National Payroll Week is a national awareness campaign held annually during the week of Labor Day. In the United States, it is hosted by the American Payroll Association. Founded in 1996, National Payroll Week celebrates the partnership between America’s employees, the payroll professionals who pay them, and the critical government programs and agencies that our payroll system funds, including social security, Medicare, fair labor standards, and child support.
This special week celebrates the economic, cultural, and social achievements of employees across America and the significance of “an honest day’s work for an honest day’s pay.” Throughout the history of the campaign, the NPW message has been shared in leading print, digital, television, and radio outlets. These include USA Today, The New York Times Magazine, Yahoo! Finance, and many more.
The official slogan of National Payroll Week is “America works because we’re working for America.” The American Payroll Association’s 152 chapters work to teach workers and teens about paychecks and paycheck-related benefits, focusing on helping employees better manage their paychecks to put more money in their pockets each payday.
National Payroll Week has two goals: to recognize the efforts of payroll industry professionals and to educate workers about their paychecks, the payroll withholding system, and payroll-related benefits. Payroll has a significant impact on our economy. Through the payroll withholding system, the money that’s collected from wage-earners’ paychecks funds essential programs such as social security and Medicare, which keeps America “working.” Together through the payroll withholding system, payroll professionals collect, contribute, and report 70% of the U.S. Treasury’s annual revenue.
National Payroll Week and Your Company
National Payroll Week is the perfect time to celebrate and recognize the value of your payroll professionals and thank them for ensuring payroll runs like a well-oiled machine. It’s a good time to acknowledge the work done by your payroll team and to make them feel appreciated.
This can be something on the smaller side, like decorating your payroll pros’ desks or doing a desk drop with a treat and thank you note, or a larger celebratory event with food: a kick-off breakfast, catered company lunch, or maybe even an ice cream truck. Remember to recognize both the department and the individuals who work within it. A little public appreciation can go a long way to acknowledging how important both the work and the people are to you and your company.
This is also an opportunity to educate and train your employees about what the payroll team does. This could mean creating the space to allow employees to ask your payroll pros their most pressing questions or could take the form of information and tools about financial fitness.
The idea behind recognizing your payroll professionals is not just to make your professionals happy during “their” week. All employees should understand the effort needed and the importance of what the payroll team does for your organization.
National Payroll Week is a great time for you to share your appreciation of payroll processors and what they do for your company and your employees to drive growth and success on a daily basis.