Calgary’s ZayZoon is a category leader in the Earned Wage Access (EWA) space in the United States, offering the service to tens of thousands of U.S. businesses and millions of American employees.
The financial stress epidemic is a Canadian problem as well, so ZayZoon is looking to replicate their U.S. success in Canada.
Recent reports show that 54% of Canadians live paycheque-to-paycheque and 27% are behind on monthly payments.
ZayZoon’s financial empowerment platform for small and midsize businesses (SMBs) promises to help save one million Canadians one billion dollars.
Earned Wage Access is the option for workers to access a portion of their paycheque before payday. EWA exists because a paycheque may not be available, but an employee’s need is there today. Workers often have immediate cash flow needs, and have few options for short term liquidity.
ZayZoon works with employers to give employees a low-cost, easily accessible alternative to high-cost products like payday loans and late bill payment penalties.
“When we created ZayZoon, our mission was to improve employee cash flow by giving them a better way to deal with unexpected expenses between paycheques,” said ZayZoon co-founder and President Tate Hackert.
“Existing options to deal with short term cash flow issues are, in a word, awful. For example over two million Canadians use payday loans every year. ZayZoon provides a fast, efficient, low cost and convenient way for an employee to access their own pay, reducing their financial stress and saving them money. As a Canadian, I’m grateful that we are now able to offer this valuable employee benefit on our home turf.”
By reducing employee financial stress, ZayZoon positively impacts employee retention and shift productivity. Employees with access to ZayZoon on average pick up one extra shift per month, making it easier for employers to manage staffing and customer service.
“In a perfect world, every employee would get paid what they’ve earned each day. The reality is that payroll technology and employer cash flow will not allow this to happen,” says Shubh Sidhu, GM of Canada.
“By working with ZayZoon to give employees access to their earned wages, employers can improve employee engagement, keep employees longer and save money on recruiting costs. EWA is working to evolve payroll to satisfy the needs of both the employee and the employer.”
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