I have been working since 1996 and never been paid by cheque. I find cheques very annoying to deal with. Usually get them on some edge case like a government refund but it has been years since that even. The other rare case is a bank cheque for a deposit for buying a house etc. Although I bet that is rare now just do an instant bank transfer.

I do vaguely remember the 80s and there was a fair bit of cheque usage along with those credit card duplicator things where the sales person takes an imprint of the card. Wild times!