Uphold Debuts Early Payday as Workers Seek Wages Sooner

On-chain finance company Uphold has introduced an early payday service for U.S. customers.

Beginning Tuesday (Feb. 10), customers who use Uphold for direct deposit can access their paychecks up to two days early, the company said in a news release.

“At Uphold, we believe you shouldn’t have to wait for the money you’ve already earned,” said Nancy Beaton, president of Uphold U.S. “Our goal is to make your money work harder for you. By combining early access with industry-leading rewards, we’re helping our users get the most out of every dollar.”

According to the release, the service is available now to all U.S. customers who deposit all or a portion of their paycheck into their Uphold account. Users will be notified as soon as their funds are available for use.

The new offering comes at a time when faster payments are increasingly helping to determine how workers view employers.

Speaking during a recent installment of the Wage to Wallet podcast, PYMNTS CEO Karen Webster contended that today’s definition of a “good job” includes speed of pay, a criterion that would have once seemed marginal but now ranks alongside wages and flexibility.

She was joined on the podcast by Ingo Payments CEO Drew Edwards and WorkWhile COO Simon Khalaf, who said jobs that do not provide that clarity increasingly go unfilled, even those providing comparable wages.

He said the shift can be seen on his company’s platform, where instant or real-time pay has reached 91% penetration and is still rising.

Edwards included some context for how transactional workers should be understood, saying that many of them choose these out of necessity rather than preference.

“They’re not doing these jobs because they grew up with a passion to be a landscaper or to work in a warehouse,” he said. “They’re living paycheck to paycheck … trying to make all that work in an increasingly tight market.”

PYMNTS Intelligence data shows what Webster described as a “mirror image economy,” with salaried workers growing more optimistic while hourly workers show increased pessimism, despite strong job security.

A lot of this instability comes from payroll, with Khalaf described paychecks as a “4,700-year-old construct,” with modern payroll’s roots stretching back to ancient Mesopotamia.

“We are still waiting two weeks to get paid,” Khalaf said, comparing that delay with capital markets where settlement occurs in seconds.