You simply have to collect and develop a certain number of skills as the years tick by
On-Demand Pay, Accrued Wage Access, Income Streaming. Earned Wage Access (EWA) is known by those and many other names. Regardless of what term you choose to use it’s clear to see EWA’s proliferation through the modern workplace.
Companies across the world have been taking note of the effects of EWA on their workforce’s wellbeing. Having control over earned pay not only helps boost employee morale but also helps increase their productivity owing to the instant visible gratification for a day’s work.
Fast food giant McDonald’s quickly discovered the benefits EWA offered to its US employees. Given the company has a large workforce that works in shifts, EWA didn’t take long to fill an obvious need. Working a double-shift feels doubly rewarding when you can see your pay shoot up right after a long day’s work. It also helps to have access to a shift’s earnings right away during the lighter scheduled weeks.
The flexibility offered by Earned Wage Access can also be seen in the way it is implemented at US-based ride-hailing service Uber. Where in most other cases your earnings would be updated daily, at Uber they’re constantly updated and can be retrieved by drivers up to five times a day. While this might not be of much importance to the average employee, it’s an absolute boon to gig economy workers, like Uber’s contracted drivers. Being able to access their real-timed earned fares makes it easier for them to budget for fuel and other necessary expenses on the job.
While Earned Wage Access has already started to make its mark across the globe it is yet to properly tangle with the rather unique Indian workforce. It is a union long overdue though as they are the perfect match. A massive section of India’s population lives paycheck to paycheck, even more often have to rely on salary advances and payday loans and incur frequent late payment penalties as they simply cannot afford to pay all their bills at once.
EWA would address these problems at scale in India instantly and most importantly, at economical prices. It would make it easier for Indian employees to manage their bills on time by accessing their earned pay, without having to make any cutbacks or fall into debt traps. The funny thing about unexpected expenses is that they come around so often they may as well be expected. Armed with EWA however, an employee can build the necessary financial resilience and confidence to tackle them, safe in the knowledge that they can access their earned money whenever the need may arise.
With a steady growth in both use and demand for Earned Wage Access globally, it’s quite clear that it won’t be long before it becomes the norm for employers to offer on-demand pay to their workforce.
