Zeal | Why Payroll Feels Broken For Millions of Americans

This article argues that traditional payroll infrastructure is fundamentally broken because it was designed for full-time, single-location workers and cannot adapt to modern workforce complexity involving gig workers, multiple jurisdictions, and real-time payment expectations. The author contends that legacy vendors profit from complexity rather than fixing core systems, and proposes that rebuilding payroll as real-time, compliance-embedded infrastructure supported by AI execution will transform how workers get paid and how companies operate.