Your employees are working for a paycheck that they'll receive next week or next month. However, there are times when employees need extra funds as soon as possible. Today there are opportunities such as UBER and Lyft, where your hourly employees receive compensation the same day vs waiting for a paycheck from you. This can be detrimental to both your company and your employee as you are likely willing to pay them more than they would earn as a UBER driver at a time when you desperately need the support of your experienced employees.

Early wage access (EWA) allows your employees to get a portion of their paycheck instantly to pay for emergencies or other immediate expenses. Since this is income they've already earned, there's no worry about interest rates or transfer fees. The ability to access wages early could be the incentive your employees need to pull a few extra hours during the holiday season.

How Early Wage Access Works

Early wage access (EWA) is a relatively new concept that provides employers with a simple way to offer their workers more control over the wages they earn. 78% of American workers are living paycheck to paycheck. That means if an emergency (or even common necessities like school clothes) crops up, these workers are forced to take on debt to take care of the issue before payday. These financial worries add up to stress for workers. A recent study revealed that 48% of workers are stressed about simply covering basic living expenses. This stress has a major impact on employees' overall health and daily performance.

Financial stress seeps into the workplace in the following ways:

• Increased stress in more than half of employees leading to lower morale
• Poor health leading to increased tardiness and absences
• Lower productivity due to an inability to focus
  
  

When employers partner with a third party provider to offer early wage access, employees can get a portion of the money they've already earned instead of waiting until payday to take care of the financial issues making them stressed. Workers can access the EWA service through an app and instantly make a deposit without worrying about transfer fees or taking on additional debts.

As an employer, you can set limits on the amount that can be withdrawn and take advantage of other benefits to help employees gain financial stability. The set-up process is easy and employees can sign up and navigate the whole process using a smartphone. This increased freedom finally allows employees to access income they've earned without having to ask for permission or an advance. By empowering workers with financial control, engagement increases and employees have the incentive to pick up additional shifts when they need to earn a little extra money.