Commerce committee advances bill to regulate earned-wage access providers

The House Commerce Committee on an unspecified date reported House Bill 368, authored by Representative Saint Blanc, as amended to establish statutory guardrails for consumer-directed earned-wage access (EWA) services in Louisiana.

The measure would define EWA, prohibit interest and late fees, require that EWA remain a non‑resource product, guarantee a free option for accessing earned wages and require certain disclosures and statutory compliance. Representative Newell moved to report the bill as amended; the committee adopted the amendments and reported the bill without recorded roll-call after members said, "Seeing none."

The bill’s sponsor, Representative Saint Blanc, described EWA as “a financial service that allows workers in Louisiana the ability to access their already earned wages during their payroll period.” He said the product has been available in the state for about 10 years and that the bill is meant to “provide guardrails to ensure consumer protections are in a place and the EWA businesses can operate regularly.”

Andrew Welch, government relations manager with DailyPay (an employer-integrated EWA provider), told the committee, “this is putting in guardrails and consumer protections around earned wage access,” and said the bill would allow EWA to continue as an optional employer-offered benefit while barring actors who would offer other services under the guise of EWA. Welch described DailyPay’s service and said the company offers a free payout option that generally takes one to three business days and an optional instant payout that, with DailyPay, “is about $3.49” per transaction and appears in the bank account in minutes.

Zach Drucker, government affairs manager at Earnin (a direct-to-consumer EWA provider), explained that Earnin’s product allows users to voluntarily tip; he said tipping is opt-in, "the average tip is about $1.19 and about 37% of customers have never tipped." Drucker also explained EWA products are non‑recourse, that providers do not send unpaid balances to collections and that the products do not require credit scores.

The committee adopted two amendment sets discussed in the hearing. Amendment set 2,665 made wording changes (for example, replacing "in connection with" with "solely attributable to" in one place and refining language about credit score citations). Amendment set 2,725 requires providers to submit an annual report to the Office of Financial Institutions (OFI) with specified data; the amendment directed OFI to publish aggregated data for the public.

Scott Jolley, commissioner of the Office of Financial Institutions, told the committee he had not been consulted prior to the amendment’s filing and that the amendment “is very interesting because it may have some cost, but it probably won't go over $100,000,” adding he would need to review the specifics with his staff. Jolley also cautioned that the reporting requirement should not be interpreted to mean OFI is regulating the product absent express statutory authority and noted the attorney general could use Unfair Trade Practices Act authority for enforcement in some circumstances.

Committee members asked procedural questions about whether EWA is treated like a loan (speakers repeatedly said it is not), how instant and free payout options work and whether providers report unpaid activity to credit bureaus. Witnesses said the products are designed so users cannot withdraw more than they have already earned, the free payout option typically takes one to three business days, the optional instant payout is a per-transaction fee (DailyPay cited $3.49), and providers do not report unpaid activity to consumer credit reporting agencies.

Representative Newell moved to report the bill favorably as amended; seeing no objections, the committee reported HB 368 as amended.

The bill will move to the next stage of the legislative process with the committee’s recommendation.