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February 21, 2024

Everything You Need To Know About Financial Wellness Programs For Employees: 2024 Outlook

Discover everything you need to know about enhancing employee financial wellness and staying competitive in 2024. From insightful strategies to actionable tips, this article provides comprehensive guidance to elevate financial well-being in the workplace. Read more

fortune logo
December 18, 2023

8 Side Hustles That Pay (up to $200) Daily

Explore the top side hustles that offer daily pay on Fortune’s latest feature. From gig economy opportunities to innovative platforms, this article showcases potential options for individuals seeking beginner-friendly, additional income streams. Read more

August 11, 2023

Earned Wage Access: What You Need to Know About This Increasingly Popular Payroll Benefit

Nevada and Missouri’s historic bills declare Earned Wage Access (EWA) not a loan, paving the way for innovative regulatory frameworks. These changes allow EWA providers, like Payactiv, to empower more employees and businesses, reducing reliance on payday loans and late fees through accessible registration processes. Read more

July 27, 2023

Earned Wage Access: Early Payday or Payday Loan?

For over ten years, Earned Wage Access has aided paycheck-to-paycheck workers, granting early wage access. Industry experts and regulators continue debating terms and lending aspects. Listen to Payactiv CEO Safwan Shah’s interview, an EWA pioneer, for insights into the ongoing discussion and its nuances. Listen Podcast

Law360 logo
July 21, 2023

6 Things to Know as States Eye Earned Wage Access Rules

Stay up-to-date on the evolving landscape of earned wage access rules as states consider regulatory changes. Discover the key factors shaping this evolving industry and stay informed on the latest developments impacting workers’ access to earned wages. Read more

June 26, 2023

What Nevada’s Pioneering Earned Wage Access Law Really Means

Nevada marks a milestone as the inaugural state to enact a bill affirming Earned Wage Access is not a loan. The legislation establishes EWA parameters and provider guidelines to expand employee coverage through innovation. Dive deeper into the bill’s particulars and its practical  implications. Read more

HR.com logo
March, 2023

The Economic Imperative for Providing Financial Wellness Benefits

Financial wellness benefits have become increasingly important tools for US employers in recent years, with a remarkable shift in attitudes towards employee financial wellness. Companies like Walmart, Costco, and Whole Foods have already seen measurable improvements in their recruitment, retention, and engagement metrics by making financial wellness a big part of their workplace culture. Safwan Shah, CEO of Payactiv, wrote a guest article for HR.com explaining the three ways organizations can benefit from financial wellness programs in the workplace and the significant ROI that can be achieved through increased productivity, reduced stress, improved morale, and innovation. Read more

Payments Dive
January 24, 2023

Why the Arizona AG opinion on EWA matters

The recent Arizona Attorney General’s opinion on EWA is in line with decades of decisions across the country that have found that non-recourse products are not loans. Payactiv’s General Counsel Aaron Marienthal and Vice President for Government Affairs Molly Jones explain how the opinion provides essential clarity for employers offering employees on-demand access to their earned wages. Read more

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February 16, 2022

U.S. Bank, Payactiv Unveil New Earned Wage Access Solution for Employers

Today, US Bank announces its partnership with Payactiv to bring EWA to millions. Employees at organizations that use the prepaid U.S. Bank Focus Card for payroll disbursements can now access a portion of their earned wages on-demand through an immediate direct deposit to their U.S. Bank Focus Card. The collaboration includes other payment options including an instant deposit into an employee’s checking account via Real-Time Payments (RTP). The solution will also provide access to other financial wellness services, including savings and bill management tools. Read more

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December 8, 2021

Payactiv Wins the 2021 BAI Global Innovation Award in Human Capital

BAI announced the 2021 winners for the BAI Global Innovation Awards, highlighting transformative solutions in financial services worldwide. This year’s winners were selected by the Innovation Circle, a panel of distinguished judges and advisors from around the world who are at the forefront of innovation. Together with BAI, they identified award finalists from an impressive list of submissions and eventually selected the winners and honorable mentions. Read more

Biba-logo
December 1, 2021

Payactiv Named a Silver Winner In the Most Socially Responsible Company of the Year category in Best in Biz Awards 2021

Best in Biz Awards, the only independent business awards program judged each year by prominent editors and reporters from top-tier publications in North America, today announced the winners in its 11th annual awards. This year’s program saw intense competition among more than 700 impressively strong entries from public and private companies of all sizes and spanning all geographic regions and industries in the U.S. and Canada, ranging from some of the best known global brands to the most innovative start-ups and irrepressible local companies. Read more

UKG Ultimate Kronos Group logo
November 16, 2021
UKG Ushers in New Generation of Financial Wellness with UKG Wallet Powered By Payactiv

“Timely access to earned wages enables people to meet their livelihood needs without the high cost of borrowing and provides them with a step toward financial wellness,” said Safwan Shah, chief executive officer at Payactiv. “Everything we do is to help people maximize the impact of their earnings, every day, to reach their goals. UKG Wallet will make a difference for millions of people on their financial journeys.”
Cardrates logo
July 20, 2021

Payactiv Card Offers Workers Fast Access to Earnings and Savings on Everyday Necessities

When workers can access their paychecks faster, they can often avoid payday loans, overdraft fees, and financial setbacks. That’s why Payactiv partners with more than 1,500 U.S. employers to provide workers with immediate access to their earnings via the Payactiv Visa Card. The Payactiv app also offers budgeting tools, financial education resources, and a discount marketplace for everyday consumer items.

Fast Company logo
July 6, 2021

Reinventing the way businesses and workers get paid

A Visa survey revealed that 2/3 of workers would choose to work with a company that offers real-time, on-demand payouts over a company that relies on more traditional payment schedules.

Podcast The Conscious Capitalists Podcast
April 21, 2021

Episode #32: Addressing Financial Shame in America

2/3 of Americans have less than $1,000 in their savings accounts, and 75% live paycheck to paycheck, a real crisis in terms of what people are experiencing on the front lines of American companies today.

Early Light Media We Heard You Advertising Awards
April 12, 2021

ELM Animation Project Wins Baltimore & Regional Addy Award

A collaborative endeavor from beginning to end, Payactiv partnered with RTC to produce this short animated brand film that tells the story of an hourly worker who is empowered and transformed by an open-minded new offering from his company that allows him access to his earned wages.

February 8, 2021

How Earned Wage Access Can Upend Predatory Lending And Build Employee Financial Wellness

People use payday loans but nobody ever asked why. There is a misalignment between the biweekly receipt of wages, and the multiple days in between during which bills and other expenses must be met. Bills and expenses do not wait for payday.

havrvard business
Nov-Dec 2020

Helping Low-Income Workers Stay Out of Debt

A study conducted at the Harvard Kennedy School explores how innovative fintech products can disrupt this damaging cycle and benefit employees and employers alike.

thrive global
September 9, 2020

Conscious Capitalism at Work: How to Walk a Mile in Your Employees’ Shoes

Leaders can truly support their employees by trying to understand the nuances of circumstances that might be quite different from their own. Here are a few ways to let your team members know you’re listening.

payment source
August 18, 2020

Why ‘earned wage access’ is suddenly a big deal

The coronavirus pandemic has greatly disrupted many people’s cashflow, and made financial management much more stressful. Earned wage access is one way to provide relief to those who still have an income but find themselves financially strained.

cision
August 13, 2020

Payactiv Secures $100 Million of Funding for Employer-Sponsored Financial Wellness Solutions

Payactiv, Inc., the leading employer-sponsored earned wage access and holistic financial wellness platform, today announced that it has secured $100 million of funding to further its mission of bringing security, dignity and savings to workers.

payment source
July 16, 2020

Early wage access provider Payactiv’s pandemic response leads to new business model PaymentsSource

Payactiv, Inc., the leading provider of employer-sponsored earned wage and tip access, today announced PaymentsSource.com published an interview with co-founder and CEO Safwan Shah. The discussion with author Michael Moeser covers Payactiv’s new pricing models called ACCESS Freedom and ACCESS Choice, and reduces fees to free and $1 per day of use, respectively. Shah also discusses the reasons for the pricing model change, why Payactiv chose to become a Certified B-Corporation and Public Benefit Corporation, and his vision for assisting struggling workers by repairing the cash flow misalignment that occurs between paychecks.

visa
May 14, 2020

Millions of hourly workers get paid faster due to Visa and partner support

For many people, waiting for payday can cause great stress, a situation only made worse in today’s environment. Hourly workers on the frontline are among those most heavily impacted by the pandemic, including those stocking shelves, supporting logistics, running our pharmacies, making deliveries and providing other essential services. According to Payactiv data, because of the COVID-19 crisis, 82% of hourly workers are now saying that loss of income is their greatest concern.[1] Even prior to the pandemic, 44% of Americans had less than $500 in savings.[2]

What if hourly workers could access their already-earned wages in between the regular pay cycle, giving them greater financial flexibility and peace of mind? This is known as Earned Wage Access (EWA).

hr technologist
April 3, 2020

Paychex and Payactiv’s On-Demand Pay Option Brings Relief to Workers

See how Payactiv and Paychex’s partnership solved employees’ earned wage problems. Read more.

hotel management
April 3, 2020

Paychex, Payactiv partner on employees’ access to earned wages

Payactiv provides fast access to wage solution during COVID-19 crisis. Click for more…

bloomberg
April 1, 2020

U.S. Hourly Workers Push to Get Paid Sooner

Get earned wages when workers needed the most. See how Payactiv does it

American-Banker
March 20, 2020

Consumers seek early access to wages to soften coronavirus hit

Workers living paycheck to paycheck are borrowing to survive the economic impact of the pandemic.

WSJ
September 2, 2019

Some Companies Offer a New Benefit: Payroll Advances and Loans

Typically, payday loans charge $15 for every $100 borrowed. Bank overdraft fees often cost about $35. In contrast, Payactiv charges $5 per pay period when an employee uses the service, which also includes financial counseling and online bill payments.

axios
June 30, 2019

The Ontology of Unpaid Earnings

Payactiv is a particularly interesting innovation. Marketing itself as a “financial wellness solution,” it plugs into employers’ time-and-attendance systems and allows employees to withdraw up to $500 of their earnings before payday, for a fee of $5 per pay period. These aren’t one-time withdrawals: You get an unlimited number of transactions, including cash withdrawals, Uber rides and debit-card payments, for the one-time fee.

usa today
June 23, 2019

How Americans’ financial behavior has changed: Less stock picking, more part-time work

If you labor in lower-income positions, including part-time “gig” jobs, the trend is toward getting pay into the hands of workers faster — often within a day or two of completing a shift. “As a society, we want everything — food, movies or whatever — in real time, so why can’t payroll be on demand, too?” asked Ijaz Anwar, chief operating officer at Payactiv.

American-Banker
June 3, 2019

Don’t sideline earned income access

Workers’ financial health is no longer an HR issue; currently, it now affects a company’s bottom line. Not surprisingly, employee demand for EIA at workplace is high even in absence of any employer promotion. This is a no-brainer — when an EIA program only costs $5, who would pay $45 for a $250 payday loan or $35 for a bank overdraft?

May 9, 2019

How Payactiv app lets workers access their wages early

Head of human resources at Jenny Craig Australia and New Zealand Joshua Nunan said financial insecurity was a “real issue” for many Aussies, and a number of staff members had already used Payactiv since Jenny Craig signed up several months ago.

cnn
March 9, 2019

Visa and Payactiv are now providing quicker pay for those who need it most

Employees can use a smartphone app to download their money onto a Visa debit or preloaded card, or even a traditional credit card. That also helps workers who do not have access to a traditional checking account.

bloomberg
Dec 18, 2018

Fintechs Step Into Payday Alternatives Where Banks Fear to Tread

“Our ability and agility to seamlessly integrate into businesses pre-existing systems allows for an execution” that banks are unable to accomplish, Ijaz Anwar, Payactiv’s co-founder and chief operating officer. Payactiv has also partnered with community banks and credit unions to offer wage advances to financial institution’s employees.

September 18, 2018

Need cash now but you don’t get paid until Friday?

“I have bills to pay, things to buy for my kids at home, and not having enough money to accomplish what I need to do is very stressful,” said Payactiv user, Pearl Campos. When she needs money, she’s able to tap into a service offered by her employer.

Yahoo_Finance
August 29, 2018

New app offers help to millions of Americans living paycheck-to-paycheck

Payactiv – a new app – offers an alternative to predatory payday loans. Yahoo Finance’s Dion Rabouin and David Pogue talked with the company’s CEO, Safwan Shah.

NPR
August 16, 2018

Walmart And Others Offer Workers Payday Loan Alternative

Think about that for a minute. According to the Federal Reserve, 40 percent of Americans don’t have $400 in savings to fix their water heater or some other emergency. But Shah says they’re spending around $2,000 a year on fees and interest to get emergency short-term cash. He thought this was a problem that needed fixing.

More than a hundred companies have now signed up with Payactiv. A Walmart executive says there’s been an “extraordinary” response from employees. More than 200,000 Walmart workers are now using the system.

Listen to this NPR All Things Considered story

latimes
August 5, 2018

Need a loan? Forget the corner payday lender — your boss has you covered

Last week, Payactiv announced its service will now be available to more than 600,000 employers that work with payroll giant ADP.

Shah said his deals with ADP and Employee Loan Solutions’ tie-up with Brightside show there’s growing acceptance among employers that the best way to help financially stressed employees is not to lecture them about budgeting or savings but to offer them services that solve immediate problems.

“If somebody is hungry, do you give them a diet book or a meal?” he said. “At some point, you have to do something real.”

WSJ
May 14, 2018

A Better Alternative to Payday Loans

More than 50 million Americans in low-income working families struggle to manage everyday cash flow. “… Walmart, one of the largest employers of low-wage workers, recently made Payactiv available to its employees. From December to March, 80,000 Walmart employees received more than $30 million through Payactiv.” – Todd Baker and Snigdha Kumar.

bloomberg
Dec 13, 2017

Wal-Mart Will Allow Workers to Have Early Access to Pay

The world’s biggest retailer has unveiled financial-planning tools designed by Silicon Valley-based Payactiv Inc. and Even Responsible Finance Inc., a move that lets its employees access earned wages ahead of scheduled paychecks and avoid bounced checks or payday lenders.

banking exchange
Jul 21, 2017

Solving “more month than money” puzzle

Payactiv representatives help set up savings accounts, demonstrating how saving just a few minutes’ worth of wages over time becomes a way to pay debts or family expenses. They also guide users to credit counselors for one-on-one advice.

American-Banker
May 17, 2017

Better fintech alternatives to high-cost credit are already here

If these fintech products were widely available, they could benefit virtually all of the nation’s 10.4 million low-income working families and, indirectly, the 47 million individual members of those families.

AIER
January 11, 2017

Tools to Help Lower-Income Americans Save Money

One way to help address the financial wellness of lower-income Americans is to help steer them away from resources that end up hurting their financial condition in the long run. The company Payactiv offers a market-based workaround to this issue by collaborating with employers to provide an innovative benefit.

indsider lousville
Dec 1, 2016

Nazareth Home and Sacred Heart Home showcase workplace innovation

“I was thrilled to see this program (Payactiv) and delighted to bring it to the staff. Right now, about one-third of our staff are using the program. It consists of an app that can draw from your account, or it can be used at a special ATM that is accessible to everyone on campus.”

StartupSense
Dec 1, 2016

Startup Sense Podcast

“Payactiv helps low income employees, people making $25 and less. We let employees access their earned but unpaid wages when they get into financial emergencies, helping them avoid payday loans, and a variety of other fees and penalties.”

hunman resouce exe
Nov 14, 2016

Help in Advance

“Many workers are reluctant to ask for an advance,” says Ulislam. “So by the time they request one, they may be in real trouble. They need the money yesterday, not in four or five days.”

marketplace
July 6, 2016

How to access your hard-earned money before payday

“This is neither a loan nor an advance. It’s already earned. It’s just a technology solution. We change the frequency or velocity of money,” said Safwan Shah, founder and CEO of Payactiv.

Listen to this NPR Marketplace story

New York
July 4, 2016

New Payday Options for Making Ends Meet

Goodwill is using technology from Payactiv, a start-up in San Jose, Calif., that uses employers’ wage and hours information to estimate their employees’ earnings. For a fee of $5 per transaction — of which Goodwill pays half as a courtesy to its workers — Payactiv advances the cash. On payday, it recoups the money directly from the employer.

Payactiv’s founder, Safwan Shah, talks with a missionary zeal about the potential impact. “The biggest bank in this country is the bank of the employer, and two to three weeks of salary for most people is stuck there,” he said. “This is a corporate responsibility issue.”

bloomberg
May 25, 2016

With Payday Lending Under Fire, These Services Turn Your Employer Into an ATM

New financial technology lets employees draw on a portion of their salary as they earn it. “Is waiting to get paid something that can create forced savings, or does it cause problems for low-income people? We’ve done studies to prove that what we are doing is actually helping people save more.”

barrons logo
May 21, 2016

Two New Employee Benefits Aimed at Millennials

What I found intriguing is that Payactiv would increase the velocity of money in our economy. In Shah’s model, the world’s largest bank resides within corporations, where money that has been earned but not paid out is stored; he estimates that over $100 billion per week is frozen in the U.S. alone.

Mondato logo
May 23, 2016

Fintech’s Leftward Turn?

Silicon Valley’s Payactiv promises to be an alternative to “short term, short dollar, predatory lending products” used by 90 million underserved and working poor in the United States.

fintech logo
May 23, 2016

The Best of the Bunch from FinovateSpring

Payactiv disrupts the destructive cycle of payday loans by giving workers access to wages they have already earned but have not yet been paid. The firm also offers a simple mechanism for savings and very comprehensive end-to-end tech.

cu broadcast
May 12, 2016

How Payactiv’s Safwan Shah Looks to Eliminate the Vicious Debt Spiral

“I can find 10 solutions to borrow $1,000, $10,000, $5,000 but I can’t find a single good solution in our entire financial eco-system for someone who needs a $100 or $200.”

Bank Innovation Logo
May 12, 2016

Innovation Comes to Employee Benefits via Payactiv, Student Loan Genius

The dissonance between what you have earned and when it is delivered is painful for employees, and built on an antiquated system — the slow and expensive paycheck. Payactiv users can get the money in their accounts in realtime.

workforce magazine
May 3, 2016

Financial Health Is the Next Wellness Frontier

Traditional financial wellness programs that focus mostly on education or retirement planning did nothing to help workers in dire straits, according to hospital Chief Financial Officer Kendall Johnson. So the hospital turned to a unique solution [Payactiv]: allowing employees to take out small advances on their paychecks.

cuna councils
April 4, 2016

Even among Credit Union Employees, Debt Spiral Threatens Financial Wellness

While credit unions, by their very charter, are committed to serving the financial needs of their member communities, a hard reality is that often, the community that is perhaps most important to the health of the credit union itself – its employees – is struggling with achieving financial wellness.

bai logo
March 23, 2016

Improving Pay Day Timing

Who among us would have imagined that in 2016, virtually every aspect of our personal and business lives is “on-demand” and in “real-time?” Today, we access what we want, customized to our needs, now. To wait is passé, costly even. Instead, aligning time to our needs brings efficiency, transparency and savings.

technologyadvice logo
November 26, 2015

11 Insights from HR Tech 2015

Because the value of the knowledge worker, the value of our understanding of what drives human productivity, all of that is increasing with better studies and data. All of that knowledge is coming into software and technology.

b-corp logo
November, 2015

Mobile on-demand access to earned wages

Payactiv’s disruptive business model and industry-leading HR technology are the foundation for a powerful financial wellness program that makes a measurable difference in society.

American-Banker
November 12, 2015

New Budgeting Apps Aim to Disrupt Payday Lending

At a time when the industry is moving toward faster payments, a handful of entrepreneurs are looking to narrow the gap between an honest day’s work and an honest day’s pay.

technologyadvice logo
October 26, 2015

Making Payroll Just In Time

Expert Interview Series – Josh Bland

AcaciaHR Solutions logo
September 9, 2015

Payactiv, Employee Aid as an Employee Benefit

They [Payactiv] are addressing a problem that for years, decades really, many of us have assumed there are no solutions for. We have accepted them as “the way things work” and never really thought about what could be different. This is an innovative solution to a problem that we have all just accepted.