HR9330-119

What This Bill Does

The bill regulates providers advancing wages already earned but not yet paid, including services based on employer data or consumer information reasonably verified by the provider. A fee-based provider must offer the same advance at no cost, initiate that transfer within one business day and avoid reducing access because the consumer chose it. It must disclose access limits, fees, tips, expected repayment and cumulative pay-period and year-to-date charges. It does not impose a general dollar cap on fees or tips, and transfer initiation is not a guarantee of same-day receipt.

Who Benefits and How

Workers and contractor consumers gain cancellation without penalty, complaint procedures, privacy obligations and nondiscrimination protections. Providers cannot use ordinary lawsuits, arbitration, debt collectors or debt sales to recover advances, except when the consumer knowingly supplied false information. No late charges or interest for nonpayment, credit reporting, or sharing consumer fees with employers is permitted. Tip defaults must be zero, and declining a tip cannot trigger extra confirmation demands. Providers gain federal noncredit treatment for compliant services and protection against state rules treating them as loans or significantly interfering with their provision.

Who Bears the Burden and How

Earned-wage-access providers must verify available earnings before each advance and obtain a consumer attestation against requesting the same wages from another provider each pay period. They must reimburse specified overdraft or insufficient-funds fees caused by an earlier or different withdrawal than authorized, not every overdraft. CFPB staff must issue rules within 180 days and oversee the newly enumerated financial product. State regulators lose the specified credit-classification authority for compliant services, although generally applicable fraud, contract, property and tax laws remain. Consumers may lose protections that otherwise accompany credit classification. The separate Truth in Lending Act amendments exclude defined earned-wage-access services and providers without repeating the compliance condition in their wording.

Key Provisions

• Requires a no-cost option with transfer initiation within one business day and no reduced amount, frequency or eligibility.
• Requires transaction, aggregate-charge and tip disclosures, zero-default tips, earnings verification and duplicate-advance attestations.
• Prohibits specified collection methods, nonpayment penalties, credit reporting and employer fee sharing, subject to the stated false-information exception.
• Requires privacy and nondiscrimination safeguards, cancellation rights and reimbursement for specified unauthorized timing or amount withdrawals.
• Limits contrary state credit treatment while preserving generally applicable laws and directs CFPB rulemaking within 180 days.
• Modifies federal credit definitions and adds earned wage access to the consumer-financial-product framework.