South Africa’s youngest workers are reaching for their pay before payday, mostly to cover transport and food.
More than half of active users on Paymenow’s earned-wage access (EWA) platform are under 35, the South African financial-wellness company said in data released for Youth Month. Young users accounted for 53.5% of platform activity by volume and 45.7% by value in the most recent reporting period.
Small top-ups for the basics
The average youth transaction was R260, against R354 for users aged 36 to 60, consistent with EWA’s design as a top-up between paydays. Transport and food accounted for 44.6% of young users’ cash-outs: 26.2% on transport and 18.4% on food, with an additional 7.6% going to medical emergencies.
“The data paints a picture of a generation of working young South Africans using their earned wages to cover the basics: transport, putting food on the table, and dealing with unexpected medical bills,” said Denise Neethling, Head of Marketing at Paymenow. “Earned-wage access is being used in exactly the way it was designed: as a small, regular top-up between paydays that helps people manage cash flow without taking on debt.”
A young, in-app cohort
Young users also dominate spending within the app, accounting for 58.4% of airtime purchases, 58.6% of data, 64.0% of in-app transport bookings, and 51.3% of voucher activity. Older users lead on electricity (56.4%) and fuel (62.5%), reflecting a life stage with more households and cars to run.
From wage access to financial education
Under-35s completed 1,228,305 lessons in Paymenow’s in-app financial-education programme, 55.1% of all completions and more than the adult and senior cohorts combined. The most-completed modules covered credit scores, basic financial wellness, budgeting and savings.
Some 68.1% of registered young users have run a credit-score check through the app, and 2,412 young savers have set aside R1.05 million through its savings product. Paymenow has broadened from pure wage access into a wider financial-wellness platform, with budgeting tools, credit tracking and savings sitting alongside the core EWA feature.
Why it matters
Earned-wage access has spread quickly among South African employers as a payday-lending alternative, letting workers draw pay they have already earned rather than borrow against it. The appeal, in a high-inflation economy, is cash flow without new debt. It sits alongside a fast-growing set of African fintech tools, from mobile money to digital banking.
The figures are Paymenow’s own platform data rather than an independent market study, and cover only its user base. Even so, they sketch how a cohort of young workers is now managing the gaps between paydays.
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