Earned Wage Access - B2C vs B2B2C models

Direct business-to-consumer vs employer-based models.

There are two predominant Earned Wage Access (EWA) service models; the direct business-to-consumer B2C and the employer-based B2B2C. Each serves different consumer needs.

B2C - Provider offers EWA directly to the worker.

Expect your earned unpaid wages to be estimated from the wage deposits paid into your bank account, your location to be monitored, and for money to be debited from your bank account to recover any accessed earned wages during the pay period.

Here EWA are made available to any worker who receives recurring direct deposits from a company or other business as their income.

A few key points to note in B2C model.

1. It's possible for a wide range of workers to use this model such as those who do not receive this benefit from their employer, freelancers, gig workers, non-profit and public sector employees.

2. The EWA provider will require the worker to have their mobile GPS (location services) on so as to monitor the worker and ensure that they went to work at the company location on the dates and time applicable.

3. The EWA provider has full access to the worker's bank account so they can debit & credit amounts, see the total deposits including when wages are received into the bank account.

4. The EWA provider uses the wages that it sees deposited into the bank account as a base from which to estimate the earned accrued unpaid wages for the worker during the pay period.

5. Typically, before payday, the EWA provider makes available a portion of the workers earned unpaid wages when needed in accordance with point (1) being verified by the system for the pay period applicable.

6. On payday and once wages are received into the bank account, the EWA provider will make a debit (deduction) directly from the bank account to repay any earned wages accessed before payday.

7. Workers pay for the service through a monthly subscription fee, a fee per transaction, a voluntary tip amount, or a hybrid of monthly subscription and one of the other two.  

8. Sometimes interests or late payment fees can apply.

B2B2C - Provider partners with employer to offer EWA to their employees.

Expect your earned unpaid wages to be determined in real time based on actual payroll data, any accessed earned wages are deducted from payroll by the employer, no location monitoring of employees.

Here the EWA provider partners with an employer to offer their employees early access to earned unpaid wages.

A few key points to note in B2B2C model.

1. An employee cannot access this model if their employer has not partnered with the provider.

2. There's no need for the mobile GPS to be on to track the employee since the partnership is with the employer.

3. The EWA provider has partial access to the employee's bank account to facilitate the transfer of money into the bank account only.

4. The EWA provider integrates with the employer’s payroll and time attendance systems to receive data used to calculate the amount of earned unpaid wages that an employee accrues during the pay period.

5 Typically, during a pay period but before payday, the EWA provider makes available a portion of the employee's earned unpaid wages when needed.

6. On payday the employer deducts any earned wages accessed before payday from the employee’s paycheck to pay the provider and pays the employee the balance.

7. There is a low cost transaction fee for this service, which is sometimes covered by the employer, the employee, a combination of the two or through a low monthly cost employer subscription fee.

8. No interests or late penalty fees.

Wagefit is a B2B2C EWA provider. Partnering with an employer is the most responsible way to provide a non intrusive financial wellbeing benefit that makes a significant difference for employees by being intentionally invested in attaining beneficial outcomes for both employer and employees.