This statement is a clear command and not just a recommendation or a cultural observation. Many years ago most work was daylight only and therefore the workday ended at nightfall. The employer’s workday had to include the payment to all of his laborers. This is specific to a hired servant. A slave is possibly distinguished from the hired servant as not receiving a monetary wage.

Here we repeat the same day command but introduce questions as to whom this applies. Does the “poor and needy” phrase limit to whom this command applies? Perhaps, but it could be argued that without a wage or being a self-sufficient land owner you are poor and needy. Thus it would apply to all wage earners. The first sentence is a command against oppressing the hired servant and the second shows a way this oppression is carried out. This suggests that extended pay periods are oppression.