Employees in Canada Opting For Salaries In Bitcoin

[CFNews]

Companies based in Canada have counted on WagePoint director Shrad Rao to make this possible. Wagepoint had set up a service that allowed companies to pay employees in Bitcoin as a experiment following the hype behind cryptocurrencies but had not expected such good results. In just a matter of months, workers from 10 different companies approached WagePoint with the intention of having their salaries and wages being payed in Bitcoin, not in Canadian Dollars.

source : http://www.coinfinance.com/news/employees-in-canada-opting-for-salaries-in-bitcoin

[lyth0s]

And Bitpay is starting this right now in the US (currently in beta). https://bitpay.com/bitcoin-payroll-api

Could be the start of a more massive adoption of bitcoin as a money and means to later purchase goods with.

[pawel7777]

A bit more info here:

http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/salaries-paid-in-bitcoin-a-growing-trend-in-canada-1.2752441

I still don't understand how can employer pay whole salary in bitcoin (excluding deductable income tax) and not breach the statutory minimum wage (set in fiat).

[Brewins]

A bit more info here:

http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/salaries-paid-in-bitcoin-a-growing-trend-in-canada-1.2752441

I still don't understand how can employer pay whole salary in bitcoin (excluding deductable income tax) and not breach the statutory minimum wage (set in fiat).

Taxes are paid in dollars, the salary is counted as the dollar equivalent at the pay day.

What it has to do with the minimum wage?

[botany]

However with even the employees of WagePoint having to be paid partially in Bitcoin, due to the legalities and tax implications that may be caused if the full salary was paid in Bitcoin, the Canadian Dollar has remained the main currency of Canada.

What does the author expect? Did he expect Bitcoin to replace the Canadian Dollar overnight?
Nice to see employees in Canada receiving this option. It would probably help companies who sell their products for bitcoins.

[polynesia]

And Bitpay is starting this right now in the US (currently in beta). https://bitpay.com/bitcoin-payroll-api

Could be the start of a more massive adoption of bitcoin as a money and means to later purchase goods with.

One question - On pay day, Bitpay uses the volume-weighted average price of bitcoin over the previous 24 hour period. In case bitcoin has seen a huge surge on the day in question, isn't Bitpay exposed to the translation risk?

[azguard]

This can be good also may be bad.

Seem like that employees in world try to earn more, expecting for change of btc price.

However this may be first signal for other companies to get involved in this and one step closer for more implementing of credit/debit card with btc

[pawel7777]

A bit more info here:

http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/salaries-paid-in-bitcoin-a-growing-trend-in-canada-1.2752441

I still don't understand how can employer pay whole salary in bitcoin (excluding deductable income tax) and not breach the statutory minimum wage (set in fiat).

Taxes are paid in dollars, the salary is counted as the dollar equivalent at the pay day.

What it has to do with the minimum wage?

Pretty sure that salary (at least minimum wage) must be paid in the official currency. Otherwise, would that mean that if some bakery had some cashflows problems, could they pay the employees with bread? Don't think so.

For Wagepoint, however, it works differently. Rao said for tax purposes, employees are still being paid with Canadian dollars on paper.

Seems like they officially pay in dollars and just convert to bitcoin (with the employees' consent).

[MoonRise]

In canada I haven't heard a single time government opposing the people's will until it is extremely illegal.Some countries has considered Bitcoin illegal and even had banned it's usage throughout the country.Government is run by capitalists is what we must understand.

[obocaman]

I would love to be on a signature campaing and get paid in BTC, not sure about actual work tho.

[counter]

I absolutely am liking the idea but I'm not so sure I'd want my job and Bitcoins being intertwined or at least be the first people to try such a service.  I guess it more depends on the kind of work I do, for example, if I had more then one job this might be something I'd be interested in or if I had an online side job.  I think some people are in a situation where they feel it could be worth any potential risk and I can respect that.  I look forward to updates on this experiment.

[wasserman99]

A bit more info here:

http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/salaries-paid-in-bitcoin-a-growing-trend-in-canada-1.2752441

I still don't understand how can employer pay whole salary in bitcoin (excluding deductable income tax) and not breach the statutory minimum wage (set in fiat).

Taxes are paid in dollars, the salary is counted as the dollar equivalent at the pay day.

What it has to do with the minimum wage?

Pretty sure that salary (at least minimum wage) must be paid in the official currency. Otherwise, would that mean that if some bakery had some cashflows problems, could they pay the employees with bread? Don't think so.

An employer is able to pay the employee in whichever way the employee chooses as long as the employee has an option to get paid in fiat. There are no requirements that a certain amount be paid in fiat, in terms of dollars or in terms of percentage of pay.

[boraf]

Companies based in Canada have counted on WagePoint director Shrad Rao to make this possible. Wagepoint had set up a service that allowed companies to pay employees in Bitcoin as a experiment following the hype behind cryptocurrencies but had not expected such good results. In just a matter of months, workers from 10 different companies approached WagePoint with the intention of having their salaries and wages being payed in Bitcoin, not in Canadian Dollars.

source : http://www.coinfinance.com/news/employees-in-canada-opting-for-salaries-in-bitcoin

A positive news for bitcoin.

As more companies issue salary in btc and more merchants accepting btc. There will be a point when there is no need to convert btc back to fiat.

[deepestfear]

Payroll adoption is critical to ensure that merchant adopters can convert less btc to fiat, thereby lessening price pressure
Wait and watch (and hope)

[oceans]

This is great news for bitcoin as it means more reason for people to possibly want to get to know what bitcoin is however could working in the real world and bitcoin work right now? Bitcoin is still new in terms of a currency and there is still much that needs to be done to help make it more safer. Who knows maybe it could work and it could become popular.

[master-P]

This is great news for bitcoin as it means more reason for people to possibly want to get to know what bitcoin is however could working in the real world and bitcoin work right now? Bitcoin is still new in terms of a currency and there is still much that needs to be done to help make it more safer. Who knows maybe it could work and it could become popular.

I don't think the good new is so much that more people will be exposed to bitcoin (although this is true and is good news) but the really good news about this is the fact that business are spending their bitcoin instead of selling the bitcoin they received from sales. This will ultimately grow the bitcoin related economy.

[lihuajkl]

Really good news. I think many employees has impulsive reason to receive BTC salary. For BTC company, they don't need to convert BTC to fiat currency to pay salary at the pay day. They have BTC salary and prefer to do their daily spending in BTC, which will help thrive the business accepting BTC payment.

[polynesia]

This is great news for bitcoin as it means more reason for people to possibly want to get to know what bitcoin is however could working in the real world and bitcoin work right now? Bitcoin is still new in terms of a currency and there is still much that needs to be done to help make it more safer. Who knows maybe it could work and it could become popular.

I don't think the good new is so much that more people will be exposed to bitcoin (although this is true and is good news) but the really good news about this is the fact that business are spending their bitcoin instead of selling the bitcoin they received from sales. This will ultimately grow the bitcoin related economy.

Yup. Ultimately if bitcoin exchanges hands without hitting the exchanges, there will not be downward pressure on the price.

[Altminer79]

There are both optimistic and pessimistic people regarding the bitcoin future.At the current scenario you can't withstand alone with bitcoin if you are not willing to exchange it to dollar or another acceptable currency.

[wasserman99]

This is great news for bitcoin as it means more reason for people to possibly want to get to know what bitcoin is however could working in the real world and bitcoin work right now? Bitcoin is still new in terms of a currency and there is still much that needs to be done to help make it more safer. Who knows maybe it could work and it could become popular.

I don't think the good new is so much that more people will be exposed to bitcoin (although this is true and is good news) but the really good news about this is the fact that business are spending their bitcoin instead of selling the bitcoin they received from sales. This will ultimately grow the bitcoin related economy.

Yup. Ultimately if bitcoin exchanges hands without hitting the exchanges, there will not be downward pressure on the price.

What we need to see is more businesses buying things (supplies, labor, services) in bitcoin. When this starts to happen then we will stop seeing the downward pressure caused by merchants selling their bitcoin revenue, but will continue to see the upward pressure of people buying bitcoin in order to get a good deal for paying in bitcoin.