Salary Finance Partners with Equifax to Help Employers Provide US Workers with Targeted Financial Benefits

By Staff Writer Atlanta Trend

• Aug 18, 2021

Salary Finance, the leading global provider of financial education and salary-linked benefits for employees, has announced that it has partnered with Equifax, to provide employers with anonymized and aggregated data on the financial health of their employees. This unique data can help organizations identify the segments of workers experiencing financial stress and design more effective financial wellness benefits programs.

"Equifax is truly excited about the opportunity to partner with Salary Finance," said Assad Lazarus, Senior Vice President and General Manager of Equifax Employee Benefits Services, "it will be a great avenue to help consumers live their financial best."

Even before the COVID-19 pandemic and resulting economic downturn, more than 40 percent of Americans were experiencing financial stress and nearly one-third were living paycheck to paycheck. Add it all up and financial stress is costing companies 13 to 18 percent of annual salary cost, Anita Ward, Chief Development Officer, Salary Finance said. Using Equifax datasets, Salary Finance will be able to deliver valuable insights to the employers we are working with to help those organizations decide how best to add to or enhance their financial well-being initiatives and determine where to prioritize their resources.

Salary Finance works alongside employers to support financial well-being via salary-linked loans and savings products. Through Salary Finance, employers can offer employees alternatives to high-risk borrowing with programs that offer lower interest rates than traditional lenders and ensure employees dont borrow more than they can afford to pay back.

"At the root of social injustice lies economic injustice," said Ward, "but with Equifax, we can use data for a social good. We can work toward financial inclusion via a non-predatory product."

During these unprecedented times, we believe this partnership can help deliver the data and programs employers need to help ease the financial stress of their employees, now and in the future said Lazarus.

In its recent survey of nearly 3,000 US workers, Salary Finance found that salary-linked savings and access to affordable credit are two of the most desired benefits not typically offered by companies. The survey data found that more than half of employees under the age of 44 would find it valuable if their employer provided access to affordable credit like salary-linked, low-cost employee loans.

Founded in 2015, Salary Finance is an award-winning organization that partners with employers to offer financial wellness solutions that help employees improve their lives by improving their finances. A company underpinned by a social purpose, were driven by an ambitious mission in the US: to help 10 million Americans out of debt and into savings. Salary Finance is a United Way Worldwide corporate partner and works with over 500 of the worlds leading employers.