Paychex and Perpay partner on credit building employee benefit

• Key Insight: Discover how employer-sponsored financial programs can materially alter workforce credit risk.
• What's at Stake: Rising employee credit fragility threatens retention, benefits costs, and workplace financial security.
• Supporting Data: Nearly 25% of Americans have low credit scores, widening employer financial exposure.
• Source: Bullets generated by AI with editorial review

As more workers struggle to build or repair their credit, employers are beginning to recognize credit health as a workplace issue. Two financial platforms are teaming up to help employees improve these outcomes. 

An estimated 23.9% of U.S. adults with a credit record currently have "sub-prime" credit, which refers to a score below 660, according to a 2025 Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis report on consumer credit conditions. This month, fintech company Perpay partnered with payroll and HR management platform Paychex to bring their safe and reliable credit building services to thousands of employees across industries.   

"People assume that people who have subprime credit are poor, but that's not always the case," says Perpay's CEO and founder, Chris DiMarco. "Americans are living paycheck to paycheck with limited or no access to affordable credit, and when they do it's priced in a predatory way."

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Through Perpay, employees are given personalized spending limits that range from $500- $1,000 based on their income that they can put towards emergencies or necessary purchases outside of rent and utilities. Perpay then sets up repayment plans for those purchases, deducting a percentage of the debt from each pay check until the balance is paid off. The platform can report repayments to the three major credit bureaus — Experian, Equifax and TransUnion — and turn it into a healthy credit history that can either help employees build or repair their credit. 

For a more advanced credit building option, Perpay also offers a credit card that is designed to work with automatic payroll payments. Employees are entirely in charge of how much of their paycheck they want to allocate each month, and they have the freedom to increase or decrease that amount depending on their current financial situation. 

"When we talk to HR leaders, their biggest pain point is that their employees feel like they're in a recession every two weeks, and the solutions that they have in their suite aren't necessarily working," DiMarco says. "We figured out a way to actually help them exhibit better behaviors and yield better outcomes for themselves." 

Perpay has already helped more than half a million members raise their credit scores by an average of 32 points in three months, according to the company's data, with 45% moving into a higher credit band. However, DiMarco recognizes that many people may still feel reluctant to dip their toes into the credit system, even though it's necessary.   

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"People are riddled with school debt, and credit cards can seem like more debt," DiMarco says. "But unfortunately, you can't get a car, you can't go buy a house, you can't even rent an apartment without having some sort of credit file. It's overwhelming, but you need to start by taking small bites." 

DiMarco wants employees to see Perpay as more than just another financial literacy resource — instead, it should be the start of a positive financial wellness journey.    

"There's not a financial literacy crisis — there's a financial products crisis," DiMarco says. "We're giving them tools to empower themselves."