Stay Informed!

Innovator-in-Residence White Paper on Employer Engagement

innovation@cfed and the San Francisco Office of Financial Empowerment proudly announce the publication of Financial Empowerment through Employer Engagement: Migrating a City to a Paperless Payday. Co-authored by Eugénie FitzGerald, Project Consultant (pictured center), and Leigh Phillips, Manager of the San Francisco Office of Financial Empowerment (pictured left), the report summarizes the findings from research designed to understand the environment of electronic pay in San Francisco, learn about business and employee perspectives on electronic payment options, and identify the barriers to, impact on and opportunities for shifting to a fully electronic payroll citywide. The report is a product of one of CFED’s inaugural Innovators-in-Residence.

Led by Treasurer José Cisneros (pictured right, above), the San Francisco Office of Financial Empowerment, and CFED Innovator-in-Residence Eugénie FitzGerald, the effort set out to create a partnership among key players in the Bay Area to shift the City and other employers to a paperless payday, a win-win for employees and employers alike. The approach will connect workers with bank accounts or stored-value payroll cards, representing the next phase in the City’s push to enroll underbanked residents in financial and savings services that will help them save money, build assets and enter the financial mainstream.

The work has been supported by the Levi Strauss Foundation. CFED also gratefully acknowledges support from the Bank of America Charitable Foundation which expanded CFED’s capacity to provide initiatives such as the Innovator-in-Residence program and supported CFED’s work on this project.

Click here to download a PDF of the white paper.