It's Almost Labor Day 1998; Time for Some "Payroll History and Trivia".

SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 1, 1998--Most business owners today pay employees with a printed payroll check or "virtually" with an electronic payment deposited directly into a bank account. But it hasn't always been that way.

As the nation gets ready to celebrate Labor Day 1998, Wells Fargo Bank Business Payroll Services has assembled some interesting historical facts about workers and their wages, along with some payroll-related trivia. -0-

--   The word "pay" is derived from the Latin pacare, meaning to
     pacify or appease through a unit of value acceptable to both
     sides.

--   In ancient Rome, a soldier was paid in salt and the word "salary"
     derives from it.

--   In 1664, Peter Stuyvesant arranged a loan in wampum (clamshells)
     worth more than 5,000 guilders to pay workers constructing the
     New York citadel.

--   The Massachusetts Bay Colony issued the first state-endorsed
     notes, redeemable in gold or silver, in 1690 to pay soldiers
  returning from an expedition to Quebec.

--   Employers in North Carolina in 1775 could pay employees with any
     of 17 different forms of legal tender.

--   The newly created United States of America paid George Washington
     a salary of $25,000 per year to serve as president. To draw his
     pay in 1789, for example, Washington's secretary signed Treasury
     Department warrants ranging from $200 to $3,500. Today, President
     Bill Clinton earns $200,000 annually. Unlike President and Mrs.
     Clinton, however, Washington didn't have to file a federal tax
     return.

--   Some 133 years after the last shot was fired in the Civil War,
     the state of Illinois still maintains payroll records of the
     Lincoln Rifles, Chicago Zouaves and Peoria Light Artillery units.
     Records include name, payroll number, monthly pay rate and the
     occasional amount paid for "clothing and subsistence".

--   The PAYDAY peanut caramel bar was introduced in 1932 by Pedergast
     Candy Company of Minneapolis. Today, it's manufactured and sold
     by Hershey Foods Corp.

--   In 1958, Elvis Presley was paid $99.37 a month as a private in an
     Army armored division in Germany. Back home, sales of his records
     and other activities earned him a cool $2 million that year.

--   He was born Donald Eugene Lytle. But he made his name as country
     singer/songwriter "Johnny Paycheck" and his 1977 smash hit, "Take
     This Job and Shove It", remains a crossover classic.

-0-

"Payroll History and Trivia" is presented by Wells Fargo Bank Business Payroll Services, the fourth-largest payroll service provider in the U.S. with 20,000 customers. The only bank-based payroll service of the top four, Wells Fargo offers a variety of services, including cash management and online banking. Call 1-800-932-5628 for more information.

Sources: "A History of Money From Ancient Times to the Present Day", rev. ed., Glyn Davies, University of Wales Press, 1996.; Plinius Naturalis Historia; Papers of George Washington, University of Virginia; The Illinois State Archives; Hershey Foods Corp.; "Elvis Went From Rags To Riches", The Commercial Appeal, Memphis, Tenn., Aug. 17, 1977; "Take This Job and Shove It", Epic Records.

    CONTACT: Wells Fargo
              Mark Marymee,
              [e-mail]