Financial Freedom & Resilience
Higher food and energy costs, the uncertainty of the financial markets, and a worldwide pandemic are having a profound effect on the nation's workforce. If payday loans were a staple option for some individuals prior to the last few years, then we predict a rise in the need for early access to wages, which in turn, creates an unstable financial cycle for employees. And when employees don’t feel secure, their wellbeing suffers, and productivity decreases. Not the best outcome for the employers’ bottom line, nor their corporate and social responsibility to care for their employees.
It’s easy to assume that monthly pay was always the norm, but it wasn’t always like that.
Many workers were still paid daily until as recently as the 1950s, at a time when the prospect of a job for life was enough to tempt employees to stay put in one job until they retired. Job security and the promise of a state pension were respectable perks for those lucky enough to find the right position.
Monthly payroll became popular for many reasons, greater predictability of cash flow, reduced administration, reduced costs, and later, the efficiencies of digital pay. But all these benefits favour the employer, not the employee. And payroll is now so ingrained into our lives that we don't question it. And with this shift to monthly pay, the payday loan emerged as the only option for many.
But how well does the current payroll model serve today's employees?
Employees are given access to their money once every 30 days.
Unexpected expenses often don’t coincide with payday, leaving people risking payday loans or credit card debt.
Employees are notified only once per month of the amount of each monthly paycheque – making it hard to budget.
UK citizens are struggling, and current payday loan statistics are worrying. Short-term loan customers come from all walks of life and hold a variety of jobs across a wide range of industries, however, the average age of today’s payday loan borrower is 31. The biggest driver behind the need for payday loans in 2020 was reported to be the cost of food and around 25% of all payday loans in the UK are for £100 or less. And in the light of the 2022 Budget report and worldwide events, financial burdens will not be easing any time soon.
So what do the employees of today need from payroll?
Let’s take a look at what modern payroll can provide:
Improved financial wellbeing with access to pay on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis at the discretion of the employee.
Control over cash flow thus reducing the need for payday loans and debt.
Real-time wage updates providing the ability to budget (no more waiting for payday).
These are some of the solutions Hi provides. Hi are committed to creating positive social change, and making the world financially stronger by providing access to finance in a way that matches the needs of both the modern employee and the employer.
Essentially Hi has created a system that allows an individual to elect how they want to be paid. As David Brown, CEO of Hi explains,
“Payday should be any day. Payday should be on-demand. And it should be free because it’s your asset.”
Let's not forget - wages are an asset that belongs to the employee, so isn't it time we drop the concept of the monthly paycheque, and instead, empower both employer and employee with a system that works in favour of both?