[2] In the United States, 20% of all hourly staff are expected to be paid this way by 2023,[3] with many large employers like Walmart and McDonald's already offering it.
In August 2016, Uber pioneered EWA in a partnership with Green Dot by allowing drivers to request their earnings after each drive in exchange for a small payment.
[6] In July 2018, ADP, the largest payroll provider in America, began offering an EWA solution in their marketplace.
As recommended by the Financial Conduct Authority, the UK’s leading providers of Earned Wage Access/On-Demand Pay have come together and created the world's first 'EWA' Code of Practice.
[12] Earned wage access is promoted as bringing income more inline with expenses, helping workers to avoid cashflow issues that could result in them taking out high-interest debt.
[17] Monica Burks, of the Center for Responsible Lending, warns that, "[t]he industry is trying to create a new definition for what a loan is in order to exempt themselves from existing consumer protection laws.
[20] Consumer risk is highly dependent on the specific strategy the EWA provider chooses to take when offering the advances.