Earned Wage Access (formerly InstaPay) FAQs for employers and managers

There is no additional effort required by you. When employers are connected to Employment Hero payroll, employees are given access to Earned Wage Access (EWA) benefits via the EH Work app.

When an employee requests EWA, the money is paid to them directly from Employment Hero. At the same time, a deduction is added to the employees record in their pay run inclusions page. 

The deduction is then automatically added to the next pay run for Employment Hero to recoup their money. If you have an open pay run, the deduction will show in a deductions tab for your convenience so that you can apply it to the pay run.

You can see which employees have accessed EWAy by going to your Pay run inclusions report and looking for the deduction 'EH EWA Post-tax deduction'.

When an employee requests an earned wage access payment, these transactions will appear in the relevant pay run as a post-tax deduction. Employment Hero bases earned wage access availability on approved timesheets, or a pro-rated daily amount (for each work day) for salaried employees. To read further information on the employee-facing side of the earned wage access feature, refer to the following article.

Earned Wage Access (EWA) services offer several benefits for employers:

• Increased Employee Satisfaction: offering EWA as a benefit can improve job satisfaction, loyalty, and morale, leading to higher engagement and retention rates.
• Talent Attraction: employers that provide financial wellness solutions, like EWA, can stand out as more attractive to job seekers, especially in competitive job markets.
• No Impact on Cash Flow: EWA services is funded by Employment Hero, which means there’s no direct impact on the employer’s cash flow.
• Enhanced Productivity: financial stress is a major factor in decreased productivity. Providing EWA can help alleviate this stress, allowing employees to stay focused on their work.

1. Log into Employment Hero. 
2. Click on Benefits on the left-hand side menu.
3. Click on Earned Wage Access overview. 
4. Here you will find valuable information about benefits for employees, how it works for employers, and other resources.

Your employees can use EWA to:

• Access money they have already earned before pay day for any unexpected bills/emergencies

• Avoid credit products and build healthy financial habits

• Take control of how they want to manage their finances

We also provide employees with links to financial wellness guides within EH Work.

Employment Hero bases earned wage access availability on timesheets or a pro-rated daily amount (for each work day) for salaried employees. Please note that unpaid leave taken is not added to the pro-rated daily amount.

Earned Wage Access (EWA) is easy to set up with Employment Hero. As long as your payroll is connected to Employment Hero, there are no additional setup requirements. After two months, EWA will automatically be available to your employees through EH Work, with no extra effort needed on your part. For more details, see here.

There are no costs for employers to provide Earned Wage Access (EWA) to their employees. The only fee involved is a 1% transaction fee, which is charged to the employee and clearly displayed when they use EWA within EH Work.

However, if you are interested in subsidising this cost to offer EWA as an employee benefit, feel free to reach out to us for more information.

Offering Earned Wage Access (EWA) does not impact your business's cash flow or liquidity. Employment Hero provides the funds directly to the employee from our own accounts. These amounts are then automatically deducted from the next relevant pay run as a post-tax deduction.

No money leaves your organisation’s account for EWA until payday, where the total payment remains the same—simply divided between the employee and Employment Hero. For more details, visit this link.

Employment Hero has also achieved ISO 27001 compliance and uses two-factor authentication (2FA) for key actions within its platform to minimise fraud risks. For more details, visit our page on the Employment Hero website.

Currently, Earned Wage Access (EWA) cannot be customised for different employee groups or tailored based on department or seniority levels. We believe that all employees should have equal access to their earned pay, as employees​ have worked hard for it.

1. Log into Employment Hero. 
2. Click on Settings in the left-hand side menu.
3. Click on Custom Security Settings. 
4. Click the New Security Group button.
   
5. Complete the fields of group name, description (optional) and select the employee(s) you would like to assign access.
   
6. Click on Other Permissions.
   
7. Select InstaPay Dashboard (Use).
8. Click Create.
   

If you are interested in subsidising the cost of Earned Wage Access (EWA) as a benefit for your employees, please get in touch with us. We are exploring options to make this an employer-funded benefit.

Currently, there are no costs for employers to offer EWA to their employees. A transaction fee is charged to the employee and is clearly displayed when they use EWA within EH Work.

Information about Earned Wage Access (EWA) can be found in our Help Centre here. We will continue developing additional resources to help employers promote the benefits of EWA to employees.

Earned Wage Access (EWA) does not have any tax implications for employees, as it operates within the existing tax framework.

We have automated the necessary intra-pay-cycle HMRC submissions for early wage access requests, ensuring that there are no changes or additional tax or HMRC reporting requirements for employers.

Employees can access up to 50% of their unpaid net pay, with a maximum limit of $1000 per week.

There is no minimum transaction amount, and employees can make as many transactions as they like within the weekly cap. The percentage fee means there’s no encouragement to withdraw large amounts.

No, using Earned Wage Access (EWA) will not affect an employee’s credit score. Accessing earned wages before payday is not considered a credit or payday loan product, so it will not appear on an employee’s credit report or impact their financial standing in any way.

Data privacy for Earned Wage Access (EWA) is maintained in line with the data privacy standards applied across the entire Employment Hero platform. You can refer to our Privacy Policy for further details. EWA is protected by the same robust security measures used throughout the Employment Hero platform.

Trust is at the core of what we do, and we take data protection very seriously. We employ bank-level encryption standards and industry-leading technology to safeguard the security and integrity of your HR data. Employment Hero has also achieved ISO 27001 compliance. For more details, visit our Security Centre on the Employment Hero website. Additionally, we implement two-factor authentication (2FA) for key actions within the platform to minimise fraud risks.

Earned Wage Access (EWA) appears as a separate line item on the employee's payslip, making it clear that the amount has been deducted from their pay-check. There are no tax implications associated with using EWA.

Earned Wage Access (EWA) is safeguarded by the same robust security measures used across the entire Employment Hero platform. We prioritise data protection and employ bank-level encryption standards and industry-leading technology to ensure the security and integrity of your HR data.

No, offering EWA does not expose your business to new risks. Employment Hero works with employees directly to control accurate access, funds the individual wage advance, and automates the insertion of the employee's deduction request into the payroll file. The automation of the deduction ensure the accurate repayment of advanced funds at payroll data.

When an employee uses Earned Wage Access (EWA), a post-tax deduction is automatically created within their payroll file. This can be viewed in both the employee’s pay run inclusions and your organisation’s pay run inclusions report. Currently, this is the only summarised view available for monitoring EWA transactions.

Employees can access a maximum of 50% of their unpaid net pay, with a weekly cap of $1000. To support responsible use, we offer financial wellness resources within EH Work to help employees understand how to use EWA wisely and reduce reliance on high-cost credit and loan products.

Employees also have the option to opt out of the EWA feature if they find it is not beneficial to their situation. For more information, visit here and here.

When an employee uses Earned Wage Access (EWA), a post-tax deduction is automatically created within their payroll file. This can be viewed in both the employee’s pay run inclusions and your organisation’s pay run inclusions report. Currently, this is the only summarised view available for monitoring EWA transactions.

The payroll platform allows you to run a report that will show the earned wager access transactions processed within your organisation. The steps on how to run this report are:

1. Log into your Employment Hero Payroll platform.
2. Click the Reports menu.
3. Click the Pay run inclusions report, under the Payroll area.
4. Complete the following fields to determine who will be included in the report:
   • Employee.
   • Location.
   • Status.
   • Pay schedule.
   • Employing entity.
     You can either choose to include/exclude terminated employees.
5.  Click the Run Report button.
   
6. Open the relevant accordions for the employee deductions you want to view.
7. You will see EH EWA Post-tax deduction in the Deduction category - this shows an earned wage access deduction.
   

Once an employee requests an earned wage access payment, the platform will create a locked post-tax deduction for the withdrawn earned wage access amount in the employee's payroll file. The steps on how to view this are:

1. Log into your Employment Hero Payroll platform
2. Click the Employee menu.
3. Click the List submenu.
4. Click on the employee whose earned wage access deduction you want to view.
5. Click the Pay Run Inclusions button.
   
   

   Helpful Hint

   You will now see under the deductions section the employee's earned wage access post-tax deduction. Please note that this may still be labelled as an 'EWA Post-tax deduction'.

   

You would class an earned wage access payment as a post-tax payment.

Yes, managers will get an email that their employees have started applying for an earned wage access payment.

The total on your ABA file will be your total net pay plus these deductions. When an employee makes an earned wage access request, Employment Hero pays ‌the employee directly.

In the next pay run, we will add a post-tax deduction automatically onto the employee's record. Doing this will make sure we deduct the value of the earned wage access payment from the employee’s net pay.

Yes, earned wage access deductions will need to be included in termination pay runs.  However this is done for you, you do not need to do anything.

No. Grouping earned wage access deductions will make reconciliation challenging.

There are three eligibility criteria for an organisation to be able to offer EWA to their employees:

• Your organisation must be using Employment Hero HR with an integrated Employment Hero Payroll account, or a standalone Employment Hero Payroll account.

• You must be on a standard, premium, or platinum plan.

• You must wait for the 2-month wait period to get yourself familiar with the software and EH Work.

Once you meet the above three criteria, earned wage access will ‌automatically be available to your employees.

Employees can access a maximum of 50% of their unpaid net pay, with a weekly cap of $1000. To support responsible use, we offer financial wellness resources within EH Work to help employees understand how to use EWA wisely and reduce reliance on high-cost credit and loan products.

Employees also have the option to opt out of the EWA feature if they find it is not beneficial to their situation. For more information, visit here and here.