Another poll regarding bitcoin has been released. This time, the poll sought the opinions of 150 companies dealing with the peer-to-peer decentralized digital currency bitcoin and their views on adopting a cryptocurrency payroll.
The survey, which was conducted by BitWage, discovered that nearly half (47 percent) of bitcoin-friendly businesses have considered implementing a process where they pay their employees their wages in bitcoin. These respondents were open to offering a bitcoin payroll in the future.
Seven of the companies were interested in the bitcoin payroll feature, but six companies had noted that they would be keen to offer it only when the employees have inquired about it and showed that they would be willing. One company, meanwhile, explained that it does not pay its employees in bitcoin because of the legal and tax-related issues.
Furthermore, 10.5 percent of the companies questioned admitted that they already pay their employees in digital currency. Some of the reasons for this have to do with cost-savings and that bitcoin allows for lower cost transactions.
Ultracopier, for instance, stated that it costs between $30 and $50 per transaction to send money from Europe to the United States or a 30 percent charge for each transaction from Bolivia to anywhere else.
IT Itch explained that it pays in bitcoins because it attracts the top talent from all over the world.
“We have employees dotted all over the world and some of them are only with us for very short-term projects, so Bitcoin is the perfect solution,” the company said. “Because we are in the tech industry, paying employees in Bitcoin actually attracts talent – people will choose to work for us rather than our competitors simply because of the Bitcoin factor. Also, a lot of our local employees receive a proportion of their income in Bitcoin – they see it as an investment or a way to support other Bitcoin businesses.”
In the end, a significant number of companies are interested in providing bitcoin wages, but management is simply waiting for their employees to start asking to get paid in virtual currency units.
IT Professionals Survey
Earlier this year, a similar survey was conducted by Tech in Motion and it found that a majority of U.S. technology professionals would like to be paid in bitcoins.
When asked “would you be interested in being paid for your work in cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin?” 51 percent responded “yes, absolutely,” 18 percent said “maybe, let’s see where bitcoin is in a year or two,” close to 10 percent didn’t think bitcoin would last long and a little more than one percent didn’t even know what bitcoin was.
UK Businesses say it’s a ‘fad’
Last month, Payments Landscape Benchmark released the results of its survey with retailers in the United Kingdom. A part of the questionnaire consisted of questions relating to the digital currency. Nearly two-thirds (61 percent) of British retailers said bitcoin wa s a passing “fad,” but one-third of merchants conceded that the British marketplace will be a cashless one, dominated by prepaid cards, digital wallets, omnichannel retail and contactless payments.
“For many companies, bitcoin is still more of a PR gimmick,” said Simon Black, the chief executive of Sage Pay, in a statement. “Too many businesses are focussing on bitcoin when they should give customers the options they really want, like credit, debit, and contactless payments, or Paypal online. The majority of Brits happily manage with one currency: sterling.”
