Mekari Flex Presents "Earned Wage Access" Feature, Facilitates Early Salary Disbursement

In accordance with its commitment to holistically support employee welfare, the developer of SaaS services for Mekari's business presents the Earned Wage Access (EWA) feature that allows employees to disburse their salaries early through the product. Mekari Flex.

Launched in 2020, Mekari Flex is a digital platform that is integrated with the Human Resources Information System (HRIS), enabling various types of companies to manage benefits more flexible employees without incurring large costs.

Through the EWA feature, employees from companies that use technology from Mekari can make salary disbursements before the period payroll. Employees can also manage their finances more flexibly, without incurring interest and complicated procedures. Later on, the salary that is accessed earlier will be deducted from the salary in the current month, so the company does not need to allocate a special budget.

The EWA disbursement process is also easy, namely through the Mekari Flex application which is available for iOS and Android. Employees can apply for salary disbursement at any time independently without burdening the HR team. The process of sending funds only takes a matter of minutes. In addition, employees can also use their EWA portion to pay for credit, data packages, electricity bills, etc., directly from the Mekari Flex application.

“Offering various benefits without any additional cost, Earned Wage Access from Mekari Flex is a digital solution for companies that want to improve employee welfare, productivity, and loyalty," said Mekari's Director of Financial Services Jansen Jumino.

Through this new feature, Mekari hopes not only to help client companies to increase motivation and keep employees away from stress, but also to support their emergency needs without burdening the company's cash flow. By disbursing salary before the period payroll, employees can manage their finances more flexibly, without incurring interest and complicated procedures.

“As a SaaS that bridges companies and employees, Mekari's EWA feature is the solution win-win which is expected to provide flexibility for both parties,” said Jansen.

Mekari's business growth

In the last 12 months, Mekari claims to have recorded a 12x increase in Gross Merchandise Value (GMV). The number of users who transact actively reach tens of thousands, with a total transaction of hundreds of thousands. Through a fully automated system, Mekari claims to be able to improve efficiency and productivity in various aspects of the company, such as human resources, accounting, taxes, employee benefits, internal communications, and customer relations.

Going forward, Mekari is committed to continuing to support employee welfare holistically - from physical, mental to financial health - with a flexible benefit platform and comprehensive features that are tailored to the needs of employees.

During the pandemic Mekari also recorded positive growth. Mekari noted that users with more than 500 employees grew significantly. They use cloud HR products which are very helpful when adapting to the Covid-19 situation and compliance with new rules such as PPh 21 borne by the government (DTP).

It is recorded that in the last 3 years Mekari has fully acquired three SaaS startups, namely Talenta, Jurnal, and KlikPajak in April 2019. Then each service was consolidated into one platform, enabling Mekari to attract target users from various business scales.

EWA concept in Indonesia

Some interpret the abbreviation of EWA as early wage access. There are also those who use other terms such as, on-demand pay, instant pay, daily pay benefits, or earned income access. But all the names refer to solutions that do the same basic thing: help employees access the wages they've earned before payday arrives.

Global survey conducted PwC in 2019 found that 67% of workers reported struggling with financial stress, meaning that more than two thirds of the working population are prone to migraines, depression and anxiety. Many studies highlight the effects of employee financial stress on business performance.

While many employers provide employee loans (such as cash), they are actually only locking in valuable cash flow and are not yet able to provide employees with flexibility and instant solutions. For example, lower-class workers who have to struggle with unstable incomes or expenses for a variety of reasons, including unexpected or increased bills and fluctuating working hours.

For employers, the EWA program allows employees to access a portion of their paycheck in advance, helping them to time align their earnings with expected or unexpected expenses to avoid late fees or penalties.

The acceptance of the EWA concept in developed countries, inspires companies fintech from developing countries to attend. Because, generally in developing countries, where low-wage workers often turn to fast loans with high interest rates to keep their sudden expenses in check before payday arrives. Apart from Mekari, several services have offered similar solutions including GajiGesa, wagely, Gigacover, and GajiKoin carried by KoinWorks.