Committee hears industry witnesses on House Bill 152 to regulate earned-wage access providers

The House Commerce and Labor Committee held a second hearing on House Bill 152 and heard proponent testimony from representatives of two earned-wage access providers.

Elise Hicks, senior manager of public policy at DailyPay LLC, described DailyPay as an employer-integrated earned-wage access (EWA) provider with more than 4.4 million national users and said the company serves roughly 675 Ohio employers and about 194,000 Ohio workers. Hicks said HB152 would create a registration and consumer-protection framework that preserves a free option for access, prohibits credit checks as a condition of use, and requires strong disclosures. She and other witnesses told members that EWA gives workers access to wages already earned and can be an alternative to high-cost short-term credit.

Andrew Herff, testifying for EarnIn and as a representative of EarnN/Schumacher Advisors, said HB152 codifies an activity that already exists and would provide the state with a registration mechanism and guardrails. He said EarnIn’s direct-to-consumer and employer-integrated products typically provide free ACH transfers that take one to three business days and optional instant transfers that carry a small fee; he said EarnIn’s instant fee ranges from about $2.99 to $5.99 and the firm also asks for an optional voluntary tip (average roughly $1) though tipping is not mandatory.

Committee members asked about fees, frequency of use, demographic data, consumer protections, and whether employers or EWA providers bear the risk when an employee leaves before reimbursement. Witnesses said DailyPay’s instant transfer fee typically ranges $2.99–$3.49; DailyPay described that, in its employer-integrated model, the employer remits payroll to the provider at payday and the provider absorbs nonrecourse risk if a recovered transfer cannot be matched to an active payroll record. Witnesses said the EWA industry does not generally perform consumer-credit checks and does not report nonpayment to credit bureaus; they said many transactions incur no fee when the user accepts the standard no-fee option that takes 1–3 business days.

Members asked whether consumers can use multiple EWA services at once (product stacking); witnesses acknowledged stacking can occur especially in direct-to-consumer models and said the industry and legislators have discussed remedies and education. Representatives also raised the possibility of fee caps and minimum availability periods for the no-fee transfer; witnesses said the industry would consider caps and that the bill already requires a free option but does not set a uniform timeframe for the no-fee transfer.

No committee vote on HB152 occurred during this hearing. The committee received written testimony and concluded the second hearing with the sponsor and witnesses available for questions.