If you would like to opt out of earned-wage access (EWA), you can turn off EWA for your own EH Work account by following the steps below. This article also explains how Earned Wage Access can be disabled across an entire organisation, for employers and managers.
Important
The step-by-step instructions below turn off Earned Wage Access for your individual EH Work account only — they do not disable EWA across your whole organisation.
If you're an employer or manager looking to disable Earned Wage Access organisation-wide, see the "Can I disable Earned Wage Access for my whole organisation?" section below.
- Log into the EH Work app.
- Tap on the Money icon.
- Tap on Support along the top bar.
- Tap on Financial wellness and support.
- Scroll down to Manage your wage access settings.
- On the pop-up, tap Disable.
- Earned-wage access will now be disabled on your account.
If you would like to request that Earned Wage Access is disabled for your organisation, please contact our Customer Care team. Our team will discuss your concerns with you and review your request.
How Earned Wage Access works
Earned Wage Access allows employees to access a portion of their already-earned, unpaid net wages before their regular payday. It is not a loan — there is no credit, interest, or impact on credit scores involved.
- Employees can access up to 50% of their unpaid net pay. This is a maximum limit, not a guaranteed amount — the final calculation accounts for all standard deductions such as tax, leave, and pre-existing withholdings.
- There is a weekly withdrawal cap of $1,000 (Monday to Sunday).
- A variable administration fee is charged to the employee per transaction — 1.5% to an external bank account, or 1.3% to a Swag Spend Account. This fee is transparently displayed to the employee before each request is submitted.
- There are no costs to employers for providing EWA. Employment Hero funds the advance directly to the employee on behalf of the employer.
How EWA works with payroll
When an employee accesses EWA, a post-tax deduction is automatically created on their payroll record for the requested amount plus the variable fee. This deduction is automatically included in the next pay run — no additional or manual admin is required. The total amount debited from your organisation on payday remains the same; it is simply split between the employee and Employment Hero.
Safeguards in place
Employees must meet eligibility criteria before they can use EWA. These include:
- Being employed by an active HR and/or Payroll-connected organisation.
- Having been paid in at least two consecutive pay runs.
- Being in the arrears portion of their current pay period — only wages already worked are accessible.
- Not having an upcoming termination or offboarding date recorded in the platform.
The system also factors in leave, timesheets, and other existing deductions when calculating the available balance, provided these have been entered into Employment Hero in a timely manner.
Reporting and visibility
You can monitor EWA activity across your organisation at any time:
- HR Platform: Navigate to Benefits & Perks → Earned Wage Access Overview.
- Payroll Platform: Go to an individual employee's Pay Run Inclusions, or run a Pay Run Inclusions Report for your full organisation.
A one-off email notification is also sent to your payroll administrator the first time an employee in your organisation uses EWA.
Further reading
Helpful Hint
If you would like to learn more about financial literacy, please click on this link.