While there are those jobs, which typically consist of gig jobs or cash jobs in which the person so doing the work does gets paid the same day, that isn’t the way that it is for most regular employees, of which very few of those get paid same day’s wages for same day’s work. Rather, they are on a schedule to be paid, which, depending on the company, might be weekly, bi-weekly, semi-monthly, or monthly, and the pay is made after the labor has been accomplished. In other words, for those who are paid weekly, they are typically receiving their paycheck for the previous workweek and not the current workweek, which means that their pay is in arrears. This, in itself, is not illegal; it simply is the way that business is conducted in America.
Nevertheless, we read in Holy Scripture, “‘The wages of a hired servant shall not remain with you all night until the morning.” (Leviticus 19:13) It would seem that back in biblical times servants were paid their wages at the completion of their day’s work, and so it does seem like we have regressed where employees have to wait days or even weeks to be paid their wages, as if American corporations can’t figure out how to pay what they owe to their employees promptly, or perhaps it’s this way because it’s been this way for so long, that they don’t even give any thought to it.
When it comes to money, it has to be recognized that plenty of institutions make it their business to take money that is in their hands and to invest it in things such as equities, bonds, CDs, and the like. The bottom line is that corporations have an abiding drive to take the money that they have on hand and do something constructive with it, so that the cash is effectively put to work, in order to make additional money, by, for instance, interest payments on short-term CDs or via money market funds. This so indicates that there is a reason why companies prefer to pay employees in arrears, which is as straightforward as the fact that money makes money. So too, it has to be recognized that in the era of inflation, money of today is worth more than money in two weeks' time. In short, employees, in aggregate, are getting the short end of the stick whenever they aren’t paid at the completion of a day’s work, or very soon thereafter. The fair solution to such would seem to be something in which wages in arrears are entitled to interest being paid, because in a sense, the employee is loaning their labor pay to the employer and ought to be compensated for so doing.
A fair structure, therefore, would be for a company of one hundred employees or more, being mandated by law that those employees be entitled to an interest payment for the monies so held in arrears for their labor, of which that interest rate would be calculated based upon the prevailing Federal Funds rate or something similar to such. This then would be fair and appreciated by those who have done their part and should therefore be fully compensated for such.