We’ve all fallen behind on bills. And we all know how much stress that can add to our already stressful lives.
Some employers try to help their employees through these financial hardships by offering earned-wage access (EWA), through which workers can cash out earned wages ahead of payday.
There are two types of EWA programs: direct-to-consumer and employer-sponsored, according to the Congressional Research Service. The former have faced criticism, as they often leave workers paying high fees and earning less of their paycheck to access it, while the latter see employers cover these fees. These programs, however, are less common: Just 12% of employers offer EWA, according to a 2023 survey by Sapient Insights Group. Furthermore, the benefit is most commonly offered to hourly workers, research from the Harvard Kennedy School suggests.
HCM platform Dayforce offers its corporate employees advanced pay access through its consumer product Dayforce Wallet, according to the company’s chief people officer, Amy Cappellanti-Wolf. Her hope is that by offering the product as a benefit to its over 5,000 employees in the US, UK, and Canada, Dayforce can help improve their well-being.
“I can’t change the weather, I can maybe give you one of those lights that makes you feel better, but I can change the opportunity and access you have to your cash,” she said. “Our company has really taken an effort to systematize them, so it’s not just something you offer ad hoc, but it’s a regular way by how we run our business.”
Cappellanti-Wolf spoke with HR Brew about Dayforce Wallet and how EWA can help improve employee well-being.
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Offering a not-so-common benefit. Since 2020, Dayforce employees in the US have been able to collect earned wages ahead of payday, allowing a full-time worker on a biweekly pay schedule to cash out on any amount of hours worked earlier than usual. Canadian and UK employees have had access since 2021 and 2022, respectively.
While Cappellanti-Wolf has only been with Dayforce since April 2024, she said programs like EWA go a long way toward building trust between companies and their employees.
“It makes us look like we’re human, because sometimes people do have needs, and they’re afraid to express them in work, because they’re concerned they’ll look like they’re not financially and fiduciarily responsible,” she said. “But hey, we all have had those moments where we’ve spent more than we’d like to, or we need access to cash more quickly, so it has opened up for us a trust with our employees.”
Cappellanti-Wolf said she understands why some HR teams may not want “to cut an out-of-cycle paycheck,” because it requires more time and resources for payroll. She recommended HR incorporate EWA into regular operations by using a HCM or software that automatically facilitates it.
But no one benefit or perk will improve employee well-being, she said. At Dayforce, EWA, coupled with unlimited PTO, company-wide mental health days, and a remote-first culture, aim to help engagement and retention, she added.
“We’re trying to personalize what we offer to the multigenerations that we have in our workplace today, and so I think Wallet actually transcends across all of that,” she said.