Square is letting some small business employees get a portion of their earned wages ahead of time. The payments company also announced an “instant payments” feature, which lets businesses fund payroll immediately using money in their Square balance. Both products push users towards direct deposit through the Cash App, which has taken off as customers use it more like a bank account this year amid the pandemic.
“It’s much easier to use Cash App versus having to go and look up your account and routing number information,” Hollis said. “You get paid sooner if you pay out via Cash App -- we’re able to do that because we own both sides of the transaction.”