> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://glide-9da73dea.mintlify.site/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Stablecoin payroll

> Pay your distributed team in USDC across 80+ corridors. Same UX as fiat payroll; better economics for global teams.

If you have a distributed team across multiple countries, traditional payroll providers either don't serve every corridor you need or layer 3–5% in FX margin on every payment. Glide's stablecoin payroll lets you pay everyone in USDC, with optional auto-convert to local fiat at the recipient's end.

## How it works

You set up a payroll run the way you would with any payroll provider:

* Add team members with their preferred receiving method (USDC wallet, Glide account, local bank).
* Enter amounts and cadence (monthly, semi-monthly, weekly).
* Glide computes the run, shows you the total, and queues it.

On payday, Glide:

1. Settles each payment via the rail the recipient picked.
2. For USDC recipients, broadcasts on the chain they specified.
3. For Glide-account recipients, internal transfer (instant, free).
4. For local-bank recipients, runs the FX at mid-market and broadcasts via the local rail.

The run completes in under a minute for typical sizes (50–500 employees).

## What recipients see

* **USDC wallet recipient** — USDC lands in their wallet. No KYC on the recipient side; they're just receiving an on-chain transfer.
* **Glide account recipient** — the recipient sees the transfer in their Glide dashboard. They can hold USDC or convert it to any fiat they prefer.
* **Local bank recipient** — standard bank transfer with a normal-looking sender (your entity name + the payroll reference). Settles via the local rail (ACH, SEPA, Faster Payments, etc.).

## Why this is cheaper than traditional payroll

Traditional global payroll often involves:

* Glide-side FX margin (1–2%).
* Sender-bank wire fees ($25–$50 per international wire).
* Intermediary-bank deductions on SWIFT (\~$15–$30 per hop).
* Recipient-bank receiving fees (varies).

For a $5,000 payment to a contractor in the Philippines via traditional rails, the total cost can hit $200–\$400.

For the same payment via USDC on Polygon: \~\$0.05 in network gas, zero spread on FX. The contractor gets effectively the full amount.

For the same payment via traditional rails on Glide: zero spread on FX, a published flat fee. Total cost is in the single-digit dollars for most corridors.

## Failover and vendor diversity

Glide's payroll engine has multi-rail failover. If a primary rail fails for some reason (e.g., a corridor's local rail has an outage), the run automatically retries via a fallback rail (typically SWIFT or a stablecoin route). The recipient still gets paid; you don't have to chase support.

## Tax handling

Glide doesn't withhold or remit taxes — that's between you and the relevant tax authorities. For US W-2 employees, you'll still want a US payroll provider; Glide is well-suited for **contractor payments** and **non-US team members** where tax handling is the recipient's responsibility.

For complex tax situations (e.g., you need a payroll provider that handles benefits administration), you can layer Glide as the payment-execution rail under a tax-handling provider. Talk to your relationship manager.

## Approval flow

Payroll runs above the entity's threshold trigger multi-approval. Default: any run above the entity's monthly approval threshold requires Finance + Admin approval. Override at **Settings → Approvals**.

## Reporting

Every payroll run generates:

* A summary CSV with each line item.
* A PDF report suitable for accountants.
* An audit trail in your activity feed (every individual payment, every fee, every conversion).

Pull these from **Payroll → History** at any time. Year-end reports are available in January for the prior calendar year.

## Cadence

Most teams run monthly or semi-monthly. Glide supports daily payroll if your operation needs it (e.g., daily-pay creator economy, daily settlement to gig contractors). The engine itself doesn't have a cadence ceiling.

## Next

* [Vendor payments](/business/vendor-payments)
* [Treasury](/business/treasury)
* [Stablecoin overview](/stablecoins/overview)