GetPaid’s Ambition to Healthy Employees’ Finances with Early Salary Access

GetPaid has also enlivened the startup earned wage access (EWA) in Indonesia, which has a myriad of problems, especially the payroll system, which is an issue for most workers.

According to BPS data, around 129 million workers face financial stress and difficulties caused by irregular cash flows, monthly payment schedules, unexpected expenses, and limited access to finance.

The issues above make them finally “run” to borrow money from unofficial institutions, which often charge high-interest rates and tense collections.

GetPaid was founded in 2020 by Mitchell Goh and Ian Goh. Mitchell, who started his professional career as a social worker, then continued to work on employee benefits and finances.

From there, he saw that most employees do not have financial methods that can help them if there is an unforeseen need.

After one year, GetPaid has spread its wings to Indonesia since September 2021 and appointed Joses Tjohjono as the regional head, Managing Director of GetPaid Indonesia. Like other EWA startups, GetPaid is focused on providing employees with early access to paychecks.

The company does not position itself as a lending company because there is no time frame for payments, interest fees, or late fees. Only a flat fee per transaction that employees pay when they want to access the wages they earn.

“GetPaid will only charge when an employee makes a withdrawal. Comparing GetPaid with other EWA companies, we will be more flexible and provide transaction fee options for the convenience of the company/employee,” said Joses.

Three Options GetPaid Offers

Going further, GetPaid provides three cost options. First, at 4% per transaction, then Rp. 36 thousand per transaction, and a subscription of Rp. 72 thousand per month.

This fee is charged when you make a withdrawal for the first time and there will be no more discount fees if you make a transaction in the same month. Salary access will be granted if the company registers their employees who are entitled to such access through GetPaid.

Next, employees can open and access the GetPaid application to withdraw salaries. Each employee has a withdrawal limit and a salary calculation allocation that can be withdrawn.

Take for example, employees who have worked in 10 days, can only access their 10 days salary/withdrawal limit. Joses said, the company recommends access to a limit of 50-80% of the total salary so that employees still get the remaining salary on the due date.

“And the funds obtained are directly from GetPaid. Then the company (employee) will pay back to GetPaid on the company’s pay date.”

Joses did not specify the specific target users of GetPaid. He just said he was targeting all employees registered with the company to use the GetPaid facility.

As of now, the solution has been used by 20 companies. “We are targeting 50-100 companies to join us this year.”

The company’s expansion will be supported by the initial funding of $1.15 million (approximately IDR16.4 billion) obtained in January from Grovey Pay and Nityo Infotech Service. This investment allows GetPaid to scale up and expand EWA’s products to other countries in Southeast Asia.

Push To Reduce Consumer Loans

Joses continued, the spirit that GetPaid wants to convey is to reduce people’s dependence on consumer loans which are considered detrimental because of the high-interest rates. This condition is true.

Money is the main source of stress in Indonesia, according to the Health Living Index study by AIA. Household finances cause more stress than relationships, work, or even physical health.

Another global survey conducted by PwC in 2019 found that 67% of workers reported struggling with financial stress, meaning more than two-thirds of the working population are prone to migraines, depression and anxiety.