Comment by Normal_gaussian
11 hours ago
Private payroll systems are expensive, and all the risk remains with the purchaser. Why are they expensive? There is limited competition (often through acquisition) and the product is sold just below the price that the majority of companies would find an alternative. What results is no development and improvement of payroll, but instead companies incentivised to create complexity moats through regulation.
If the government is forced to provide at least one working payroll system for free or reasonable cost then private companies compete with specific verticals and ease of use. And when the government wants to change how payroll works for some third benefit... they just can.
There is no meaningful improvement to be made in payroll systems. They just have to get it right, and they almost always do. And they aren't expensive. When I ran a business the payroll system wasn't even expensive enough to even be on the radar for ways to cut costs.