Will we see more Pay cards??
After a customer requested information from me on implementing Pay cards in Oracle Payroll, I decided to look into this process more closely. Looking at information on the American Payroll Association site, there is a paper (http://legacy.americanpayroll.org/pdfs/pt5f/f1005.PDF) that has the following information:
According to the APA’s online Paycard Portal, unbanked employees—individuals
with no formal banking relationship—represent approximately 10 million households in the United States. Consulting and research firm Celent Communications reports that 10% of unbanked households were using payroll debit cards at the end of 2002. Participation is expected to increase to 25% by the end of 2006. This projection represents a significant opportunity for companies wishing to go the paperless payroll route.
Given that this paper was presented in 2005, which was well before the current economic climate, it presents a sort of premonition of the increase in numbers of unbanked employees that companies could be serving.
According to Elaine Stattler in her article for Payroll Manager's Letter ( http://www.accessmylibrary.com/coms2/summary_0286-27773491_ITM ) there are several things that should be considered when implementing Paycards:
- State Laws regarding Paycards
- Costs
- Training (including training for non-English speaking employees)
- Initial Employee Resistance
Once all of those have been addressed, this is a seemingly good solution for those employees who want quicker access to their pay and do not want to have to arrange transportation so that they can stand in line just to pick up their check and then have to arrange to have that check cashed somehow.
I was wondering how many of you have Pay cards implemented and how it works out for you. What percentage of your population takes advantage of them? Have you seen any pros or cons that you would like to share?
