How popular is salary lottery in your workspace?

[Spaceman1000$]

In my region, salary lotteries are very popular in many workplaces. I don't know what's the exact English term for his but we call it that name. The purpose of salary lottery is that 5-6 employees collect together and they play lottery. The first winner gets the salary of every worker, in the next months the second winner gets everyone's salary and that's it. There isn't a random winner, everyone gets their salary back but the fate of who is the first person to receive the salary is decided via a simple coin flip.

For example, imagine that there are 6 people and salary of each person is $1000. They determine via coin flip who is the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th. First gets $6000 in the end of the month, in the next month, the second gets $6000 and in 6th month, the 6th person gets $6000. You may ask me how do they live for 6 months without a salary? Family members take care of them. Too many people work for fun because sitting at home is boring for them but they don't have enough money to have fun too.

I can relate to this particular scenario but in my own country I think is been called contribution, everybody contribute to a certain persons half or half of half of his or her salary till it goes round to all the members of the committee. But the question you asked about how they survive without salary for 6 months, if they are paid let's say $1000 every month and the contribution is $600 every month, whoever that has it in mind that he or she wants to join this kind of contribution would know that they will have to survive with $400 which is the remainder from their salary every month for the next six months and probably with support from maybe extended relatives and friends. But in my country those of them that go into this kind of contribution are particularly interested in getting something in particular, either they want to save up to get a car, oh by your house probably something that a month salary of theirs cannot get.

[hyudien]

..

This is similar to arisan/ROSCA in my country because the system is not much different, everyone will deposit money but there is still a slight difference from your version of the salary lottery, namely that arisan participants can be anyone, not necessarily office colleagues and also not necessarily the entire monthly salary to be deposited in other words the nominal amount is free according to the agreement at the beginning and finally the draw can be through a wheel spin or it can also be sequentially like in your system, but of course everyone will get it back.

[slapper]

Salary lottery is basically the anti-banking system, social trust as a short-term credit union, and a little chaos thrown in for fun. Most Western HR departments would get a migraine just hearing about it. Yet, it’s more logical than a lot of what passes for “financial innovation”. You’re talking about a community-based time preference swap. You accelerate access to future income and let chance decide who gets to play venture capitalist with their friends’ paychecks

What I love is how this destroys the myth that the only real financial systems are the official, buttoned-up ones. Salary lottery is just raw, direct, ancient human economics. No compound interest, no predatory fees, just a group, a coin, and trust. If you really peel it, it’s financial mutual aid, except it exposes how much modern work is a game of “pretend liquidity”. There’s also an insane honesty in the fact that people admit they work partly for social reasons (boredom, meaning, not survival) and they’re willing to engineer their own system to make the most of it. Why are so many people structurally cash-poor but time-rich in ways that make the official economy look like a bureaucratic meme? Most experts would rather run another “employee engagement” survey than let people solve their own cashflow creatively

It’s easy to ask “how do they live for six months without salary”. The better question is why the actual economic system can’t give people even a fraction of this flexibility or support. Salary lottery is low-tech but high-trust. In the age of fintech and Defi, that’s borderline revolutionary

[davis196]

For example, imagine that there are 6 people and salary of each person is $1000. They determine via coin flip who is the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th. First gets $6000 in the end of the month, in the next month, the second gets $6000 and in 6th month, the 6th person gets $6000. You may ask me how do they live for 6 months without a salary? Family members take care of them. Too many people work for fun because sitting at home is boring for them but they don't have enough money to have fun too.

I've never heard about such "salary lottery". I can assume that you live in a country where gambling culture is quite strong and families are quite big. Such type of lottery wouldn't be possible in my country, because if your family takes care of you financially for several months, you are considered a loser. "Too many people work for fun"? Do you live in some kind of agricultural pre-industrial society, where big families have lots of land to provide them with food and normal 9-to-5 jobs aren't a common thing?
How can you be motivated enough to work in a job for 5 months without a salary?

[shield132]

I know this one lol.

But it's really surprising the culture in your country use the whole salary and there's no administration fee.

In my area, they only use some amount from their salary, maybe around 30%, so it won't hurt the participant to pay monthly bills. They also pay fees to the "owner", if there are 6 people and each of them give $1K, the return would be $5,950 or $5,900 depends on the agreement.

Since this is done between friends, there is no administrative fee. Also, in my culture, taking a fee from a friend is a disgusting action. Here, if a friend asks you to get them a few bucks (I mean 5-6 dollars), it's shameful to ask the person to pay you back if they don't pay on their own.

It's not called a salary lottery in my country, but "contribution ". Some people use this means to get bulk money that could be used for a capital-intensive project instead of taking loans. But we don't do it with 100% of our salary since most of us depend on it for survival. We usually write numbers on paper, fold and spin them. The number you pick will determine when you will collect the total amount contributed for the month.

I understand, it seems it's called contribution in many countries but here it's called salary lottery. I knew it wouldn't be the correct term for others, that's why I tried to hard to explain. Btw people here get bulk money to buy the latest model of iPhone Pro Max.

What a strange kind of lottery this is, I've never heard of anything like it. What's the advantage of getting the money upfront if you're going to go a long time without receiving anything? Maybe it's to use the money for deals, buying and selling things, but in that case, wouldn't it be easier to just use money from the bank or a credit card?

It has never made sense to me too and I've asked this question to these people many times. Their answer was that it's a good feeling when you receive your 6 month salary at once. They usually buy fancy things and then eat cheap instant noodle Doshirak not to die from starving.

[justdimin]

The purpose of salary lottery is that 5-6 employees collect together and they play lottery. The first winner gets the salary of every worker, in the next months the second winner gets everyone's salary and that's it.

Other than deciding the winner of this method, I do not view this as a lottery but like a way how insurance works. This salary thing must be a new thing, I am sure here in my country we do not have such practice. I feel like this can be copied to all tie 2 countries or by all mid level people or by all employees but with some modifications like 50% of salary because not every family might have other working people to support for the rest of the months.

There isn't a random winner, everyone gets their salary

This is the part, I started like this idea. We help one of our friend who needs lumpsum money for some need and other friends contribute and waiting for their turn. I could not figure out flaws with this system.

[m2017]

In my region, salary lotteries are very popular in many workplaces. I don't know what's the exact English term for his but we call it that name. The purpose of salary lottery is that 5-6 employees collect together and they play lottery. The first winner gets the salary of every worker, in the next months the second winner gets everyone's salary and that's it. There isn't a random winner, everyone gets their salary back but the fate of who is the first person to receive the salary is decided via a simple coin flip.

This is the 1st time I've heard about a salary lottery and I'm curious to know in which region exactly this is popular? For me, such entertainment seems "wild" and I'm 100% sure no one here would want to participate in such types of bets.

This topic would be better suited for discussion in the gambling section.

For example, imagine that there are 6 people and salary of each person is $1000. They determine via coin flip who is the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th. First gets $6000 in the end of the month, in the next month, the second gets $6000 and in 6th month, the 6th person gets $6000. You may ask me how do they live for 6 months without a salary? Family members take care of them. Too many people work for fun because sitting at home is boring for them but they don't have enough money to have fun too.

That is, the essence of this whole idea is only that each participant (out of 6) will receive the same total amount of money in half a year as if he saved his salary for this period of time and received it not every month, but in one month (including for the previous 6 months) at once. This is the same as if the employer paid the salary once every 6 months. I do not see any sense in such an activity and I think it is stupid to do so.

In this scenario, you get a deferred salary, which doesn't provide any visible advantages (except that the employee receives a large sum of money at once) and creates a number of difficulties, such as finding alternative sources of living for 6 months.

I would agree to the salary lottery only on one condition - that I would be #1 on the list.

[Charles-Tim]

This is the 1st time I've heard about a salary lottery and I'm curious to know in which region exactly this is popular? For me, such entertainment seems "wild" and I'm 100% sure no one here would want to participate in such types of bets.

This topic would be better suited for discussion in the gambling section.

No, this topic does not belong to the gambling board. It is better on the economic board and not related to gambling because this is neither gambling nor betting nor lottery. If you read the OP post, you will understand how it does not belong to gamble board, I guess you did not read the OP.

[SATWAT]

For example, imagine that there are 6 people and salary of each person is $1000. They determine via coin flip who is the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th. First gets $6000 in the end of the month, in the next month, the second gets $6000 and in 6th month, the 6th person gets $6000. You may ask me how do they live for 6 months without a salary? Family members take care of them. Too many people work for fun because sitting at home is boring for them but they don't have enough money to have fun too.

I've never heard about such "salary lottery". I can assume that you live in a country where gambling culture is quite strong and families are quite big. Such type of lottery wouldn't be possible in my country, because if your family takes care of you financially for several months, you are considered a loser. "Too many people work for fun"? Do you live in some kind of agricultural pre-industrial society, where big families have lots of land to provide them with food and normal 9-to-5 jobs aren't a common thing?
How can you be motivated enough to work in a job for 5 months without a salary?

I was also surprised after reading this headline because I never have anything like this in last few decades around me here in my country even things do not belong to gambling or any other related to suspicions because everyone having equal chance of going with all salaries.
Still its never been practically easy for many because salary is important for many every month even few can manage but not for all because someone can lose this for 4 to 5 months which could be huge problem for him with things have never been easy to manage in these circumstances.
After having lottery like this many could not motivate to do work for few months without salary it's surely going to be problem because financial situation is not good in many countries and this type lottery has also never been ideal thing for majority peoples.

[Marykeller]

Is it not somehow to let family members foot your bills for 3-6 months if you happen to fall between the 3rd to 6th person in the salary lottery? In my country, you won't be earning a monthly salary and be expecting your family members to still cater for you because you did a salary lottery. That's unacceptable.

However, I think this pattern of salary lottery, to give out your whole salary, is not a good one because it could cause someone to be in debt. Whereby things that someone wants for themselves they can't get, unless their family gives them money for that. What "if'' there family didn't give them money for that? Just asking.

In my region, this is far different. we don't give out our whole salary. We give out some percentage of it, like 30-40%, keeping the rest for our upkeep for the month.

[DeathAngel]

I have never heard of this before, nobody does it in my country but even if they did, I would not participate. If I’m reading this correctly, you could end up without a wage for more than 1 month? So literally you don’t get paid until you win the lottery a few months later if you’re lucky? I think it’s a dumb idea & negligent if you have bills to pay & a roof to keep over your head.

[Mrbluntzy]

I think I know what you are explaining because my trying to relate it to how something similar is done in my country but it's not called salary lottery and it's not done based on coin flip among the participants.

 In my country this process is a kind of savings method that is normally called "cooperative funding" In the cooperation, the goal is to organize at least 5 - 20 people depending on how long they all agreed for the funding to last. After they have made agreements, they will then decide how much they are going to fund each member every month, once they agree with the amount, they will divide it among themselves to know how much each member will pay in a month. If they agreed to fund a member $2,500 in a month and they are 5 members in the cooperative receiving $1k salary a month, it means that each member will pay $500 every month to the corrective account and after everyone has paid, the leader will disburse the money to the first receiver that have been agreed upon since the first day.

The funding will last for five months to make sure that each person has collected the $2, 500.

[doomloop]

I'm very familiar with this method but however I got a little bit confused when you call it a salary lottery because that's not what we call it in our region, we call it a Contribution, however how this is done in my country is that the company will not be involved but instead five to eight workers will decide to do a contribution for monthly basis, although most people do not use flipping of coin to decide who will be the first to received because they usually have an understanding about it so they would tell each person the month they would receive there money and sometimes they continue after everybody would have gotten there payment.

As he imply, he only call it like that because he also don't know the exact name of it. Still, the name made sense due to how it works. Same goes to you but I think the one you have there is totally different from what the OP is talking about.

If I recall, we also have like that in our place here but it is just that everyone can participate as long as they have money to do a contribution. What do you mean by the way when you say "everyone has understanding" ? Does it mean that the contribution is based on somebody's need? But I do like this better than doing it randomly. For us here, I already forgot how it is distributed, as it is a long time ago since my wife participated on it.

[iv4n]

Which region or country are we talking about? It sounds interesting, but I don’t really see the point of this kind of “lottery.” I’m not even sure it can be called a real lottery—they’re just redistributing the money they earn. Is this some sort of tradition, maybe? How did someone even come up with this idea?

[bitterguy28]

..

This is similar to arisan/ROSCA in my country because the system is not much different, everyone will deposit money but there is still a slight difference from your version of the salary lottery, namely that arisan participants can be anyone, not necessarily office colleagues and also not necessarily the entire monthly salary to be deposited in other words the nominal amount is free according to the agreement at the beginning and finally the draw can be through a wheel spin or it can also be sequentially like in your system, but of course everyone will get it back.

there seems to be different variations in different cultures because this is also a thing in my country but as you have said it is also not exclusive to just offices or workplaces i think this can be only beneficial if the money you put in rotation is not your entire salary but only a few extra dollars so you do not need to think much about it

[Asiska02]

For example, imagine that there are 6 people and salary of each person is $1000. They determine via coin flip who is the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th. First gets $6000 in the end of the month, in the next month, the second gets $6000 and in 6th month, the 6th person gets $6000. You may ask me how do they live for 6 months without a salary? Family members take care of them. Too many people work for fun because sitting at home is boring for them but they don't have enough money to have fun too.

Oh, this is what is called salary lottery in your place? I was actually thinking of something else but your explanation made me understood what you meant by it. This is something popular everywhere and not only salary earners take part in this. We kinda call it cooperative or some call it contribution, as everyone has their understanding to it and to whom you’re talking to about it and how the person knows it is called.

When engaging in salary lottery, you’re not advised to use all of your income into it. If you earn $1000 monthly, you can put $500 into it and use the remaining $500 for upkeep and every other thing you’ll need for that month. Depending on your expenses monthly, this should determine the amount you’ll put into it without causing disruption in the process when already started.

Mostly, this is done as another form of savings, maybe saving to buy something, a house, a car or anything it could be that while saving little by little won’t encourage you to keep holding on to the money because you’ll likely spend it. So this allows you to have a target every month and you won’t add that money to your expenses and always set it aside for the contribution until it’s your turn to pack and use it for the purpose you joined the salary lottery for. It is a good way to save money and highly recommended if you have trusted people to join.

[Darker45]

A similar kind of system exists in my country, but it's not entire salaries that are to be contributed monthly. It's not even a certain percentage of a member's salary. It's just a specific amount to be contributed weekly, bi-monthly, or monthly. It depends on the agreement.

When each member would get his/her share would also be determined via a lottery. It could be a coin flip or number picking and whoever gets the highest will receive first and the lowest last.

I've once joined this, even though I'm not interested. Others like this because they're like forced to save. If they want to buy something, they can when they receive their share without necessarily taking a loan or borrowing money.

[GigaBit]

I have an idea about such strategy. But my confusion is that if they gave a part of their full salary instead of the entire part, it would not be a burden for anyone. The person who is lucky in the lottery at the beginning is benefiting and the other person who will get the money after 6 months may be at some loss. Although in one sense it can be said that he also benefits because after he gets that money he does not have to pay again. Such an initiative is not possible everywhere. Only those who do not have to take any family responsibilities can do it with the entire part of the salary and implementing such a plan will definitely not be easy. If someone can run it, then they can go to a better level financially because if so much money is received together, then he can spend that money on some profitable work.

[sunsilk]

In my region, salary lotteries are very popular in many workplaces. I don't know what's the exact English term for his but we call it that name. The purpose of salary lottery is that 5-6 employees collect together and they play lottery. The first winner gets the salary of every worker, in the next months the second winner gets everyone's salary and that's it. There isn't a random winner, everyone gets their salary back but the fate of who is the first person to receive the salary is decided via a simple coin flip.

For example, imagine that there are 6 people and salary of each person is $1000. They determine via coin flip who is the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th. First gets $6000 in the end of the month, in the next month, the second gets $6000 and in 6th month, the 6th person gets $6000. You may ask me how do they live for 6 months without a salary? Family members take care of them. Too many people work for fun because sitting at home is boring for them but they don't have enough money to have fun too.

This is like a gamble for real. Shouldn't this be on he gambling discussion? I think that I've heard of this before but it's not the entire salary that will be required to pay for the pot.

It's only specific amount of money for each participant and whoever gets to win, gets the entire thing. But only once for all of them are going to win until everyone has won already so the lottery resets.

This is like an investment to be called for some but it's an actual gambling. I think in such workplaces, this isn't allowed and only done secretly.

[Samlucky O]

In my region, salary lotteries are very popular in many workplaces. I don't know what's the exact English term for his but we call it that name. The purpose of salary lottery is that 5-6 employees collect together and they play lottery. The first winner gets the salary of every worker, in the next months the second winner gets everyone's salary and that's it. There isn't a random winner, everyone gets their salary back but the fate of who is the first person to receive the salary is decided via a simple coin flip.

For example, imagine that there are 6 people and salary of each person is $1000. They determine via coin flip who is the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th. First gets $6000 in the end of the month, in the next month, the second gets $6000 and in 6th month, the 6th person gets $6000. You may ask me how do they live for 6 months without a salary? Family members take care of them. Too many people work for fun because sitting at home is boring for them but they don't have enough money to have fun too.

in my local language it is called 'AKAWO contribution' it is  done by few collective numbers of workers in the same organization who shear the same opinion and idea of contributing a certain amount, that is affordable for the purpose of achieving a tangible thing in the space or the duration of the time been during the contribution. it is usually done by 4,5 to 6 people representing 4 to 6 month depending on the number of the contributor. although this strategy really help though, but to everything that has advantage also has disadvantages. the bad side is that some guys will be lucky to take first depending the outcome of the coin flip, but the problem is that most guys will default in the time of their return especially the people that took first, an it will eventually lead to problem since everyone is not the same except it is a registered cooperate organization that will penalize defaulters. i have involved myself in this before but trust me one or two persons will always be the problem at last after they have taken. so i will advice anyone that want to save for something to develop the habit of saving as little as they can at the end of every month. or better still automate your savings from the bank so that a certain amount will be deducted from  your salary at the end of every month to avoid the problem of defaulters.

This is the 1st time I've heard about a salary lottery and I'm curious to know in which region exactly this is popular? For me, such entertainment seems "wild" and I'm 100% sure no one here would want to participate in such types of bets.

This topic would be better suited for discussion in the gambling section.

No, this topic does not belong to the gambling board. It is better on the economic board and not related to gambling because this is neither gambling nor betting nor lottery. If you read the OP post, you will understand how it does not belong to gamble board, I guess you did not read the OP.

of course it does not belong to gambling board, people thought its a gambling post simply because  op mention lottery, perhaps it doesn't have anything related to gambling. the op would have just make the post without involving lottery because this is just a contribution that involve coin flip to know who to take first.