Express Wages adds early wage access at Memphis’s Four Way Restaurant

Express Wages has partnered with Four Way Restaurant in Memphis to give employees access to earned wages before payday. The rollout aims to ease short-term financial strain for frontline workers while expanding the company’s employer-integrated benefit platform.

Why it matters: - Four Way Restaurant employees can now tap a portion of wages they have already earned before payday. - The benefit is designed to help workers manage everyday bills and avoid high-cost borrowing, overdrafts and late fees. - The partnership adds another Memphis employer to the growing earned wage access market.

What happened: - Express Wages announced a partnership with Four Way Restaurant on July 16, 2026, in Memphis. - The restaurant will offer employees early access to earned wages through Express Wages’ employer-integrated platform. - Four Way Restaurant joins a growing number of employers that are making earned wage access available as a voluntary benefit.

The details: - Four Way Restaurant has operated in South Memphis since 1946 and is known for soul food and its cultural role in the city. - The restaurant is owned by Jerry and Patrice Thompson. - Express Wages is based in Delaware and headquartered in Memphis. - The company says its platform is built for workforce financial wellness and offers employer-integrated on-demand pay for frontline workers. - Express Wages said the rollout is intended to give workers faster, more flexible access to wages they have already earned. - The company said its broader benefit package includes insurance through Allstate, including identity theft protection for employees and their families for $6 per month per family. - Express Wages also offers a 50% discount on the Monarch Money personal finance app. - Additional partnerships provide mortgage literacy resources through Edge Home Finance and credit-building tools through Kovo. - The company says it charges transparent pricing with no hidden fees for employers or employees. - Before founding Express Wages, Alfred Milan spent 20 years in senior care and health care technology, where he scaled operations and led teams. - The company cites Bankrate’s 2025 Annual Emergency Savings Report, which found more than one-third of Americans used emergency savings in the past year and nearly one in five had none. - Express Wages also cites Business Research Insights, which projects the global earned wage access software market will grow from about $2.07 billion in 2026 to $6.67 billion by 2035, at a 14% annual rate.

Between the lines: - The deal shows how restaurants and other hourly-workforce employers are using early wage access as a retention and morale tool. - Express Wages is positioning financial wellness as a broader employee benefit, not just a pay timing feature. - The Memphis connection gives the company a local case study in a city with deep ties to the restaurant’s history and its own headquarters.

What’s next: - Express Wages plans to keep expanding its employer-integrated platform nationwide. - The company is betting that more employers will use earned wage access to reduce financial stress and improve retention. - As adoption grows, financial wellness add-ons such as insurance, budgeting and credit-building tools may become a bigger part of the benefit stack.

The bottom line: - Express Wages is using a high-profile Memphis restaurant partnership to push early wage access further into the mainstream of hourly-worker benefits.