64% of Owners Cut or Skipped Their Own Pay This Year. How to Pay Yourself Again

Nearly two in three small business owners cut or skipped their own pay in the past year to keep their business running, according to an October 2026 survey of 1,171 owners. If you've paid the team, the suppliers and the landlord and then skipped yourself, you have a lot of company, but your paycheck shouldn't be the business's line of credit. Here's what the numbers show and a plan to get yourself back on payroll.

What the October 2026 numbers say

Owner pay is the first thing to go. In Small Business for America's Future's October 2026 Small Business Affordability Survey (1,171 responses, fielded Aug. 13 to Oct. 5), 64% of owners said they reduced or skipped their own pay in the past 12 months to keep the business running. Half did it more than once.

The gap is landing on owners' personal finances. In the same survey, 47% said the business no longer supports their living expenses the way it used to, 37% pulled money from personal savings to cover business expenses, and 52% said their personal debt increased over the past year.

Costs are coming from every direction. 78% said rising costs hurt their ability to operate or grow. The most common increases were utilities (72%), fuel (68%), shipping and supplies (64%) and healthcare (54%), and 59% said tariffs or trade costs made day-to-day costs harder to afford. Meanwhile 77% have seen customers spend less, delay purchases or trade down.

Other surveys agree. In Patriot Software's June 2026 survey of 1,000 owners, managers and recent owners, 47.7% had skipped or delayed their own paycheck. And Gusto's payroll data shows median owner pay of about $4,800 a month in 2025, essentially flat since 2023.

Why do owners pay themselves last?

Because it's the one bill nobody chases you for. Payroll has legal deadlines, suppliers stop shipping, and the landlord calls. You won't send yourself a late notice. That makes owner pay the easiest place to absorb a short month, and the easiest habit to keep long after the short month ends.

The problem is that skipping your pay hides the real issue. When the owner isn't paid, the business looks like it's breaking even when it isn't. You lose the signal that something needs fixing.

Five steps to pay yourself again

1. Put yourself on a fixed schedule. Pick an amount the business can pay in an ordinary month, not your best month, and pay it on the same date every time. Treat it like any other bill. Take extra from profit quarterly once the base is steady.
2. Find out why the paycheck gets skipped. Pull your last 12 months of bank statements. If you skip pay in the same few months every year, it's a timing gap (seasonality, slow-paying customers, a big inventory buy). If you skip it in most months, it's a margin gap.
3. Fix margin problems at the source. Reprice products and services that haven't kept up with costs, renegotiate your largest supplier and utility contracts, and drop work that keeps you busy but doesn't pay. Outside money can't fix a business that loses money every month.
4. Separate your personal and business cash. If you lend the business your savings, write down the amount and the date it gets paid back. Without a limit, a one-time rescue becomes a permanent habit.
5. Plan for timing gaps before they hit. Build a 13-week cash forecast, set a reserve target, and line up funding while things are calm so you can compare options instead of grabbing the fastest one.

Timing gap or margin gap: which fix fits?

What does outside funding cost?

Here's an illustrative example, not a quote. A retailer takes a $25,000 merchant cash advance with a factor of 1.30 to stock up before the holidays. The total remitted is $32,500, so the cost is $7,500. At about $325 per business day, it's remitted in roughly 100 business days.

That math can work when the inventory sells through and the margin on it covers the cost, freeing up the cash that would otherwise come out of your paycheck. It doesn't work as a way to fund your own salary month after month, and stacking a second advance on top of the first can squeeze your daily cash fast. If your problem is margin, fix that first.

How Deliver Funding helps

We help owners in every industry match with working capital from $10,000 to $5,000,000 for timing gaps with a clear payback. All credit types are considered, pre-approval doesn't use a hard credit pull, decisions can come in as little as 24 hours, and funding often follows within 24 to 48 hours of approval, with same-day funding available in many cases. If an advance isn't the right fit, we'll say so.

Typical minimums: about 6 months in business, about $10,000 a month in revenue, an active business bank account and your last 3 months of business bank statements.

We Deliver Funding When You Need It. Ready to stop being the business's backup plan? See your options in about 5 minutes or call (888) 974-0522 (Mon–Fri, 9am–6pm ET).

A merchant cash advance is not a loan. Approval, amounts and terms vary based on business qualifications. This article is for general information and isn't financial, legal or tax advice.