Quote from: shield132 on July 01, 2025, 03:52:30 PM

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.

We used to have similar things but it was never the 100% of the salary. It was like 25% of everyone's salary pooled and 1 member got it mostly through common decision or lottery. When a member claimed they have the need and other members agree on it, he/she got the first priority. When there are multiple people demanding it, they would go through a lottery. At the end everyone would get their money back some sooner while some later.

But this is completely stopped now and is replaced by something more like a bank. Even today a portion of the salary is pooled, there is a minimum and maximum you could put to the pool and employee could decide the amount. The members could ask for loans which are provided at a fixed interest rate. 12% in our case. The amount they can demand is also not unlimited, all they can ask for is 200% of their savings+2 months salary.

The interest collected is also pooled and at the end of the year, the interest is distributed according to contribution. There are no fixed returns but it ranges 5-10%, which are better than what banks provide. The interest on loans are higher than bank but there's no paperwork and need to put collateral so there's always not enough liquidity to loan. The getting of interest is also secured as no one is allowed to transfer out without paying their due and our office could held back amounts even if people retire.