Global payroll is complex, but 04:05 can help you make sense of it all. This month, we explore Egypt’s labour reforms, US workforce changes, and how to prevent costly payroll errors.
04:05 GLOBAL PAYROLL
Issue 20 I 2026
PAYROLL YEAR-END Why U.S. Payrollers Must Stay in ‘Year-End Mode’
THE HIDDEN COST OF PAYROLL UNDERPAYMENTS Payroll Compliance is Now a Strategic Risk, Not an Operational Issue
CLIMBING INTO INCOMPETENCE The Peter Principle, Promotion Culture, and Personal Awareness
WHEN RELIABILITY BECAME RISK Changing What “Getting The Job Done” Really Means
04:05 FOREWORD
Finding Clarity in Complexity
employment patterns, payroll obligations, and technological shifts are reshaping day-to-day operations across the US. And Eric Liaw’s Beyond the Headlines: The Hidden Cost of Payroll Underpayments uncovers the risks and financial implications of underpayments, with strategies to safeguard employees and organisational reputation. As the payroll world gets more intricate, opportunities for connection, shared ideas, and learning remain vital. Our upcoming Global Payroll Summit in London is a chance to explore contemporary challenges in depth, exchange ideas with peers, and hear firsthand from industry experts about the trends shaping the profession. We hope you’ll join us for what promises to be a truly memorable day. Until then, 04:05 is here to help you make sense of the complexities, highlight new ideas, and equip you with the tools needed to achieve your goals.
G lobal payroll continues to evolve at a breakneck pace, and with it comes a growing web of complexity for payroll professionals and teams. From changing regulations to shifting workforce expectations, the landscape can feel overwhelming, and that’s exactly where 04:05 aims to make a difference. This month, our contributors bring insight, guidance, and practical thought leadership to help you navigate each fresh challenge with confidence and clarity. In Decoding the New Egyptian Labour Law: What Businesses Should Expect , Grant Geraghty breaks down the latest reforms, highlighting how companies can prepare for regulatory change and maintain workforce compliance. Kristi Jones, in Managing Payroll Complexity in a Changing US Workforce , examines how evolving
Melanie Pizzey
Melanie Pizzey GPA CEO
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08 APAC THE HIDDEN COST OF PAYROLL UNDERPAYMENTS Australian case studies reveal why payroll compliance is now a strategic risk, not an operational issue 18 GLOBAL BETWEEN THE LINES Sharon Tayfield serves as one of three client service directors in global payroll services within BSO – BDO UK 42 APAC LAW IN REAL LIFE When Reliability Became Risk Expectations around psychosocial safety increase, changing what “getting the job done” really means
54 APAC AUSTRALIA’S WAGE THEFT LAWS What employers still get wrong 62 GLOBAL HOW SMART COMPANIES EVALUATE OFFSHORE CANDIDATES Many businesses are realising that their traditional hiring playbook doesn’t travel well 68 AMERICAS MANAGING PAYROLL COMPLEXITY IN A CHANGING U.S. WORKFORCE Payroll complexity remain a defining challenge for organizations
PAYROLL YEAR-END Why U.S. payrollers must stay in ‘year-end mode’
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REGULARS
06 GLOBAL NEWS Interactive global payroll news 74 GLOBAL DIARY OF AN HR MANAGER 76 GLOBAL GPA TRAINING Join our experts through the process of running payrolls in different countries 78 APAC ASIA BRIEFING Overview on Asia news 80 GLOBAL GPA WEBINARS The latest global and in-country payroll topics and trends 82 GLOBAL FIND A VENDOR
28 GLOBAL CLIMBING INTO INCOMPETENCE The Peter Principle, promotion culture, and personal awareness
48 AFRICA DECODING THE NEW EGYPTIAN LABOUR LAW What businesses should expect
A comprehensive list of suppliers to the global payroll industry
The GPA , 49 Greek St, Soho, London W1D 4EG. Tel: +44 (0)203 871 8870 Melanie Pizzey - CEO and 04:05 Executive Editor: melanie@gpa.net Rich Robins - 04:05 Designer: hello@megandmore.co.uk Hayleigh Blinkhorne - events/vendors/advertising: hayleigh@gpa.net General enquiries/mentor scheme/training : - info@gpa.net Michael Baer - US contributor: mike@gpa.net Nilufer Gul - GM APAC/Australia: nilufer@gpa.net Tel: +61 (0)413 749 714 CONTACTS
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ISSUE 20 GLOBAL PAYROLL MAGAZINE
WHY RESILIENT PAYMENT PROCESSES ARE INTEGRAL TO GLOBAL PAYROLL
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Author: Eric Liaw Eric Liaw is the Founder and Principal Consultant of Axis Payroll Compliance Consulting in Australia. Eric is a payroll compliance and governance specialist with over 20 years’ experience across payroll operations, compliance, remediation and advisory roles. He has worked with organisations across financial services, healthcare, logistics, professional services, construction and engineering and aviation, supporting payroll compliance, large-scale remediation programs and governance uplift initiatives. Eric’s work focuses on translating industrial and legislative obligations into auditable pay rules, processes and system controls, with a particular interest in payroll risk management, data integrity and regulatory compliance readiness.
Beyond the Headlines:
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Payroll underpayments are often measured by what is repaid to employees. In practice, the greater cost frequently lies in the years of remediation, fragile data, governance gaps and loss of trust that follow. Australian case studies reveal why payroll compliance is now a strategic risk, not an operational issue. ISSUE 20 GLOBAL PAYROLL MAGAZINE 04:05 I 09 The Hidden Cost of Payroll Underpayments
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The Headline Number is Rarely the Real Problem W hen payroll underpayments make the news, attention typically focuses on the amount repaid to employees. In Australia, those figures have reached hundreds of millions of dollars across retail, banking, higher education and healthcare. Yet in practice, the repayment amount is often only part of the story. The more significant cost frequently emerges after the issue is identified: years of forensic review, reconstruction of historical payroll data, complex remediation programs and sustained pressure on payroll, people, and legal teams. For many organisations, the cost of finding and proving what is owed rivals and sometimes exceeds the underpayment itself.
This is why payroll underpayments should no longer be viewed as isolated payroll errors. They are a symptom of deeper governance and compliance weaknesses. The 1:1 Ratio: When Remediation Equals Underpayment A rare public disclosure in Australia illustrates this clearly. In 2024, the University of Sydney reported to the New South Wales Parliament that it had spent AUD 21.6 million over four years on external consultants and advisers to review payroll records and calculate remediation payments. This was in addition to more than AUD 23 million paid to employees in underpayments. The near 1:1 ratio between underpayments and remediation cost is confronting. Most organisations never disclose this dimension of payroll failure. Yet similar patterns are increasingly visible. National Australia Bank has disclosed expected payroll remediation costs of AUD 130 million , increasing operating costs by 4.5 per cent year on year. Even for large, sophisticated employers, payroll remediation can become a material financial event.
This is why payroll underpayments should no longer be viewed as isolated payroll errors. They are a symptom of deeper governance and compliance weaknesses.
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Alongside financial impact sits a less visible but equally enduring people cost. Underpayments often surface through employee complaints, grievances, disengagement and attrition. Trust, once damaged, can take years to rebuild. Importantly, these outcomes rarely stem from individual or team failure. They reflect governance gaps that have not kept pace with increasing business complexity, more systems, more industrial instruments, more changes and higher expectations of compliance. Underpayments: The Visible Liability Underpayments remain the most visible and emotionally charged consequence of weak payroll governance. When errors are confirmed, employers are required to repay unpaid wages, penalties, allowances, superannuation, interest and associated payroll tax. These payments are non- discretionary. Once liability crystallises, there is little room for negotiation. What varies is scale. In Australia, large supermarket chains have disclosed potential remediation liabilities ranging
At the other end of the spectrum, small and medium- sized employers have faced penalties and compliance orders that threaten business viability.
from hundreds of millions to more than a billion dollars. Major banks have back-paid tens of millions to tens of thousands of employees. Universities have collectively repaid hundreds of millions across casual and professional workforces. At the other end of the spectrum, small and medium-sized employers have faced penalties and compliance orders that threaten business viability. In one case, an underpayment of approximately AUD 1,400 to a single employee triggered mandatory system replacement, independent audits, ongoing regulatory reporting and compulsory training. This is a material financial and operational burden on a business with 35 employees. Across different industries, systems and workforce models, the outcome is consistently severe. This is not unique to Australia. In the UK, the government’s 2020 naming and shaming list revealed that
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across HR, Finance and IT, with unclear ownership of compliance risk. Systems are relied upon to “handle compliance”, despite the unavoidable gap between legal intent and what can (and cannot) realistically be implemented in systems. Second, legal obligations are poorly translated into auditable system pay rules. Assumptions are made. Legacy practices are never challenged. Interpretations go undocumented. System pay rules are rarely independently validated. Errors compound quietly over time. Third, data foundations are often fragile. When historical payroll, time or rostering data cannot be reliably reconstructed, remediation scope expands. Regulators increasingly expect employee-favourable assumptions where uncertainty exists, materially increasing outcomes. Finally, payroll risk spikes during change. System implementations, restructures, acquisitions, and changes to employment conditions frequently proceed without sufficient payroll impact assessment. Awards are varied, enterprise agreements are renegotiated, businesses are acquired, and payroll is expected to absorb these changes without additional resources or validation time.
Tesco underpaid almost 78,000 workers by more than £5 million. In the United States, Disney agreed to pay $233 million to settle claims it underpaid nearly 50,000 Disneyland workers, marking California’s largest wage theft settlement. The U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division recently announced it has recovered more than $259 million in back wages for nearly 177,000 employees nationwide – an average of $1,465 per worker – in fiscal year 2025. Why Payroll Underpayments Persist Across almost every major Australian underpayment case examined by regulators, a consistent pattern emerges. Payroll underpayments are rarely caused by a single mistake. They arise from accumulated complexity and recurring weaknesses in payroll governance. Several contributing factors are common. First, payroll is often treated as an operational process rather than a regulated environment. Responsibility is fragmented
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GLOBAL PAYROLL MAGAZINE ISSUE 20
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audit trails often determine whether an issue can be resolved quickly or escalates into a multi-year program. Finally, proactive, risk-led reviews identify issues early, limit liability windows and demonstrate good- faith compliance. When issues are identified, early, transparent and employee-centred remediation consistently reduces regulatory and reputational risk. A Strategic Shift Payroll underpayments are costly, but their true impact extends far beyond dollars. They damage employee trust, expose governance gaps and create sustained organisational risk. As workforces, systems and regulatory expectations continue to evolve, payroll accuracy has become a strategic issue requiring executive and board-level attention. Preventing underpayments is not the responsibility of payroll or HR alone. It requires shared ownership across People, Finance, Legal, IT and the business. Ultimately, payroll accuracy is about more than compliance. It is about fairness, trust and dignity at work, and keeping one of the most fundamental promises organisations make to their people.
Payroll underpayments are rarely caused by a single mistake. They arise from accumulated complexity and recurring weaknesses in payroll governance.
What Effective Payroll Governance Looks Like Organisations that avoid large- scale remediation share a common approach: they invest upstream. Treating payroll as a regulated environment is central. This means clear ownership and accountability, documented decision-making, risk registers, escalation pathways and board and executive oversight. Payroll should be governed with the same discipline applied to financial reporting or data privacy. Compliance also depends on auditable pay rules. Clause-by- clause interpretation, documented assumptions and traceability from legal obligation to system configuration and payslip outcome are essential. If a pay rule cannot be explained and evidenced, it represents risk. Strong data integrity underpins everything. Retained historical data, consistent identifiers and robust
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GLOBAL PAYROLL MAGAZINE ISSUE 20
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04:05 INTERVIEW
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Between the Lines Sharon Tayfield
Sharon Tayfield currently serves as one of three Client Service Directors in Global Payroll Services within BSO – BDO UK, which provides on-the-ground services for more than 160 countries.
W ith more than 25 has been well-recognized by four major payroll professional bodies for her leadership and has authored numerous articles covering global payroll. She helps clients identify and document changes in international payroll legislation as well as review their end-to-end payroll processing model to expose areas of risk. She is currently responsible for covering payroll issues for 45 countries, documenting risk areas, ensuring compliance, and years of global payroll experience, Sharon
embedding payroll processing controls both at the client level and external service provider level. Sharon sits on the BDO’s Global Payroll Quality and Risk working committee, tasked with instilling best practices across the BDO network covering people, processes, and platforms (data). The aim is to ensure that no matter where in the world payroll services are provided, the client experience will have the same minimum standards. This interview has been edited for clarity.
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GPA: How did you get into payroll originally? Sharon Tayfield: Like many in this industry, I didn’t start off specifically in payroll. In South Africa, I first qualified and moved into an accounting position. Eventually, I took over the role of first financial manager, later becoming financial director, and, as part of that, payroll reported to me. The long story short is I decided to outsource the payroll, but within about two years, we had a very bad incident with the service provider, and I took the payroll back in-house. Ironically, in pointing out the provider’s shortfalls, they stayed connected with me and later approached me to join them and see if I could expand their business. I ended up leaving my firm to work for the service provider. GPA: How have you been able to progress in your payroll career? Sharon Tayfield: Shortly after I joined the payroll provider, Michele Honomichl of what was then Celergo reached out to me because she was looking for service providers to support within Africa, and we formed a collaboration. I guided the firm
as we provided the in-country support for some of her growing client base. Then, with my husband, we relocated to the United Kingdom, and while I stayed with my employer I also looked at jobs within the UK. I actually did a little spider diagram at the time, and this is when I decided I wanted to go full head-on into payroll, and I eventually got the CIPP certification. I later had the opportunity to have a brief stint in Celergo’s London office, migrated back to the company I came from (while continuing to work closely with Michele and her team), and then moved on to my current employer, BDO, staying in the UK. I’ve been there around nine years in my capacity as client service director. GPA: Tell us about your current role. Sharon Tayfield: My role as client service director means that I can service the client if the client is moving into a new jurisdiction, assisting them because we’ve got that local on- the-ground knowledge through our BDO offices. We can assist in setting up a legal entity. Now, obviously, if it’s a very large
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GLOBAL PAYROLL MAGAZINE ISSUE 20
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client, they might have their own legal team and have their own specialists to do this, but a lot of our clients do come to us, and even a large client that I’m managing comes to us and asks for assistance in registering in a particular country. Then we need to set up a payroll in the country. We examine staffing restrictions in countries, such as restrictions on who can be directors of the company, because in some countries, you have to be a local resident. Then, we help them navigate through what they need to do to run a successful payroll in that country. We spend time assisting them if there are any statutory audits. Not surprisingly, we’ve seen an increase in statutory audits because every single government in the world is looking for funds. It’s much easier for governments to implement some sort of tax or additional surcharge through payroll because of two things: one, the government knows that payroll is paid every single month and so they can get a steady cash flow. And number two, they know that payroll professionals are very accurate, meticulous, and that they’ll get the work done.
It’s much easier for governments to implement some sort of tax or additional surcharge through payroll because of two things: one, the government knows that payroll is paid every single month and so they can get a steady cash flow. And number two, they know that payroll professionals are very accurate, meticulous, and that they’ll get the work done.
Linked to that, governments realize that if they do an audit of a company and they find that legislation hasn’t been applied correctly, it’s also another easy and nice way to get extra funds, because they can charge penalties, which can be 100% on top of what was underpaid. In my role, I try to be very vendor- agnostic. So, I just provide a
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GPA: What are some of the most challenging aspects of doing global payroll? Sharon Tayfield: I think number one is achieving consistency of services across jurisdictions, followed closely by adjusting to legislative changes. If there was consistency in payroll services for every single country around the world, I think that would make life very easy. I’m putting legislation second because there are some countries that are very good at proactively advising of changes in legislation, but there are some countries that are not so proactive. Sometimes you only find that legislation has changed after the fact, and that’s very difficult to implement within global payroll. But the two challenges are linked. If you have service providers that are not consistent in how they provide their services, say, and there is a legislative change where it is not being proactively communicated, it’s really difficult to get it all in place to make sure you can show how it impacts the employee, because sometimes the changes in legislation can have a dramatic effect on the take-home salary of an employee.
Ultimately, while my role is to ensure that our clients remain compliant in every single country, I think the most important thing above anything is to ensure that their staff are paid on time.
professional view on what to look for when you’re going to outsource your payroll. There are some organizations where outsourcing is the worst possible solution. I help them by shining a light and giving them some signposts and some guidance of what to look for and where to go to in terms of their payroll journey. Ultimately, while my role is to ensure that our clients remain compliant in every single country, I think the most important thing above anything is to ensure that their staff are paid on time. Because, at the end of the day, the staff or their employees are their most valuable asset, and everybody needs to take care of their most valuable asset.
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Also, if you’re a global employer and you want your employees to have the same experience whether they’re sitting in Iran, sitting in South Africa, or in Zimbabwe, your compensation team needs to be looking at whether they’re going to change rules in those countries to line up with the rules that are changing somewhere else. Overall, I believe providing consistency in terms of quality and risk in every single BDO office around the world allows us to be a service provider of choice. GPA: Who has been the most influential in helping you with your career? Sharon Tayfield: For me, as a woman, becoming a company’s first female director brought me fear. I thought: “Everybody’s looking at me now. Am I going to get this right?” And yet the members of the board there were very supportive and encouraging. They helped instill me with the adage that there is nothing that you cannot achieve if you have ambition and you give it 100%. Second, Michele Honomichl’s enthusiasm for payroll, her sort of get-up-and-go attitude and the way that she approached day-to- day business was phenomenal. She taught me a lot.
Third, the CEO of the outsourcing firm that I fired early on and ended up working for, who was really supportive in terms of how we grew the business. He was always willing to invest in technology to ensure that we could meet the growing demands of operating globally. I loved working with him. He recently retired. GPA: What do you wish people outside of payroll knew about payroll? Sharon Tayfield: That payroll is the center of the universe! It touches so many other aspects of an organization. It touches HR, it touches finance, it touches the business strategy. If you look at payroll as a profession or as a For me, as a woman, becoming a company’s first female director brought me fear. I thought: “Everybody’s looking at me now. Am I going to get this right?”
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Payroll has become a strategic differentiator for global organizations. With increasingly distributed workforces, growing competition for talent, and evolving compliance standards, how businesses manage payroll now influences their ability to scale and meet employee expectations. By 2026, payroll will no longer solely center on accurate and timely payments. It will be a source of trust, intelligence, and competitive advantage. The global payroll market is projected to reach $18.72 billion in 2026, with a
CAGR of 4.88%. Such growth reflects how payroll systems are adapting to business needs, driven by AI and automation. These technologies are taking payroll from an administrative task into a strategic function which delivers insight, agility, and resilience. Cloud platforms, real-time data access, and personalization tools are central to workforce satisfaction and modernization. AI is pivotal to this shift. It automates compliance checks, forecasts costs, reduces errors, and manages administrative workload, while payroll teams focus on oversight, insights, and culture.
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career-especially global payroll- where else would you be able to work where you would be looking at taxation, looking at HR aspects, looking at IT, and be involved in legal interpretations? For a young person who wants to grow and has that desire to be involved in multiple aspects of an operation, payroll is the one profession that does that. You’re touching so many different things; you are constantly learning something new. It’s exciting. GPA: How about the future state of payroll? Sharon Tayfield: I think that there will be increasing scrutiny from governments around the world for ensuring that payroll complies with, especially tax legislation, because we are dealing with a globally mobile workforce which needs to be well managed. More generally, I’m not a fan of the term “get a seat at the table” because I think we’ve got the seat. It’s just taking that and owning it. If you look back 15-20 years, a lot of the role was about data capturing and data accuracy. I think if the technology can
For a young person who wants to grow and has that desire to be involved in multiple aspects of an operation, payroll is the one profession that does that. You’re touching so many different things; you are constantly learning something new. It’s exciting.
be successful at accurately validating that data at point of entry, the payroll professional is going to change to be more of a consultant.
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04:05 GLOBAL
Climbing into Incompetence The Peter Principle, promotion culture, and personal awareness
Ayşe Nazmiye Uça is the Founder and Chairman of the Turkish Payroll Association and established Turkey’s first payroll outsourcing company 26 years ago. Her company, Datassist, leads the market in technology-centered payroll services, catering to Fortune 500 companies and major Turkish corporations. Datassist excels in Regulation Technologies (RegTech) and continues to expand through strategic investments and business partnerships, aiming to offer comprehensive services in an evolving market. In 2024, Ayşe ranked 20th among Turkey’s top 100 female founders by Fast Company magazine, based on company turnover. Her life purpose is to shape organizations, create new opportunities, and guide her employees toward achieving their career goals.
In hierarchical systems, every employee eventually rises to their level of incompetence.
A new year signals new beginnings. For some, that means leaving a job. For others, it’s promotion season. Titles change, business cards are reprinted,
expectations rise. Does this mean that every promotion is really progress? If you’ve spent any time inside an organisation, you would have witnessed a familiar pattern.
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People rise because they perform well, but eventually, the skills that made them successful stop working.
“
The principle suggests that in hierarchical organisations, employees tend to be promoted until they reach a position where they are no longer competent. People rise because they perform well, but eventually, the
Someone who does their job exceptionally well gets promoted… and before long, things start to unravel. The team struggles. Decisions slow. Communication frays. And sooner or later, the same question surfaces:
Was this person actually right for the role? There’s a name for this phenomenon: the Peter Principle. It was first introduced in 1969 by Laurence J. Peter.
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As a specialist, your value is measured by how well you perform. As a manager, success is no longer about you, it belongs to the team. That requires letting go of control, delegating authority, and becoming comfortable with ambiguity. Not everyone is ready for that shift, and many aren’t even interested in it. But when organisations offer no alternative career paths, promotion becomes the only recognised form of progress. People are nudged upward whether it suits them or not. As a result you end up with a manager who can’t fully let go of their old role, and a team that never quite gets the leadership it needs. In many workplaces, promotion is still treated as a reward. In reality, it’s not a prize; it’s a high-risk role change. It requires preparation, support, and clear measures of success. When those are missing, the Peter Principle quietly takes hold. What appears
The Peter Principle is most visible in the transition from specialist to manager because this change isn’t just about responsibility. It’s about identity.
skills that made them successful stop working. Success Doesn’t Mean the Same Thing at Every Level What makes the Peter Principle so enduring is a simple fact that we often overlook: every role defines success differently. In one position, being good might mean speed, technical skill, individual contribution, or deep expertise. But in the role above it, the rules seem to change. The work shifts from solving problems to setting priorities, from producing outcomes to enabling others, from
doing the work to making sure the work gets done. Yet organisations often ignore this shift when making promotion decisions. A high performer in one role is assumed to be a natural fit for the next. It’s like entering a completely different game but insisting on playing by the old rules. Why Top Specialists Often Struggle as Managers transition from specialist to manager because this change isn’t just about responsibility. It’s about identity. The Peter Principle is most visible in the
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to be an individual struggle is exposed as a
Every person in an organisation has a threshold, a point where they approach the limits of what genuinely suits their abilities.
structural flaw. The Peter Principle,
Through Mad Men Popular culture has explored this dynamic in quieter, more serious ways. If you have seen Mad Men , you will be familiar with the iconic Don Draper, who is valuable for a very specific reason. He sees things others don’t. He understands how people think, he knows what they want, and he knows how to turn that into a story that sells. When the job is about ideas, instinct, and taste, he is hard to replace. But when his role expands, the tension begins. As Don moves further into leadership, the work slowly stops rewarding the qualities that made him successful. The organisation no longer needs flashes of
brilliance alone; it needs steadiness, follow- through, emotional presence, and a willingness to stay in the room when things are uncomfortable. Those expectations did not sit well with Don, not because he lacked intelligence or capability, but because they were never the reason he was promoted. He doesn’t just suddenly lose his edge; he is still sharp, perceptive, and capable of exceptional work. The job has shifted under his feet, and the role simply stops being built around the things he knows how to do well. That is the Peter
expose failure. It exposes a quiet misalignment between what a person is valued for and what the role eventually demands of them. What the Peter Principle Really Says to the Individual “In hierarchical systems, every employee eventually rises to their level of incompetence.” A recent post by Veysel Bozkurt on X brought Laurence J. Peter’s principle back to mind. The principle discusses why promotions don’t always lead to better outcomes. People aren’t promoted because they fail. They are promoted because they succeed,
Principle in its most recognisable form. Promotion doesn’t
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but at some point, the skills that created that success change, and when they do, a promotion stops being a sign of growth and becomes a spotlight on misalignment. threshold, a point where they approach the limits of what genuinely suits their abilities. Reaching that point, and not enjoying the demands of the promoted role, isn’t a weakness. It’s human. Recognising that threshold, and choosing what is right rather than simply what is higher, takes awareness and courage because progress doesn’t always come Every person in an organisation has a with a new title. Instead of accepting promotion like a carrot dangled just out of reach, it’s worth pausing to think. The most important questions are simple, but uncomfortable: Who am I? Where am I going? What do I genuinely want?
What is my purpose? And perhaps the hardest question of all: Is this promotion truly a reward for me, or are there other rewards, in other parts of life, that matter more?
Asking these questions isn’t about stepping away from ambition. It’s about stepping back far enough to see your own life clearly.
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DECODING PAYROLL AND EMPLOYMENT DYNAMICS IN THE MIDDLE EAST
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04:05 AMERICAS
Why U.S Stay in
Author: Christine Stolpe Christine Stolpe, CPP , is a U.S. payroll subject matter enthusiast and educator with a passion for helping payroll professionals and employees better understand how payroll really works. She is the founder of Wages Creek , a payroll education and consulting firm established in 2019, where her work focuses on translating highly regulated payroll requirements into practical, human-centered insights. Christine is also the creator and curator of the Wages Creek Online Payroll Encyclopedia , a living resource she developed to support payroll literacy, compliance awareness, and cross- functional understanding in a complex payroll environment. Contact Christine at christine@wagescreek.com .
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S. Payrollers Must ‘Year-End Mode’
From the outside, U.S. payroll year-end can look more intense than it has to be. Sure, there are multiple forms and overlapping deadlines. There’s a lot to deal with to finish the year while making adjustments to start the new year right, but that is true just about everywhere.
I can understand why payroll professionals observing this from outside the United States fairly wonder why one country’s year-end process seems to demand so much attention.
In the U.S., year-end creates an incredible amount of anxiety for payroll teams and employees alike. With this year-end now effectively over, we in payroll can breathe a little, right?
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Each layer has its own definitions, thresholds, and filing requirements. They don’t always align, and they rarely change on the same schedule. In the U.S., payroll compliance looks more like a web, and year- end is when every strand is tested simultaneously.
What I’ve discovered is that year-end isn’t really an ending at all. It’s the point where an entire year of decentralized payroll activity converges—and where any cracks in the system become impossible to ignore.
Where U.S. Year- End Really Gets Complicated
One of the least intuitive aspects of U.S. payroll year-end—especially for non-U.S. payrollers—is how much of the work is about reconciling and reporting taxable amounts, not recalculating pay. The same wages often need to be reported to multiple agencies, sometimes on the same form, under different rules. Payroll isn’t just closing balances; it’s telling a compliant, internally consistent story to regulators who each define “taxable wages” differently. For example, an employee may work in several U.S. states during the year but end the year in New York. Under New York year- end reporting rules, even if the employee was only paid for a few weeks for working in the state, payroll must report the total amount of federal wages as state wages. New York is the only state
After many years working in U.S. payroll, what I’ve discovered is that year-end isn’t really an ending at all. It’s the point where an entire year of decentralized payroll activity converges—and where any cracks in the system become impossible to ignore. A Payroll System Built in Layers, Not Lines It starts with the fact that in the U.S., there is no single payroll authority. Payroll must operate across layers: federal taxation and social insurance; state-level income tax systems (where applicable); state unemployment programs; local and municipal taxes; and agency-specific rules tied to benefits, credits, or reporting obligations.
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that requires this. The other taxing states require payroll to determine and report amounts paid for working in that state. These are a few of many
While payroll accuracy is measured primarily by whether employees are paid correctly and on time, in the United States, reporting accuracy can carry equal weight.
requirements that must be handled precisely to avoid compliance issues. This is where U.S. year-end
becomes less about processing and more about interpretation. Payroll teams must understand which wages are taxable versus reportable, which fields must mathematically agree, and when a “mismatch” is actually required! Measures of Payroll Accuracy These issues rarely surface in a single pay period. They show up at year-end, when totals are finalized and agencies compare what payroll reported against what they expect to see. While payroll accuracy is measured primarily by whether employees are paid correctly and on time, in the United States, reporting accuracy can carry equal weight. An error that never affected an employee’s net pay during the year can still trigger corrections, amended filings, and employee confusion once year-end reporting begins.
This is why U.S. payroll teams often remain in “year-end mode” well into the new year. Compliance risk extends through reconciliation, validation, and post-year-end support. Employees Are Active Participants in the U.S. Tax Process Shortly after payroll finishes its year-end in the U.S., employees must rely heavily on payroll- generated information to complete their personal tax filings. Payroll is considered a primary source of truth for understanding what was taxed, what wasn’t, and why their take-home pay changed over time. As a result, year-end brings heightened employee engagement with payroll data. Questions increase. Scrutiny increases. Trust matters just as
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U.S.-specific requirements. It also exposes which “temporary” workarounds quietly became permanent risks. For global payroll leaders, these insights are invaluable. They inform system design, vendor strategy, data governance, and decisions about where local expertise must live within global frameworks. Organizations that manage U.S. payroll successfully—especially from outside the country—do so by recognizing that local expertise must be embedded within global structures, that year-end success reflects year-round discipline, and that payroll communication is a core function. Looking Ahead Year-end is simply the moment when payroll teams confirm whether their interpretations and controls held up under a full year of scrutiny. This is why U.S. payroll professionals focus so heavily on documentation, controls, and reconciliation. These aren’t abstract best practices. They are essential in a regulatory environment that expects accuracy and audit readiness at all times. For those of us working in U.S. payroll, it’s a reminder that while the calendar resets, the learning never really stops.
much as technical accuracy, and the employee experience is tested. The best U.S. payroll teams emphasize clear reporting and post- year-end communication. Payroll is not just administering pay—it’s helping employees navigate a tax system they are personally responsible for reconciling. Year-End as a Diagnostic, Not a Deadline One of the reasons I encourage payroll teams not to rush past year- end is that it provides an unusually honest view of system health. Year- end reveals where upstream data dependencies broke down, which processes relied too heavily on manual intervention, and where global models strained against
Year-end reveals where upstream data dependencies broke down, which processes relied too heavily on manual intervention, and where global models strained against U.S.-specific requirements.
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04:05 APAC
Welcome to Law in Real Life , where the rules are written in ink, but real life writes its own script. Forget the training manual. Forget the perfect manager or fair pay for fair work. In the real world, rosters sometimes go rogue, rights get overlooked, and payslips just don’t add up. Until real voices finally say, “Enough!” Law in Real Life
Author: Nilufer (Nilly) Gul Nilly Gul is the GM, APAC at the GPA. She’s passionate about payroll and all the people who make it work. With experience in global payroll sales, recruitment, compliance, process improvement, and relationship management, Nilly understands the industry from every angle. She’s all about creating spaces— events, programs, and conversations—where payroll professionals can connect, share, and grow. Her mission? To make payroll a career people choose, not just fall into.
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These are fictional stories based on true workplace drama, straight out of the tangled world of Australian payroll and employment law. You won’t find HR-approved happy endings here. Just people navigating red tape, broken systems, and those awkward conversations no one wants to have, but everyone needs to hear. Find out what happens when policy meets
personality…and things start getting real. It’s not just about compliance. It’s about empowerment. About what happens when silence costs too much and someone finally asks a question that changes everything. Because this isn’t a spreadsheet. It’s not a case study. It’s real life at work. And what counts doesn’t get counted unless we speak up. When Reliability Became Risk S uccess has traditionally been measured by delivery and dependability, but as expectations around psychosocial safety increase, payroll records and workload data are being read differently, changing what “getting the job done” really means. Virginia has been the operations manager at the printing business for the last fifteen years, long enough to stop seeing busy as a problem and start treating it as normal.
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Clients were satisfied. Problems were dealt with before they became someone else’s problem. That reliability had earned her the role and kept her there. Fifteen years in operations is a long time, but the business trusted her. And Virginia trusted herself to carry it. The way she did that was simple. She worked hard. Early starts and late finishes were normal, even somewhat expected. Virginia always stayed back when needed, filled in when someone was sick, checked schedules after dinner, logged back in when the kids went to bed, and replied to emails she didn’t really need to, just because it made the next day easier.
None of it felt extreme; it just felt like the responsible thing to do. At home, Virginia had a strong family unit with a supportive partner, three great kids, a manageable but constant mortgage, and living and school expenses that crept up quietly, just like every other family. Her eldest daughter had just got her licence and was already talking about her first car. In their family, buying the first car mattered. It was something they promised for each child. Virginia wanted to keep that promise. A promotion would help. The extra money would make things easier. The bonuses already helped. They were tied to delivery targets, turnaround times, and client satisfaction. When projects landed on time and production targets were met, the business rewarded that performance. Virginia delivered. The bonuses followed. What no one really asked
The company did exactly what most people imagine when they hear “printing,” and a few things they do not. Branded merchandise. Training manuals. Event signage. Conference banners. Catalogues that needed reprinting because someone found a typo after approval. Urgent runs for product launches, etc. Nothing life or death. Everything time-sensitive. Virginia was not a standout in the way people usually mean it. She was not charismatic. She did not give rousing speeches or talk about vision. What she did do was make sure the work got done. Orders were delivered. Schedules held.
What she did do was make sure the work got done. Orders were delivered. Schedules held. Clients were satisfied. Problems were dealt with before they became someone else’s problem.
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