When you hear about other companies’ incredible benefits, it’s easy to get benefit envy. After all, Google offers its employees gourmet food, cooking classes, on-site gyms, free shuttles, massage therapists, tuition reimbursement, and more.[1] Goldman Sachs makes dragon-boating, Pilates, an all-night scavenger hunt, and other perks available to its workers.[2] Can you even compete? Yes, you can. While private planes for employees may be out of reach, you can offer Earned Wage Access (EWA) and a slew of other life-changing financial wellness benefits to your hourly wage workers.

The Benefits Problem

Perks matter—57 percent of employees[3] report that benefits are a key consideration in their job search.

Perks are also expensive—health coverage alone costs employers $6,435 per worker.[4]

Most benefit costs are only getting higher, while company budgets are getting smaller. One survey found that 30 percent of companies reported cutting pay in light of the COVID-19 pandemic,[5] while one hundred thousand small businesses have closed permanently due to the economic downturn.[6] Employers want to offer valuable benefits in this unprecedented time, and employees need those benefits more than ever, but there’s simply no room in the budget for more spending.

The EWA Solution

What if businesses could offer a benefit that promotes the financial wellness of their employees and cares for them during this difficult time, at no cost to the organization?

That’s PayActiv in a nutshell.

Yoga in the office is nice, but PayActiv’s EWA benefit fills a need. With EWA, employees can access already earned wages before payday, so they can pay bills when they’re due and avoid the pain of short-term loan interest, late fees, and overdraft fees. They can also use their already earned wages to pay for groceries, medicine, and other essentials.

With PayActiv, workers can transfer already earned wages to a bank account or a PayActiv Visa Debit Card and use Uber or Amazon—all right from the app. The financial wellness solutions also give users a way to save, pay bills, budget, and get one-on-one financial counseling. Even better, using these services can cost less than ATM charges.

Employers can offer EWA through PayActiv to support their employees with zero financial risk to their company. In fact, businesses that use PayActiv see a benefit themselves—a 36 percent reduction in turnover.[7]

How much would it mean to your employees to know they can always access their earned wages without penalties or interest? What will be the expression on their face when you tell them they have a backup plan for unexpected emergencies, one they can access twenty-four seven from an app on their phone? How much of a game-changer would it be if you also threw in discounts on medications and access to Amazon, even without a credit card?

In the new normal, attracting and retaining talent will be more important than ever, but maybe it won’t take a ball pit in the office to hire and keep the best talent. EWA and the PayActiv app can offer your employees and your company more tangible benefits than many costly, flashy initiatives, all at no cost to your organization.

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[1] Lucy Yang, “13 Incredible Perks of Working at Google, According to Employees,” Insider, July 11, 2017, https://www.insider.com/coolest-perks-of-working-at-google-in-2017-2017-7#the-talent-pool-at-google-is-no-joke-and-employees-get-to-collaborate-and-learn-from-some-of-the-smartest-and-most-innovative-minds-in-the-tech-world-13.

[2] Christopher Matthews, “Why People Love Working at Goldman Sachs—It’s Not Just the Money,” Time, January 16, 2014, https://business.time.com/2014/01/16/why-people-love-working-at-goldman-sachs-its-not-just-the-money/.

[3] “Glassdoor’s 5 Job Trends to Watch in 2016,” Glassdoor, January 12, 2016, https://www.glassdoor.com/blog/glassdoors-5-job-trends-watch-2016/.

[4] Kerry Jones, “The Most Desirable Employee Benefits,” Harvard Business Review, February 15, 2017, https://hbr.org/2017/02/the-most-desirable-employee-benefits#:~:text=Health%20insurance%20is%20the%20most,and%20improve%20work%2Dlife%20balance.

[5] Mitchell Hartman, “About a Third of Companies Cut Employee Pay in Response to COVID-19, Survey Finds,” Marketplace, July 8, 2020, https://www.marketplace.org/2020/07/08/covid-19-jobs-companies-payroll-cuts-layoffs/.

[6] Heather Long, “Small Business Used to Define America’s Economy. The Pandemic Could Change That Forever,” Washington Post, May 12, 2020, https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2020/05/12/small-business-used-define-americas-economy-pandemic-could-end-that-forever/.

[7] PayActiv, https://www.payactiv.com.