There’s a persistent assumption in HR circles that earned wage access (EWA) is a benefit built for one kind of worker: the hourly employee who lives paycheck to paycheck. It’s an understandable assumption, but recent research shows it’s not accurate. EWA usage cuts across income brackets, employment types, and salary structures. Understanding who actually uses it, and why, matters a great deal if you’re trying to build a benefits package that works for your entire workforce.
Key Takeaways
- EWA is used by workers at every income level, not just low-wage or hourly employees.
- Over half of salaried workers say they find EWA convenient when they know it is available to them.
- Two in three workers across all pay structures lack awareness of EWA as a workplace benefit.
- The average EWA transaction is $94, with users making three to four withdrawals per month.
- 84% of Millennials and 87% of Gen Z prefer employers who offer same-day pay options.
The Assumption That Gets It Wrong
The idea that EWA is only for hourly workers makes surface-level sense. Hourly employees often face variable income and tighter monthly budgets, so the appeal of accessing wages before payday seems obvious for them. But framing EWA as a hardship-only tool misses a much bigger picture. Financial timing is a challenge for almost everyone, regardless of how much they earn or how their compensation is structured.
A salaried employee earning $80,000 a year can still face a situation where rent is due five days before their biweekly paycheck lands. A manager earning over $100,000 can still encounter a high-expense month, a car repair, a medical bill, or back-to-school costs that don’t line up neatly with the pay cycle. Salary doesn’t eliminate cash flow gaps. It just changes the context in which they happen.
Who Is Actually Using EWA
Data from the Evans School of Public Policy and Governance at the University of Washington paints a clear picture of EWA usage across income levels. Workers earning under $50,000 are the most frequent users, typically accessing their wages early to cover rent (33%), manage cash flow gaps (32%), or pay bills before payday (27%). These are essential expenses, not discretionary ones, and the ability to time those payments more flexibly makes a real difference.
But usage doesn’t stop at lower income brackets. Workers in the $50,000 to $99,999 range also show substantial EWA activity, with their top use cases being unexpected expenses (31%), bills before payday (30%), and general purchases that have been planned but timed around a paycheck (27%). Workers earning $100,000 or more also use EWA, mostly to manage bill timing, cover high-expenditure months, and maintain financial flexibility without touching savings or credit lines.
The data makes clear that On Demand Pay For Hourly And Salaried Employees is increasingly relevant across all pay grades. The specific use cases may differ, but the underlying behavior is the same: workers want their money when they need it, not just when the pay cycle allows it.
Salaried Workers and the Awareness Gap
Here’s what the numbers reveal: it’s not that salaried employees don’t want EWA. It’s that most of them don’t know it exists. A YouGov survey of American workers found that 52% of salaried employees consider EWA convenient, nearly identical to the 53% of hourly workers who say the same. The interest is almost equal between both groups.
Yet two in three workers across both salaried and hourly structures still lack awareness of EWA as a benefit option. That’s not a demand problem. That’s a communication gap. When employers don’t actively promote EWA as part of a broader financial wellness package, salaried workers especially are unlikely to seek it out on their own. Monitoring On Demand Pay Trends For Hourly Workers shows these trends are clearly extending into salaried workforce populations as well.
The Data Behind the Demand
Multiple recent studies reinforce why EWA makes sense as a universal benefit. According to a UC Davis study on the impacts of earned wage access (EWA), EWA increases workers’ net monthly income by an average of $334, representing about an 11.5% improvement in effective monthly earnings. Users also report measurable changes in how they feel about money: 77% report less financial anxiety, and 72% feel more in control of their finances overall.
Average usage runs about $94 per transaction, with most users making three to four withdrawals per month. The top spending categories are rent, bills, fuel, and prescriptions, which are essential costs, not impulse purchases. Earned Wage Access For Hourly Workers has been studied widely, but the same financial pressures apply to salaried staff navigating fixed monthly expenses on a biweekly pay schedule.
Why Employers Can’t Afford to Ignore This
Right now, only about 10% of U.S. employers offer EWA as a workplace benefit. Meanwhile, 60% of workers say they want direct daily access to their earned wages, and 70% of middle-market companies are either already offering EWA or actively planning to. That gap between what workers want and what most employers currently provide represents a real competitive disadvantage for organizations that haven’t made the move.
Talent retention adds another layer. Market research surveys from 2024 to 2025 show that 84% of Millennials and 87% of Gen Z workers actively prefer employers that offer same-day pay options. These aren’t fringe preferences. They’re increasingly a factor in where skilled workers choose to work and how long they stay. On Demand Pay In Modern Payroll is reshaping how organizations approach compensation design, and EWA is moving from a nice-to-have to a baseline expectation for workers at all levels.
Earned Wage Access Options For Hourly Employees are expanding, and the best platforms now serve salaried employees with equal flexibility. Companies that limit EWA to a single workforce segment are underutilizing a benefit that could serve their entire team.
Whether your team is mostly hourly, mostly salaried, or a mix of both, see how Rellevate’s Pay-Any-Day works for your workforce and give every employee fee-free access to wages they’ve already earned.
Conclusion
The hourly vs. salaried divide in EWA adoption is more myth than reality. Research consistently shows workers at every income level using earned wage access for practical, essential purposes. Salaried employees face the same cash flow timing challenges as hourly workers, and they’re just as interested in EWA once they know it’s available. For employers, that means the opportunity isn’t limited to a single segment of their workforce. Offering EWA broadly, to everyone, is what turns a good benefit into a genuinely useful one.
Sources
Evans School of Public Policy & Governance, University of Washington. “Earned Wage Access Financial Services” (2025) [evans.uw]
YouGov survey of American workers (2025) [assets.ctfassets]
Market research surveys cited in HR Executive and industry reports (2024-2025) [consumerfinance]
UC Davis study “Impacts of Earned Wage Access” (2025) [paymentsdive]
Citizens Bank Corporate Finance insights (2021) [fintechcouncil]
North America Earned Wage Access Market analysis (2025) [yougov]
