SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Square, Inc. (NYSE: SQ) today launched employee benefit offerings within Square Payroll, providing small businesses who use Square Payroll access to quality, affordable benefits like health insurance and retirement savings. Benefits are flexible, easy-to-use, and seamlessly integrate with the rest of Square Payroll, removing the administrative complexity businesses typically face with offering benefits. In addition to providing businesses a new tool that can attract and retain world class talent, certain employee benefits can even save businesses money by reducing their payroll tax burden, at no out of pocket cost.
“With today’s launch, Square Payroll is giving small businesses access to ‘big company’ benefits,” said Caroline Hollis, Head of Square Payroll. “We’re empowering businesses to provide their employees a comprehensive set of benefits and the financial security that comes with having them.”
Benefits available through Square Payroll include health insurance, retirement savings, pre-tax spending, and workers’ compensation. To provide these benefits to businesses and their employees, Square Payroll partnered with innovative, technology-focused partners including SimplyInsured, Guideline 401(k), Alice, and AP Intego Insurance Group that offer high quality products at affordable prices. Through Square Payroll, any business owner can select the specific benefits that fit their business and their budget -- whether that’s one or all of the available options. After completing a one-time benefits enrollment, there’s no extra work as benefits automatically sync with Square Payroll to ensure employee deductions and business contributions are always accurate.
“With Square Payroll we are able to simply and affordably provide employees with the benefits they need and reduce administrative time in the process,” said Shatisha M. Wilson, LPC, RPT, the owner of Wilson’s Garden of Hope, a play therapy & counseling center in Augusta, Georgia that serves active duty, retired, and reserve members of the military and their families. “Options we looked at before had employee minimums that prevented us from qualifying, but with Square Payroll the benefit plans are designed to meet the needs of businesses my size.”
Offering benefits can dramatically improve the overall employment experience a seller offers its employees. According to the Employee Benefit Research Institute, 83% of employees said that health insurance was very important or extremely important when deciding to choose or stay at a job, and 73% said the same about retirement benefits1. In a recent survey, Square Payroll employers selected benefits as the top product request with 42% of respondents wanting to purchase benefits policies.
Square Payroll is an elegant, all-in-one service for small businesses looking to run payroll quickly and efficiently. Earlier this month, Square Payroll became available nationwide. Square Payroll also introduced the Square Payroll App for employers and Square Payroll Team App for employees this fall, providing greater access to core payroll features including automatic payroll tax calculations, payments and filings, and payroll support for W-2 employees and 1099 contractors.
Employers can access all payroll information, including benefits enrollments and contributions, from the Square Dashboard, which provides an up-to-date view of all employee information in one place. More information about Square Payroll can be found at squareup.com/payroll.
About Square, Inc.
Square, Inc. (NYSE:SQ) creates tools that help sellers start, run, and grow their businesses. Square enables sellers to accept card payments and also provides reporting and analytics, next-day settlement, and chargeback protection. Square’s point-of-sale software and other business services help sellers manage inventory, locations, and employees; access financing; engage buyers; build a website or online store; and grow sales. The Cash App is an easy way to send, spend, and receive money, and Caviar is a food-ordering platform. Square was founded in 2009 and is headquartered in San Francisco, with offices in the United States, Canada, Japan, Australia, Ireland, and the UK.
1 Employee Benefit Research Institute; The State of Employee Benefits: Findings from the 2017 Health and Workplace Benefits Survey, April 10, 2018.