Becoming an employer is not everyone’s dream, but Americans are commonly entrepreneurial in spirit. Starting a business is part of both our capitalistic economic system, as well as our individual dreams. Many business startups fail, but an incredible number succeed, at least to some extent. Everyone starts small, but most successful startups eventually are able to hire people to handle daily chores in a growing business.

Becoming an employer changes a person in ways probably unanticipated prior to hiring anyone. Suddenly, a grave responsibility burdens the newly minted employer. While there are legal requirements for every new employer, there is also a moral calling and responsibility. The owner is suddenly charged with making payroll, and the financial weight of the new responsibility can be overwhelming. You can trust me, but ask any business owner how he or she feels about ongoing responsibility for employees’ paychecks.

Recognizing that a majority of Americans have never experienced the responsibility of making payroll, events of the past few weeks have presented a golden opportunity for me to discuss the concept. We hear frequent complaints from political candidates that their opponent has never signed the front of a paycheck. To many of us, that is a profound statement.

Sacrosanct is the word that comes to mind regarding making payroll. Business owners have a legal responsibility, but also a moral and ethical duty, to pay employees on time, and in the correct amount, every week.

When occasional bad times hit a business (inevitable for nearly every enterprise, large or small), the owner often must scramble to make payroll. The Number One responsibility of a business owner is to live up to the promise of compensating employees. If that means borrowing money personally, mortgaging the owner’s house, taking early withdrawals from Qualified Retirement Accounts, foregoing personal bill payments, or whatever, you do it.

Having a personal multi-decade family history of making payrolls, it is a frequent topic in our daily lives and business dealings. So, what’s triggering this conversation at this particular moment? Congress has “evolved” into an entity that appears to have overcome any sense of responsibility for making payroll for their hundreds of thousands of Federal Government employees. (Note that Congress gets paid no matter what, under a separate law.)

Even people who have never signed the front of a paycheck know what it would be like to not receive their earned compensation in a timely manner. Not providing government employees what they depend on, and are due, is unforgivable.