In the military you will often hear "Don't thank me. The government thanks me twice a month." So there are parts of american culture where these pleasantries are less common.
I never really thought about it. Are weekly or monthly that much more common?
According to the US Bureau of Labour Statistics, it's actually the most common schedule over there: http://www.bls.gov/opub/btn/volume-3/how-frequently-do-priva...
I've been paid twice monthly, and monthly. I also know of people being paid weekly.
The only people I can think of who have a non-monthly regular pay schedule (not paid per job like freelancers) are door-to-door salespeople and mail ads deliverers.
That's not the definition everyone uses :)
From the Bureau link I posted above: "Biweekly is the most common length of pay period, with 36.5 percent of U.S. private businesses paying their employees every 2 weeks."
(Check out online dictionaries too: http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/biweekly#Adjective)
It seems the difference between biweekly (using this definition) and bimonthly is that occasionally you might get paid three times in a month, since the weeks don't align with the months.
It's common to get your first paycheck ~6 weeks after starting a job, and then always one month in arrears.
I've noticed that employers like to offer bridging "loans" to appear kind and generous, but then this identifies cash-poor employees who are set up for unfair treatment later.
Your employer is struggling to make payroll and can't pay you? You won't find out until you've worked out the whole month.
This situation is not right.
I'm surprised to learn that the US has more a employee-friendly practice in this sense.