When Gennaro and Carmela Sbarro first came to Brooklyn from Naples, Italy in the 1950’s, they wanted to bring a little of the old country with them. So, they opened an Italian grocery store in the Italian-American enclave of Bensonhurst and, naturally, called it Sbarro’s. The fresh meats and cheeses, sandwiches, pastas and other Italian delicacies sold well enough for them to move into the King’s Plaza Mall where the Sbarro pizza by the slice made its debut.

There are now nearly 350 Sbarro restaurants spread across the country in malls, airports, travel centers, casinos and convenience stores, and nearly 650 Sbarro locations worldwide. And while the food they make is unapologetically old school, the company is financially empowering their employees with technology like on-demand payments.

“People's lives have changed since the bi-weekly pay period was set up and there's different needs that come at different times. Workers should be able to do what they want with their money, when they want,” says Rohan Shearer, SVP and Chief Administrative Officer at Sbarro. The company recently partnered with DailyPay to give Sbarro’s American workforce the ability to access wages they’ve already earned, and Shearer has already seen the transformative potential of this new wave of financial empowerment.

“One of our employees used the app to pay a bill which fell in between our biweekly pay days. Another used it to get some extra cash for the week for coffee and gas. And then another really wanted to go to a concert and they were afraid that the tickets would sell out by the time payday came,” he says. “I love that people are thinking about ways to use this benefit that fit into their lifestyle.”

So how exactly does DailyPay work? Put simply, the platform lets workers withdraw money they’ve earned in between pay periods, empowering them to take ownership of their financial life without waiting for the 1st and the 15th. And by working with Visa Direct through their financial institution, they’re able to provide millions of workers the power of choice and control over their earned pay by taking advantage of Visa’s industry-leading financial network.

“The technology exists to get you access to it as you earn it and as you need it. Why is it that you have to wait two weeks to get access to your money? There are these rules that people have been following for years that really don't need to exist anymore,” says Jeanniey Walden, Global Chief Innovation & Marketing Officer at DailyPay. Walden calls those outdated edicts “invisible rules” that create unnecessary financial barriers for workers and businesses. DailyPay is attempting to rewrite those rules by getting money into the hands of employees quickly while simultaneously helping businesses attract and retain labor. “DailyPay’s mission is really aimed at looking at the entire financial system and shattering these invisible rules around money,” Ms. Walden says.

Getting paid with more flexibility may not seem like a revolutionary development on its own, but Walden points to the fact that costs don’t adhere to a biweekly schedule. Cars break down, utility bills come due, school expenses pop up. In short, life happens in the time between paychecks. “For the people living paycheck to paycheck, not being able to access money can snowball,” says Ms. Walden. “We’re putting money back in people's pockets that they would otherwise spend on late fees, overdraft fees, high credit card interest fees, and predatory payday loans.”

But DailyPay isn’t just empowering workers who need emergency access to money, they’re also helping workers use their money when they want to for everything from concert tickets and vacations to new educational opportunities. That means that workers are empowered to make their own decisions with their own money on their own schedules, rather than waiting around for an arbitrary payday.

The apps and platforms providing financial empowerment to workers can’t do it alone, though. They need to have a new, stable and secure architecture that allows money to flow from employers to their employees, a vital role that companies like TabaPay fill. “Moving money efficiently is extremely complex and Fintechs need reliable partners to orchestrate payout flows. Clients in EWA and other industries are building amazing financial experiences for their customers utilizing our platform for real-time payouts¹,” says Jason Tinder, head of marketing at TabaPay.

TabaPay serves a dual purpose for businesses distributing payouts and accepting payments. They enable a seamless flow of money among customers, businesses, and employees, which is why they are an important part of the infrastructure when it comes to financially empowering workers. Mr. Tinder likens TabaPay’s role to a financial train station, and Visa as one of the most important train lines making stops there. “We're effectively a hub with a bunch of spokes,” he says. “And the rails that we have coming out of our train station are things like Visa Direct which helps our clients move money to their customers.”

And thanks to DailyPay, TabaPay and Visa Direct, the cars leaving the station are traveling at bullet-train speeds. If an Earned Wage Access (EWA) provider⁶, uses traditional ACH payments to send their employees money, they often won’t see their cash for several days, a problem that can be exacerbated during holiday weekends. That can be especially painful for hourly employees who have earned wages but need a portion of their wages quickly for gas or other unexpected expenses, reflecting a gap that has traditionally been filled by predatory payday lenders who can charge exorbitant fees to those in need.

Instead, TabaPay helps platforms like DailyPay get the money that workers have already earned in their bank accounts quickly. Workers often prefer to get money sent directly on an eligible debit card, which means they don’t have to memorize their checking account and routing number to get access to their money. Employers offering EWA benefits have also seen employee satisfaction rise while simultaneously improving their bottom lines thanks to reduced turnover. It’s a dual benefit that Mr. Tinder describes as a win-win for workers, especially. “This transformation is about creating a future where people can break the cycle of negative financial outcomes and build better futures with money they have already earned,” he says. TabaPay is a vital piece of this financial empowerment network, and gives workers, employers, and technology companies the tools to create a world where people get paid for the work they’ve done quickly.

When it comes to mapping the constant need for money, Visa Direct is at the center of the map. It provides a single connection that facilitates the flow of money between employers and workers with flexibility and speed. That means that money can move quickly between parties, whether it’s hourly employees using an earned waged access platform like DailyPay to access a portion of their wages between paychecks, a gig worker accessing earnings in-app at the end of a shift, or a freelancer getting paid quickly for their hard work.

Speed is what makes the Visa Direct network so powerful, and it’s that velocity that can mean all the difference for workers around the world giving them timely access to money they have already earned. “If you look at the statistics, a lot of people are living paycheck to paycheck⁷. So getting faster access to funds so that you can pay a bill, buy food, put gas in your car—it’s really important,” says Mike West, Vice President and Head of Global Commercialization for Visa Direct.

West also knows that speed and reliability are increasingly important as people embrace side hustles and the gig economy to make extra money. Projections show that there might even be more freelancers and gig workers⁸ than full-time employees in the United States in the coming years, a development that will require a paradigm shift in how money moves around the world. “For global companies, payments are a problem you need to solve in every market. But payments ecosystems in general are hyper local,” says Nicole Stiller, VP of North American Product Commercialization for Visa Direct. “The reason that Visa Direct is such an incredible solution is because it's a consistent user experience that lets people enter a debit card number and get paid out in real-time³ in over 180 countries.”

There’s also been a marked shift in consumer expectations for how fast money moves between businesses and individuals. P2P apps have gotten individuals used to fast money movement, and Visa Direct is helping to facilitate that same transformation for worker payments. “There's no reason why people should be waiting two weeks for their money,” says Mr. West.

At either end of every payment journey, there are two people. It’s humans that drive the constant flow of money from neighbor to neighbor, city to city, and country to country. And as the needs of those people evolve, solutions will have to innovate and adapt. Biweekly paychecks are already on their way out, and Visa has their eyes set on what’s coming next.

One almost certain evolution will be broader choices for workers—not only in where they work but how they get paid. “Workers need their money fast but they also need choices,” says Mrs. Stiller. “Do they want it to go to a Visa debit card? Do they want it to go to an account? Do they want it to go to a wallet? We’re building the infrastructure and investing into expanding our network to reach a diversity of endpoints that reflect preferences.”

As those workers feel more empowered to get paid on their own schedule, businesses will need turnkey solutions that help them pay a globalized workforce on a local scale. The payment stack that facilitates flows from businesses to employees will continue to gain inertia and importance, with solution providers like DailyPay and Tabapay playing increasingly vital roles. Visa Direct is helping provide the infrastructure for those nodes to grow on, giving a global network of businesses, payment providers, and acquirers the rails they need to succeed.