We are commanded to pay the wages of a worker at the proper time. Should a person not pay at the appropriate time, he is disregarding the positive commandment to pay on time (“be-yomo titen secharo”) as well as transgressing the negative commandment not to withhold wages (bal talin). However, such a transgressor does not receive lashes (malkot). For he is obligated to pay the money he owes, and when there is a negative commandment which requires payment there are no malkot. Additionally, transgressing this negative commandment involves not taking a required action (lav she’ein bo ma’aseh), rather than taking a forbidden one. Malkot are not given for a passive transgression.
All this applies to cases in which the person who must pay makes clear that while he does not have the funds currently, he understands that he has an obligation to pay and plans to do so eventually. In contrast, if a person refuses to pay, or claims that he never hired the worker, he is transgressing five negative commandments and one positive one. This applies even when a worker is hired for hourly or daily work, and certainly applies to a worker who was hired on a daily, weekly, monthly, yearly, or seven-year (shemitah) basis.
When a person commissions a craftsman to make something for him, the customer does not have an obligation to pay immediately upon the job’s completion. This is because the craftsman has in his possession the finished object, for which the customer supplied the material. If the craftsman supplied his own raw material, there is certainly no prohibition of bal talin if the customer does not pick it up immediately, since in this case the craftsman is considered a salesman rather than a hired worker.
The prohibition of bal talin applies whether one hired a person, an animal, or an object.
However, if when the contract is drawn up the employer stipulates that he does not have to pay immediately, then he does not transgress bal talin. Indeed, it is preferable that the conditions of the contract be clearly stated at the outset. This way, the employer can avoid a situation in which he has a cash flow problem and is unable to pay what he owes, thus transgressing bal talin.