Miss Payroll

[jimcool]

"To make payroll" and "to meet payroll" are established phrases. Does "to miss payroll" exist in standard English?

[emsr2d2]

"To make payroll" and "to meet payroll" are established phrases. Does "to miss payroll" exist in standard English?

I'm guessing that perhaps I don't work in the right department/sector to have heard "make/meet payroll" and I have no idea what they mean. I can only assume they mean that a company can cover the cost of the wages/salaries of its employees, so "miss payroll" would mean that they can't cover the cost.

5jj's favourite resource, Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA) only gives one example of its use.

For slight amusement value, I would like to add that when I saw the title, I thought perhaps we would be seeing an entrant in the 2011 Miss Economic World Contest!

[5jj]

5jj's favourite resource, Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA) ...

It's a great resource. Until that and the British National Corpus (BYU-BNC) became available, we had to use our own feelings when we were asked whether an expression was used ot not.

With over 500 million words, these corpora give a pretty objective answer to the question. We do have to remember, however, that together they contain fewer words than are spoken every day in Britain alone. The absence of a word or expression from the corpora, does not mean that it is not used, though such absence strongly suggests that it is not commonly used - yet.

We must also remember that the fact that an example of its use is cited in the corpora does not mean that it is necessarily to be considered 'correct', or that it is used in all varieties of English.

[emsr2d2]

It's a great resource. Until that and the British National Corpus (BYU-BNC) became available, we had to use our own feelings when we were asked whether an expression was used ot not.

With over 500 million words, these corpora give a pretty objective answer to the question. We do have to remember, however, that together they contain fewer words than are spoken every day in Britain alone. The absence of a word or expression from the corpora, does not mean that it is not used, though such absence strongly suggests that it is not commonly used - yet.

We must also remember that the fact that an example of its use is cited in the corpora does not meaan that it is necessarily to be considered 'correct', or that it is used in all varieties of English.

Absolutely, especially the last paragraph.

I checked it on the British version and wasn't surprised to see that it didn't appear. Even "payroll" alone isn't a terribly BrE phrase, more AmE. We do have "payroll departments" in companies, but I would think that we would say simply "can't cover salaries this month" or something similar. I think we would use a negative statement "We can't cover...", "We are unable to meet..." than "We will miss payroll".

[5jj]

I checked it on the British version and wasn't surprised to see that it didn't appear.

Quite. In fact, I was about to tell jimcool earlier that make payroll and meet payroll were not standard expressions, when I thought I'd better check in COCA. - fortunately.

[jimcool]

"meet payroll", "make payroll", and "miss payroll" are not real English.

[birdeen's call]

"meet payroll", "make payroll", and "miss payroll" are not real English.

Hmm? No, they actually are.

[emsr2d2]

"meet payroll", "make payroll", and "miss payroll" are not real English.

1) That's not true.
2) That's a very sweeping statement.
3) What do you mean by "real English"?

[BobK]

Hmm? No, they actually are.

I've never met them; but I did work in a company where the concept of the 'payroll date' was important; and in the Payroll department it's not unlikely that in context the phrase might be abbreviated to 'payroll' with no risk of misunderstanding.

We then come to phrasal verbs that incorporate the word 'date'. You can 'miss a date', 'make a date', and 'meet a date'.

Example: suppose that an Expenses claim must be made, say, 10 working days before the payroll date (=the date when all necessary bank transfers are initated) if payment is to be made before the following payroll date. Someone might reasonably say 'I've got to do my expenses tonight or I'll miss payroll'. (This is all speculation. As I said, I've never met the expressions, but this is the sort of work environment in which I imagine they might be used.)


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