At a time when companies are experimenting with pay advance systems and apps, employees are responding with interest. (Photo: Shutterstock)

How do your workers get paid? Weekly? Monthly? Twice-monthly? Paper check? Direct deposit? New research suggests that worldwide interest among workers in new payment options is increasing, and forward-thinking employers are paying attention.

The Evolution of Pay study, released by the ADP Research Institute, surveyed 4,000 employees and 2,900 employers across 13 countries. It found that both employers and employees recognized the need for flexibility in payment options. For employers, this is another tool in attracting and retaining workers in a tight labor market. For employees, convenience and timeliness are often issues in how they prefer to be paid—with younger workers increasingly interested in convenience.

Nontraditional payment: offered more than taken

The worldwide survey confirmed that in the US and Europe, direct deposit has become the preferred method of payment for work. Paper checks, once the dominant form of pay, are used now by a small minority of workers—9 percent in the U.S., and only 2 percent in Europe.