to the Lord against you, and you will be guilty of sin."

Aside from simplifying the process of making emergency or recurring payments (vehicle repairs, credit cards, rent/mortgage, etc.) or immediately buying the likes of food as needed, since there is no need for the desperately poor to automatically wait until the next biweekly payday, workers across income levels could use their promptly paid earnings to better their financial standing.  For some, this could mean utilizing money that will go towards a particular upcoming payment ahead of its due date, such as by temporarily placing it in a high-yield savings account and transferring it back out to make the payment.  At least this way, even a poor person could earn heightened interest on their money before spending it on necessities.  For other people, this could mean directing a shift's pay into long-term investments immediately, which could significantly accelerate increases in wealth.

Yes, the habit many American companies have of paying every two weeks or every week deprives the worker of the chance to be better prepared for pressing needs and to use their income to generate more additional income from investments.  Even paying on a fixed weekly schedule, as superior to the biweekly payroll schedule as this is for the worker, still deprives the worker of miscellaneous opportunities to invest, cover emergency expenses, and so on.  He or she has already earned it; only for the sake of convenience, tradition, greed, or malice would an organization not pay more promptly.

The worker has already given their labor, and with digital banking, it is easier than ever to pay someone the same day their shift ends.  And while every laborer would benefit from daily as opposed to biweekly payment, the poor are particularly uplifted by the requirements of Deuteronomy 24:14-15.  Since they are the most affected by any workplace oppression that withholds a livable income from them, prompt payment provides a heightened, ongoing level of security during their employment that is otherwise entirely absent.  After all, even scarcely survivable wages can still be put to somewhat more pragmatic use when compensation is staggered in accordance with each working day.

For a poor person to acquire greater economic security, though, threatens one of the foundations of the American workplace's status quo.  A truly poor person might lack the financial standing to just quit a job and devote their time and attention to searching for a replacement; they need money, and even the relatively abysmal pay of a low-wage job is better than no income at all.  If paid each day they work, a laborer would nonetheless not be as confined.  Would a tyrannical employer want workers to be able to more easily afford quitting their job ahead of securing another one, or for them to be secure enough financially that they do not have to work, and thus endure their bullshit?  Unlikely!

American business norms are often founded on the suppression of the workers that any organization with employees literally relies on for its very preservation.  Payments are usually delayed unnecessarily in two week intervals, and then the compensation can be very difficult, if not impossible, to sustain a healthy life with, all so people potentially far removed from the most strenuous forms of work can siphon more resources for themselves.  The commands of Leviticus and Deuteronomy, if adhered to, prevent the poor from lacking an escape from their destitution.  For workers, prompt payment no later than the day of their labor is an instrumental way to diminish economic struggles and accumulate wealth more rapidly.