Can Early Pay Help Restaurants Retain Employees?
/The statistics on American wealth are ugly: Most Americans are living paycheck to paycheck. More than half of all Americans have less than $1,000 in their bank accounts.
Things are especially hard for people who earn at or just above minimum wage, a segment that includes many fast-casual and quick-service workers. Add to that the fact that the jobless rate in the U.S. this year hit a 49-year low, and you get a difficult market for limited-service restaurants to recruit and keep talented workers.
But some brands are recognizing these challenges and responding with new tools for expedited pay that allow their employees more flexibility around when they access their wages. And there are some signs that these new tools are helping improve important measures like employee retention and morale.
One such tool, called DailyPay, has been growing in popularity with many big-name brands, including Captain D’s, Burger King, Taco Bell, and KFC, DailyPay spokesman Karl Pawlewicz says. He describes the technology, which can be accessed as a phone application or on the computer for employees, as an “ATM for employee earnings.”