I heard today that Wal Mart is getting rid of paper paychecks.  Instead employees will receive a debit card as payment, if they refuse direct deposit.  You can read more about it HERE.

I see several implications for this change:

• It puts the burden of the processing expense on those processing the payment, saving Wal Mart thousands of dollars processing checks.  (We shouldn’t be surprised Wal Mart would find a way to increase profits.)
• Apparently there will be one free withdrawal per month and additional withdrawals are $2 each.  This will force Wal Mart employees to learn a new system, which could be difficult for some employees who are not accustomed to handling plastic.
• It is more environmentally friendly.  Surely there will be fewer trees cut to provide the paper for checks. (Of course plastic sticks around longer than paper…j/k)
• This will be trend setting for other industries with mass numbers of employees.  Wal Mart is big enough to force change.  With 2.1 million employees, Wal Mart proves this can be a done with any size workforce.  Look for more companies to follow Wal Mart’s lead.

When we were in Lithuania this summer we saw a similar system.  Having recently converted to a more capitalistic system, they by-passed paper altogether in their economy.  Everything is done electronically.  This looks like one more step to removing paper checks from our system altogether.

What do you think?  Is that where our economy is headed?  Will we be paperless in a few years?  Do you still even write paper checks?

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