Workers Waiting for their Wages : The Halachos of Bal Talin Part 2

Reviewed By Rabbi Mordechai Shuchatowitz, Head of the Baltimore Bais Din

In a previous article (February, 2025), we discussed the halachos of bal talin. Bal talin refers to the mitzva to pay workers on time. We will present a brief summary of the halachos previously discussed and will then discuss some new situations.

Bal talin means that if a worker was hired for the entire day, the worker must be paid that night. Conversely, if the worker was hired to work for the entire night, then the worker must be paid the next day. Let’s use an example of a babysitter hired by parents to watch their children.  If the babysitter watched children throughout the day Sunday until night, the parents must pay her some time Sunday night, before daybreak Monday morning. If she watched them for Sunday night until Monday morning, then she must be paid Monday, before nightfall.

This is also true if the babysitter watched the children for a few hours during the day; she must be paid by the end of the day before nightfall. Conversely, if the babysitter watched the children for a few hours during the night, she must be paid by the end of the night before daybreak.

The mitzva does not just apply to a worker. It also applies to a renter who rents an item to use for a day, such as rental of a car, tables and chairs, or any other utensils. The above parameters of what halacha considers to be a timely payment will also apply.[1]

It should be noted that for a rental of something that is halachically considered karka, part of the ground, there is a question whether the halachos of bal talin apply. For example, someone rents a room in a hotel that is owned by another Jew. There is a question in the poskim as to whether the halachos of bal talin will apply.[2] However, even if the mitzva of bal talin would not apply, there is still an obligation on the renter to pay in a timely fashion. This point will be explained more fully in this article.

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We will now explore some different scenarios. Let’s say you give an item to a professional to work on, and that item stays in the possession of that professional. Two common examples would be a garment given to a cleaner or a car given to a mechanic. One who gives his or her garment to a cleaner is told a date to pick up the finished garment. The customer can pick it up right away or can leave it there for some time until it is convenient to pick it up. At what point is the customer obligated to pay for the cleaning job? The exact same question will apply to a car given to a mechanic to work on. After the mechanic notifies the customer that the repair has been finished, when is the customer obligated by halacha to pay?

In these cases, the halacha is that the customer must pay in a timely fashion starting from the time of the pickup of the item. As long as the item (in the above cases, the garment or the car) remains in the possession of the professional, then the customer is not obligated to pay. But, after the customer picks up the item, he or she must pay right away, during that day or night. Therefore, if the customer picks up the garment on a Monday afternoon, for example, he or she must pay before sunset on Monday. If the customer picks up the garment on Monday night, he or she must pay before daybreak Tuesday morning.[3]

A question can be asked about a professional who does a service and does not request payment immediately. In such case, the professional will typically send out a bill or invoice at a later date. This is common practice among doctors and dentists. Part of the reason is that a reimbursement request is first submitted to insurance, and then the patient or responsible party pays the balance. There are also other services where the billing operates the same way. For example, an accountant or lawyer may do a job and does not expect payment immediately but will send an invoice to the client. How do the halachos of bal talin apply in these cases?

In the above case, the practitioner did the service on a given day but is not asking for payment then, so there is no obligation of bal talin to pay at the time of service. The reason is based on a Mishna in Bava Metzia (111A), which says that if the worker does not make a claim for payment, then the payment is not yet due.[4]  

Let’s discuss another scenario where bal talin will not apply. It is very typical that a worker who is on payroll from his or her employer will work for a typical period of two weeks and will not get paid until the end of those two weeks. Why is the employer not obligated to pay the worker daily for the work done?

To fully answer this question, we must go back to the gemara in Bava Metzia (111A) which is the source of the halachos of bal talin. The gemara there discusses a scenario where an employer hires a worker, but it is well known that the employer will not be able to pay that day. The reason the gemara gives is that the employer does not typically have cash on hand and must wait for market day to sell his goods in order to receive cash. He can then pay his workers who were hired some days earlier.

The gemara says that the mitzva of bal talin does not apply in this scenario. As we have been discussing, the mitzva of bal talin requires the employer to pay on the day of the employment. However, when it is known in advance that the employer will not have cash on hand for immediate payment, we assume that the worker accepted the fact that he or she will not be paid immediately but will be paid in a timely fashion after the market day, when the employer gets cash. The employer is therefore not under a Torah obligation to pay the worker on the day that the work was done. Nevertheless, the gemara says that there is still an obligation to be prompt in payment as soon as he gets the funds.

The gemara considers this obligation to be rabbinic. It also applies a pasuk in Mishlei (3:28): Al tomar l’rei’echa lech vasho – do not tell your peer to leave and come back. The intent of the gemara is clear: Even when the understanding between the parties is that the service will not be paid for at the time the services are done, it still needs to be paid at the time that was understood for payment. This also applies to the worker who is paid every two weeks. It is clearly understood that a worker will be paid when the office pays the employees on payroll. The worker is aware of the fact that he or she will be working for some time but will only be paid at the end of that pay period.

Let’s also apply this to the previous case we discussed: when a professional such as an accountant or lawyer renders services and then sends an invoice at a later date. There is usually a time given on the invoice or bill when the payment is expected. A typical time when payment is expected is within 30 days of the invoice date. The client must pay within that time. The halacha of bal talin does not apply in this case because the professional did not ask to be paid at the time of service. However, the rabbinic obligation (learned from the above-mentioned pasuk in Mishlei) does apply. The client must pay within the payment period that is standard for such an invoice. If the client does not pay on time, he or she will be transgressing this rabbinic obligation.[5]

It is clear that a large part of being a Torah abiding Jew is being responsible and prompt in our financial commitments. We ask for Hashem’s help to be able to keep all these halachos properly, and that we should be known as people who are vigilant about paying our obligations with honesty and integrity.

Rabbi Rosenfeld administers cases for the Baltimore Bais Din. He can be reached at RYR@Baltimorebaisdin.org