The City’s ‘Rubber’ Checks Are Finally Good as Gold
After years of city employees losing money to brokers by discounting city warrants, the Mayor forces a policy of redemption at par value.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
Mayor Point is to be commended for his effort to secure the payment of our city checks at their par value, and those banks which have agreed to do as he requested are to be commended for the ready acquiescence which has made his effort successful. The shaving of these time checks by brokers and others has always borne heavily upon the employees of the city, and more especially upon the laborers, who, generally speaking, have been unable to carry their time checks for even a brief period, and have been compelled to dispose of them at whatever price the purchasers were disposed to allow. The assurance that these checks can hereafter be cashed at par without delay or inconvenience amounts in effect to an increase in the wages paid to every laborer in the employ of the city.
“The shaving of these time checks by brokers and others has always borne heavily upon the employees of the city.”
In the 1890s, municipal financial instability forced low-wage workers to pay a ‘tax’ just to access their paychecks. Today’s debates over ‘earned wage access’ and predatory payday lending apps reflect the same enduring struggle for workers to keep their full earnings without middlemen skimming the top.
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