A shortage in casual employees across the country has encouraged a Canberra-based supermarket chain to become an early adopter in introducing a new wage-access tool as an employee benefit.
Supermarket chain Supabarn has introduced the Paytime system across its seven ACT and Sydney stores, allowing casual and part-time workers like 28-year-old Neha Narula to dip into her earned wages to pay for unexpected bills or expenses.
“I got the email from Supabarn about this system a couple of months ago and I think it’s a very good idea,” Ms Narula said.
“We have a mix of people working here – full-time, part-time and casuals – and many of them are teenagers and you know, the young people particularly, they really like this idea a lot.
“It’s a very quick system, you just click through [on the app] and the money drops into your account pretty much straight away.”
The app-operated wage access provides participating employees with information on how much they have earned and how much ready cash is accessible to them based on the shifts they have worked, rather than wait for the company’s stipulated pay date to drop the wages into their bank accounts.
A recent report by Ernst and Young found seven in 10 Australians live paycheck to paycheck and have less than $5000 in savings at any given time.
Similar wage access systems have been operating in the UK and the US for a number of years, with large companies with a high proportion of casuals in their workforce, such as global brands McDonalds, KFC, Target and Uber, as well as major hotel chains like Hilton and Holiday Inn, already using similar products.
To learn how you could adopt this modern HR solution and make employee wellbeing your employer value proposition, visit Paytime.
