Just to provide a balanced viewpoint: I've worked in corporate America (Fortune 5 company), dealt with banality and bureaucracy, banged my head against the wall over and over again, left, started my own company, grew it to millions, sold it, semi-retired. I love startups and the details of this blog, however, when you want to see your kids, sleep in the same bed as your wife, and have a paycheck deposited in your bank account every other Friday, there's nothing better than working for an established company.
It's mostly "direct deposit" -- electronically from the company's account into yours, appearing on the day it's supposed to in your account. But people still call it a paycheck.
I got actual paper checks when I was contracting, when I've worked for small startups that hadn't set up a direct deposit system for payroll, and when I worked at Dairy Queen in high school.
Most places auto-deposit into a financial account of your choice if you like. Payroll has some historical legislative accidents tied to it, so it's a little slow to change.
Twice monthly (1st and 15th) is also fairly common. Once monthly is not unheard of but a lot of people can't manage their cash flow that long so they prefer more frequent intervals.
There are reasons to prefer getting paid in shorter intervals other than not being able to manage money. Why should they get to hold it, earning interest, rather than you?
That said, your explanation is probably more often the case.
