Walmart, Huge U.S. Employer, Will Let Workers Take Pay Before Payday<br />Earlier this week, the app warned Ms. Adderley, 30, that she had only enough money to safely spend $9.08 before her next paycheck.<br />Mr. Schlossberg, 30, said he set out to create a product<br />that could reduce the stress associated with money problems, joining a crowd of other so-called fintech start-ups seeking to disrupt the traditional banking model.<br />Walmart said the new initiative is intended to help workers avoid costly payday loans<br />and other debt traps, and reduce the stress that comes with financial hardship.<br />The Even app also helps workers manage their finances by pinpointing exactly how much they can safely spend before their next paycheck.<br />At first she was suspicious, she said, that the app was yet another in a long line of financial products like payday advances and “overdraft protection”<br />that end up driving low-income workers deeper into a hole.<br />“It is a fundamental problem with the capitalistic society,” Mr. Schlossberg said in an interview.<br />“It sounds like this may be a useful service but it doesn’t tackle the fundamental problem Walmart workers<br />suffer,” said Paul Sonn, general counsel of the National Employment Law Project, a labor advocacy group.<br />Walmart executives said they learned about Even after reading a New York Times article about the firm a few years ago.<br />Before creating Even, one of the firm’s co-founders, Jon Schlossberg, had developed an app called<br />Knock, which allows phone users to unlock a Mac computer by knocking on their phone.
