For employers
Earned-wage access for employers, built for how you actually pay people.
Give your hourly, shift and salaried staff the wages they've already earned before payday. They draw up to a cap you set, it's recovered automatically from the next payslip, and it layers on the payroll you already run. No fee to them.
The short version
Earned-wage access lets staff reach a share of pay they've already earned before payday. With Wagecrew, you set the cap and the pay periods, workers draw wages they've already earned, and every draw comes back in one deduction file at payroll. It's a retention benefit that costs your team nothing to use; on your side, cash to fund draws leaves earlier in the month and is recovered at payroll.
The problem you already have
Weekly-paid teams feel the gap when payday moves away
Staff retention is hardest where the work is variable and payday feels a long way off. When someone can't reach money they've already earned, they pick up work somewhere that pays sooner, or they leave. The cost lands on you as unfilled shifts, agency cover and the price of hiring again.
The payday gap
A worker earns on Monday but waits weeks to be paid. When money is tight, that gap is where people go looking elsewhere.
The cost of backfilling
Every leaver means a gap to cover, often with agency shifts at a premium, then the time and spend of hiring and training a replacement.
The move to monthly
Moving from weekly to monthly pay runs saves on processing, but staff feel the longer wait first. Earned-wage access keeps the weekly-pay feel on a monthly run.
Why Wagecrew
Built for the hard parts of payroll, not retrofitted to them
Most earned-wage access platforms were built for large, salaried workforces paid monthly. Wagecrew was built the other way round. Designed from the ground up for variable hours, shift workers and agency timesheets, it works just as seamlessly for salaried employees too.
Variable hours and agency timesheets
Available pay updates from approved shifts and timesheets, so it works for hourly, shift, zero-hours and agency staff, not just fixed salaries. Pay only becomes available once the hours behind it have been approved.
Your team reaches their own already-earned pay
There's no per-draw fee, no expedite charge and no subscription for your workers - no fees whatsoever. They draw wages they've already earned.
No payroll migration
Wagecrew layers on top of the stack you already run, connecting to Ubeya timesheets, FreshPay FPS payroll, BACS and Xero. You don't move payroll provider to switch it on. See the integrations
Every advance checked against real payroll
The Payroll Verifier reads your payroll FPS file and scores each worker before a run is approved, with advance recovery as the hard check. That pre-approval reconciliation is core to how Wagecrew is built.
No single feature here is unique to Wagecrew. Some EWA providers don't charge workers, while others integrate without requiring a payroll migration. What sets Wagecrew apart is the combination: no worker fees, no payroll migration, a reconciliation engine and employer-controlled settings, all built to handle variable hours, agency timesheets and salaried employees with equal ease.
You set the rules
Configure it to your payroll, not the other way round
Every control sits with you. Tighten or loosen it as your cash flow needs, for hourly, shift and salaried staff alike.
- Withdrawal cap. A percentage of gross you choose, never above wages already earned.
- Frequency and minimum. How many withdrawals per period, and the minimum draw - both set by you.
- Pay-period shape. Weekly, fortnightly or monthly, on any start day.
- One file at payroll. A deduction file nets every draw against the next payslip - just the amount drawn, nothing added.
What you control
Employer settingsThe mechanics
Real money, checked against real payroll
Advances reach workers' own bank accounts, paid by Faster Payments - typically within seconds. Before any run is approved, the Payroll Verifier checks every advance against your live payroll, so nothing is released against pay that hasn't been earned.
What it does for your business
A benefit built around how your team is actually paid
Earned-wage access sits alongside your other employee benefits, and it speaks to something staff feel on a normal week: the wait for payday. It's a practical piece of financial wellbeing support tied to pay they have already earned.
Staff retention
When earned pay is out of reach between paydays, people go looking for work that pays sooner. Wagecrew lets them draw what they've already earned, when they need it.
Employee benefits in the UK
A benefits portal is easy to set up and easy to forget. Earned-wage access speaks to something your team notices on a normal week: the wait for payday.
Employee financial wellbeing
Reaching earned pay before payday can ease a tight week without a payday loan or an overdraft. We describe it plainly and don't sell it as a fix for wider financial difficulty.
We won't put a turnover percentage on this page that we can't stand behind. The buyer's own cost is real, though: CIPD's 2024 Resourcing and Talent Planning survey puts the median cost per hire alone at £1,500 (other employees) to £2,000 (senior roles) - before vacancy cover, training and lost output. Run your own numbers before you weigh it: our guide to calculating staff turnover sets out the formula, the denominator choices and a cost model you can evidence from your own invoices.
The honest trade-off
What it asks of your cash flow
Earned wages go out before payday from your own payroll float, and those amounts are automatically recovered through payroll a few days later. That's a brief intra-month cash-flow shift - we don't claim it has no impact on your cash flow. For many employers it's a worthwhile investment in supporting their people and strengthening retention.
Trust & compliance
Built carefully, because it's money
Loan or credit?
Workers access wages they've already earned, by manual request, recovered at payroll. Not a loan and not credit.
Credit score
No credit check, and no credit-score impact for this model. Stated as fact, not sold as a protection.
Secure by design
Magic-link sign-in for workers and TOTP two-factor for admins, built to the standard you'd expect of a platform that moves money. More on security
On regulation we state our posture plainly and don't over-claim. How we keep money and data safe
FAQ
Employer questions, answered honestly
The model
What does earned-wage access cost my team?
Does it replace our payroll?
Is it a loan or credit?
Control
What do we get to control?
How do we know we are only paying against real hours?
Cash flow
What does it ask of our cash flow?
Does it create a minimum-wage risk?
Keep reading
Where to go next
Compare UK providers
Who charges the worker, who funds the advance and who sets the cap, across the UK field.
A Wagestream alternative
How Wagecrew compares for UK teams, on the two differences that matter.
Payroll integrations
The rota and payroll systems Wagecrew connects to in production, with no migration.
For hospitality
Earned-wage access for kitchen, floor and event teams.
For recruitment agencies
Keep temp and zero-hours workers whole between runs.
For care providers
Help care and support staff reach earned pay on tight margins.
Further reading: the questions to ask an earned-wage access provider, Acas on employee engagement, GOV.UK on National Minimum Wage rates.
Request a demo
See the worker app, your controls and the payroll file.
One short call, tailored to how you pay your team.