Earned Wage Payday Loans Compound the Affordability Problem

February 10, 2026 — Press Release

With Apps Taking $300/year or more from Workers, Lawmakers Should Reject Bills Removing Protections for Active Duty Service Members and Preempting State Payday Loan Laws 

WASHINGTON – Payday loan apps, often misleadingly called “earned wage access,” take $300 a year or more from people struggling to make ends meet. The apps exacerbate affordability problems, leaving people with depleted paychecks, trapped in a vicious cycle of reborrowing, with more overdraft fees. Yet Congress is considering a bill to exempt payday loan apps from the Military Lending Act’s 36% rate cap for service members and to preempt state payday loan rate caps and laws. States are considering similar bills. 

“Annual percentage rate limits or low, comprehensive monthly fee caps are the only way to prevent unaffordable fees that trap borrowers in debt,” said Lauren Saunders, director of federal advocacy at the National Consumer Law Center. “The vague disclosures and weak protections Congress and states are considering will do nothing to stop escalating payday loan app fees that exacerbate the affordability crisis.” 

A new issue brief highlights data showing how payday loan apps hurt, not help, with the affordability crisis:

• 90% of earned wage payday loans have fees and borrowers face manipulations that multiply fees. 
• DailyPay promotes a $0 price tag for employers but boasts to investors that it extracts $300+ a year from low-wage workers. Some pay as much as $700 a year. 80% of DailyPay’s revenue comes from workers who took out over 100 loans a year with many averaging a loan every two days.
• MoneyLion limits loan size, forcing workers to take out multiple loans with multiple fees within minutes of each other. 
• EarnIn required users to make 14 additional clicks and suffer through 17 messages about why they need to tip in order to get an advance without a fee.
• The apps increase overdraft fees and payday loans, and loan stacking is common.

Without the important consumer protections in the Military Lending Act, along with state limits and the APR disclosures that apply to high-fee loans, fees could escalate even higher, and payday lenders will adapt and become “earned wage access.” 

“Congress should oppose this national payday loan law, and states should stand up for their residents and stop payday loan apps from forcing them to pay to be paid,” said Saunders. 

Related Resources

• Picking Workers’ Pockets: Unfair, Deceptive and Abusive Practices by Earned Wage Payday Lenders, Jan. 12, 2026
• MoneyLion’s Costly “0% APR” “Earned Wage” Payday Loans, May 22, 2025
• DailyPay Extracts Hundreds of Dollars From Low-Wage Workers’ Pay, May 8, 2025
• The Tricks Cash Advance Apps Use to Coerce Borrowers to “Tip”, Apr. 23, 2025
• Data on Earned Wage Advances and Fintech Payday Loan “Tips” Show High Costs for Low-Wage Workers, Apr. 10, 2023