EXCUSES Does It Really Have to Be This Difficult to Get Paid?

Dear School or League Administrator:

It’s no secret there’s a crisis in youth and high school sports — too many games and not enough officials.

Plenty of well-intentioned time and energy has been devoted to trying to figure out a variety of solutions for the problems that have created our current officiating shortage. As someone who works for a company and national organization devoted to all things officiating, and who is also a three-sport official, I want to delve into one area that doesn’t receive as much attention as bad sportsmanship and low pay, but it should.

It's not just what we are paid that bothers many officials. When we are paid can cause significant heartburn as well.

It is enormously frustrating when we’re still waiting for a check or electronic payment many weeks after the contest.

There are some points during a season when I’ve been owed hundreds — sometimes thousands — of dollars in pending payments for officiating services that have been rendered. And don’t think the money doesn’t matter. Yes, we’re partly doing this “for the kids,” but it’s a part-time job with the expectation that we’ll be paid for our services.

Like any job, we shouldn’t have to chase after our paycheck.

Far too often, officials have heard the following when they have had to expend additional time and effort to secure payment for services rendered:

• You didn’t fill out a W-9.

Not every school requires a W-9 to pay officials — and those forms contain sensitive information, so we don't want to hand them out to just anyone unless they’re needed.

It would be nice if those schools or leagues that needed a W-9 or direct deposit info asked for them before the contest or when the official arrives. And if that’s initially missed and it’s holding up payment later, couldn’t someone pick up a phone or send an email to get that information?

And if we hadn’t reached out, does that mean we never would have been paid?

Earlier this year, I worked a varsity basketball game for which I had not been paid after three weeks, so I inquired. I got passed around to several different people at this school/district, but received no answers. Fortunately, I had also cc’d my two officiating partners who also worked that game, as I customarily do in these situations. One of them saw the email and mentioned he had been paid via direct deposit. Armed with this information — mind you, it came from my partner, not the school or district — I reached out again.

“Ah, yes,” came the reply. “We didn’t have your W-9 or your banking information, so we could not process your payment.” No one at the school asked for this information in the days leading up to the game. No one asked for it on site when I arrived or before I left. And perhaps most troubling of all, no one asked for it in the ensuing three weeks between the game and when I sent that first email.

If I hadn’t done this district’s job for them in figuring out the issue, how long would I have had to wait to get paid? Would I ever have been paid?