Marqeta, the global modern card issuing platform, announced that it has been selected by WorkWhile to power accelerated wage access to its workers. Through a debit card, WorkWhile workers can access their wages as soon as their shift hours are approved, helping to significantly reduce their need for credit and improving their financial well-being. Instead of waiting for a weekly paycheck or long digital transfers to arrive, workers will have faster-than-ever access to their earnings. The companies are working together closely to make the cards available to WorkWhile workers in 2023.

“We have been a worker-first company since our inception, and the financial well-being of our workers has always been a top priority,” said Jarah Euston, CEO and Co-Founder of WorkWhile. “Getting workers faster access to their earnings has always been a core value of the WorkWhile platform. By offering this new card, in partnership with Marqeta, we are able to give workers instant access to their earnings—significantly enhancing their lives and improving their financial peace of mind.”

The WorkWhile platform helps hourly workers connect to open shifts in 17 states across the United States today. The platform allows workers to choose when, where, and how they want to work, along with benefits such as faster access to pay, free virtual healthcare services, and complete pay transparency.

Launching today, WorkWhile’s third-annual flexible worker survey shows that flex work continues to remain popular with workers. The majority of surveyed workers, 73%, said that flexible work pays at least as much, or more, than traditional work. When asked about their earnings, 63% of workers reported that more than half their income comes from flexible work, while one in three respondents said that over 75% of their annual income comes from flexible work—reinforcing the value of faster-than-ever access to their earnings. Only 8% of surveyed workers said they prefer traditional work to flexible work.

“Over half of all wage and salary workers in the US are paid hourly, and a potential credit crunch will most likely hit them the most,” said Simon Khalaf, CEO at Marqeta. “We are honored to work with WorkWhile to power a new debit card that will give its workers accelerated access to their wages. It is exciting to see that our continued innovation in embedded finance can make such a positive impact on the financial health of hourly workers.”

Alongside powering WorkWhile’s new debit card, Marqeta’s platform will allow WorkWhile workers to tokenize their card instantly into a mobile wallet, and the company will handle KYC onboarding of cardholders, as well as disputes. The Marqeta platform powers accelerated wage access through debit cards, allowing its customers to also add in money movement and financial services offerings for their cardholders and deliver complete embedded finance solutions. Accelerated access to earnings, as well as a debit card, will provide workers with tools to pay for essential expenses and unexpected costs without incurring debt. Through the possibilities opened up by new modern payment technologies, the old-fashioned two-week pay cycle can become a thing of the past. The company has seen rapid adoption of accelerated wage access, with growth in volumes growing 100% quarter-over-quarter from Q3 2022 to Q4 2022.

About Marqeta

Marqeta’s modern card issuing platform empowers its customers to create customized and innovative payment cards. Marqeta’s platform, powered by open APIs, gives its customers the ability to build more configurable and flexible payment experiences, accelerating product development and democratizing access to card issuing technology. Its modern architecture provides instant access to highly scalable, cloud-based payment infrastructure that enables customers to launch and manage their own card programs, issue cards and authorize and settle transactions. Marqeta is headquartered in Oakland, California and is certified to operate in 40 countries globally.

About WorkWhile

WorkWhile is an hourly labor marketplace that optimizes flexibility and control for our business partners and stability for our workers. We use behavioral analysis, peer feedback, and powerful machine learning models to help identify the most reliable hourly workers and support them with perks not often available at traditional hourly wage jobs. Businesses get access to a quality workforce, while workers earn stable incomes and unmatched perks & benefits.

WorkWhile is available in 17 states and the District of Columbia: Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Maryland, New Jersey, Nevada, New York, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, Washington, and Washington, D.C.