Staff at a financial services firm have been offered the chance to get paid in gold rather than pounds and pence — to help them stay ahead of inflation. TallyMoney CEO Cameron Parry is understood to be the first employer in the UK to trial a gold payroll, though others have offered to pay staff in crypto.
Parry said that with the cost of living crisis going from bad to worse, it didn’t make sense to continue offering pay hikes in pounds when its value is being eroded further with every passing day. It was like putting a bandaid over an open wound: “We’re seeing the spending power of the pound continue to decline at an alarming pace whereas gold has been steadily rising in value throughout 2022,” he said.
Gold is an inflation hedge
Gold is a time-tested inflation hedge and has maintained its purchasing power for millennia. At times like these, when conventional money is steadily losing its buying power, gold offers people the best chance of keeping ahead of inflation. While the Bank of England expects inflation to surge to 10%, by contrast the value of gold has risen 11% since the beginning of the year.
Parry has begun piloting his gold payroll scheme among senior staff and will soon offer it company wide. He himself has signed up to the scheme. He employs more than 20 staff and says that those who wish to continue receiving their wages in pounds will be allowed to do so.
PAYE taxes are applied as normal, with the exchange rate for gold to pounds taken into account. As an example, a gross monthly salary that was previously £4,000 would be defined as 82,000 tally gross – 82,000 milligrams of gold – on their payslip.
TallyMoney Digital Marketing Manager Ella Fraser, 25, said: “These days the price of everything seems to be going up, and young people are increasingly worried about the value of the pound in their pocket. I think it’s important for bosses to look at more innovative ways at helping their staff through these tough times, and having the option to agree your salary in tally is a great way of doing that.”
Keeping inflation at bay
Tally paved the way for a payroll revolution when it created Britain’s first savings account with debit Mastercard anchored to real physical gold rather than pounds sterling. Customers looking to keep inflation at bay can move their pounds into a Tally Account, where it is instantly converted to gold at wholesale prices. The gold is denominated in ‘tally’, with each ‘tally’ representing one milligram of physical gold that the customer owns, which they can then save and spend anywhere — including shops and restaurants in the UK and overseas using the Tally App and Tally Debit Mastercard.
If the price of gold rises relative to sterling, so will the GBP value of the account — giving users more pounds and pence to spend wherever they like.
Parry said: “The purchasing power of the pound has been eroded significantly in recent months, while the value of gold continues to steadily rise. This means that gold goes much further when it’s exchanged for goods and services that are priced in pounds and pence. Tally is monetised gold that can be used for everyday spending or saving.”
There are big question marks remaining over the future of central bank-created currencies right now, and while cryptocurrencies have been grabbing all the headlines in recent years, to a lot of people the tried and tested appeal of gold just makes more sense.
While nobody carries gold coins around in their coat pocket these days, Tally allows individuals to do so digitally, making saving and spending as easy and instant as it is with conventional currency. But with the security and enduring value of gold behind it. With inflation tearing into the value of conventional money, the reassurance and empowerment that Tally offers customers is literally worth its weight in gold.
