Dive Brief:

• Payroll cards are an innovation that can benefit employers, because they're cheaper than cutting paper checks, and employees, because they give those with no bank account a way to access their wages without paying check-cashing fees.
• There are some rules employers have to know about, however: They cannot make payroll cards the only way for employees to get paid, and they cannot limit them to one bank with whom the employer wants to do business.
• Some states add their own regulations on top of federal rules from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, such as forbidding workers to lose any of their wages to card fees, and state labor officials in Montana and Rhode Island have forbidden them all together.

Dive Insight:

The payroll cards can be a win-win if the employer reduces payroll administrative costs and workers are satisfied with being paid that way and don't lose money in the process. It's not something employers can impose as the only way to get paid, however,  and anyone who is thinking of adopting the system needs to take a look at the rules for where they do business.