Over here in Dubai, we hear stories all the time about owners who withhold paychecks without reason or warning, and once things are finally said and done, the owner has left the country with sometimes millions of dollars.

Usually, this happens with companies that have very large low-paid labor pools. The laborers sometimes get paid as little as $20 per day for 12 hour days, even in this day and age. Imagine how many people would have to be employed at that rate to make even one million.

What got me wondering about this? My paycheck was not deposited yesterday. Along with last month's extreme hold up on my money, now safely in my account again, I need to get some cash back to the US. I was waiting for payday to include more cash as I'm not charged a percentage for the transfer, but a flat rate. Therefore, the more money I send, the less per-dollar it costs me. I was hoping to send back enough for more than two months this time around.

Our CFO is on "holiday," and he is usually hands-on with the paychecks, so I hope this was just a late deposit transfer, but we'll see tomorrow. The other guy at work at my level pretty much refuses to do anything if his paycheck is late. He's been here longer than me, so has heard more of the horror stories. I think he figures he is always a month behind, so he's not about to extend even one additional day.

I'll update tomorrow.