Earned wage access (EWA) has seen rising popularity in the past couple of years. These tools, which help businesses send their employees wages as they earn them, instead of on a bi-weekly basis, benefit both businesses and their employees.
In today’s era of the Great Resignation, businesses across all sectors are struggling with employee retention. Offering a tool that provides employees their cash faster can serve as a competitive advantage. And for workers, especially those with uneven cashflow or who are living paycheck-to-paycheck, receiving a few hundred dollars even a few days early can make a difference and help them avoid predatory payday lenders.
While some of the earliest versions of this technology came out in 2013, multiple players across the globe have launched in the past few years. While many of the EWA companies we found are in the U.S., new startups have been cropping up across the globe. Additionally, existing players are starting to broaden their international reach.
As far as business model goes, the majority of the EWA companies market to employers. Two companies, PayActiv and EarnedCard, offer direct-to-consumer products, while Fincluziv takes a different route by marketing its white-label EWA tool to banks.
Here is a world tour of both established and new players in the EWA sector.
France
- Fincluziv offers banks a software-as-a-service tool that automates EWA and small dollar loans to employees of select employers.
India
- Refyne‘s technology integrates with employers’ payroll to offer both full-time and contracted employees with real-time access to pay they earned.
Indonesia
- Wagely helps businesses offer employees to access earned but unpaid wages.
- Gaji Gesa offers businesses a way to provide their employees with instant access to their earned wages. The company also offers a range of other payroll services.
Malaysia
- Hari Gaji grants businesses the opportunity to allow their employees to advance a portion of their pay ahead of payday.
South Africa
- Paymenow integrates with employers’ payroll systems to give employees real-time access to a percentage of their previously-earned wages.
- Level Finance offers businesses a way to pay their employees their earned but unpaid income.
Spain
- Payflow lets businesses provide their employees with instant access to their earned salary.
U.K.
- FlexEarn empowers employers to give their employees access to the money they’ve earned as they earn it.
U.S.
- Instant Financial helps businesses give their employees daily access to their earned pay.
- Grit Financial allows businesses to offer their employees the option to collect their payment at the end of each shift.
- Immediate Financial gives businesses a way to offer their employees access to their earned wages on a daily basis. It is free for the business but charges the employee a small fee for each withdrawal.
- EarnedCard is a direct-to-consumer play. The company bypasses the employer and provides users a credit card that offers them early access to funds.
- PayActiv has both direct-to-employer and direct-to-consumer offerings. The company offers employers a way to pay their employees early, while offering individual users a Visa debit card that loads their earned wages up to two days early.
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