The salary app that's changing our preconceptions of payday

EVER think about how often you get paid? Many of us are used to monthly, but in the US it’s typically every two weeks.

- Naomi Ackerman

Until the 1970s British workers were often paid at the end of the working week. Monthly paydays only became the norm as banking infrastructure evolved and processing fees hit.

Wagestream is a rapidly growing fintech that lets staff access their already earned salaries at any time in the month. Employers pay for the platform, which lets staff draw up to 50% of their salary early for a fee of £1.75.

Peter Briffett and co-founder Portman Wills launched the start-up in 2018 after both reading the same article about Walmart examining whether flexible pay would drive staff retention. They had never met but were introduced by a mutual contact. “It took about five minutes” to decide to team up, Briffett says.

“We just thought this was an awesome concept and that literally everyone was going to want. We thought there would be a massive queue of CEOs out the door.”

The queue didn’t form immediately.