Agency staffing in senior living: how earned wage access helps leaders compete
Agency staffing in senior living keeps growing. Many staffing agencies and shift apps can offer caregivers two things most employers don't: a higher hourly rate and faster access to pay. And many senior living facilities can't always close the pay rate gap. So what can senior living leaders do?.
Match the speed. Earned wage access gives your caregivers access to wages they've already earned, typically within a day of their shift, so working for traditional facilities no longer means waiting two weeks to get paid.
Here's what's driving caregivers toward agency work, what it costs you, and how earned wage access helps you keep more shifts in-house.
Why are senior living caregivers choosing agency and shift apps?
Caregivers choose agency and shift apps because they pay faster and often pay more. For a CNA living paycheck to paycheck, both matter.
The competition for your caregivers used to be the community down the road. Now it's an app on their phone. Shift marketplaces let CNAs browse open per diem shifts, claim the ones they want, and get paid quickly. Fast pay and shift choice are now standard features across the major apps, and some pay out the same day the shift ends.
The rate gap is real, too. According to 2026 pay data from Nursa, one of those per diem marketplaces, staff CNAs earn about $20.53 an hour on average, while per diem CNAs earn roughly $27.49 to $30.81.
With speed and rate of pay, that math is simple for a caregiver with a car payment due Friday. Working a shift with an agency gets them paid tonight, versus a week's wait (or longer) with a traditional facility.
How big is the agency staffing influence in senior living?
Agency use in senior living went up in 2026, not down, and it's landing on budgets that are already stretched.
Ziegler's 2026 State of the Senior Living Workforce survey found the share of providers that often use temporary agencies to fill direct care roles rose from 16.8% to 24.8% year over year. The share that never use agency staff fell from 31.6% to 26.1%.
Meanwhile, compensation now makes up 56.2% of the average senior living operating budget, and 90% of providers said total staffing costs rose over the past year. Every agency shift is paid at a premium on top of that.
Why does agency staffing make turnover worse?
Agency staffing tends to feed itself. When agency use climbs, permanent staff turnover often climbs with it, which creates more open shifts for agencies to fill.
A peer-reviewed study of nursing homes found that facilities relying heavily on agency staff had significantly higher turnover among permanent CNAs and RNs than facilities that used little agency labor. The likely reasons will sound familiar to anyone who has worked a floor: staff caregivers end up training rotating agency workers, covering the gaps agency staff don't know about, and watching someone earn more for the same shift.
Turnover in nursing homes is already high. CNA turnover was about 42% in 2025. And in hourly healthcare roles, 78% of voluntary turnover is linked to insufficient wages and financial instability. When money is the reason people leave, how and when you pay them is part of the retention conversation.
The quality stakes matter as well. Industry analysis from Covr found that resident outcomes and star ratings tend to slip once agency use passes 5% of hours.
How does earned wage access help reduce agency staffing?
Earned wage access helps senior living operators reduce agency staffing in three ways: it closes the pay-speed gap, it makes extra internal shifts more appealing, and it supports retention.
It closes the pay-speed gap. With earned wage access, caregivers can see their available balance and transfer a portion of their earned wages, usually within 24 hours of a shift. If that's the feature that shift apps use to pull workers away, facilities should address that first.
It makes internal shift pickup more attractive. When a caregiver can pick up an extra shift with an internal team and access those earnings right away, that internal open shift starts to compete with the app more equally.
It supports retention. Financial stress drives caregivers out the door. 70% of employees say Tapcheck reduced their financial stress, and 89% say they feel more loyal to their employer for offering it. Employers report an average 31% reduction in turnover after adopting Tapcheck. Fewer departures means fewer open shifts, and fewer open shifts means less agency.
To be clear, earned wage access isn't a full replacement for your staffing strategy. Communities that have cut agency use the most pair good scheduling, career ladders, and leadership attention with benefits that make staying worth it. Earned wage access is one of the easiest pieces of that plan to put in place.
What about payroll, cost, and risk?
Earned wage access only helps if the payroll team can support it and leadership is comfortable with it. Here are the answers to the questions that many internal champions will get asked.
Will this disrupt payroll? No. Tapcheck integrates with 350+ payroll and timekeeping systems and requires no payroll changes. Transfers show up as itemized deductions on paystubs, so payroll keeps a clear audit trail. Employee paychecks are never intercepted or rerouted.
What does it cost the employer? Nothing. Tapcheck is offered at zero cost to employers, and Tapcheck assumes the financial risk. Cash flow isn't touched.
How much work is it for HR? Very little after launch. Tapcheck handles employee onboarding, communication, and support, so the benefit doesn't become another program for teams to manage.
What results have senior care employers seen?
Senior care employers using earned wage access report stronger hiring and lower turnover, especially when they promote the benefit.
Eli Collier, who runs a HomeWell home care franchise, added earned wage access through Tapcheck and now puts it at the top of her job listings. Her team brought annual turnover down to 30% in an industry where it runs close to 80%. She's clear that earned wage access isn't the only reason, but it's a tool her caregivers use for real needs, like filling a gas tank or picking up medicine for a sick kid, and it cost her nothing to offer.
The bottom line
Senior living facilities may never match an app's hourly rate. But they don't have to lose caregivers over a two-week wait for wages they've already earned. Earned wage access gives staff the pay speed that might otherwise pull them toward agency work. It's that stability that can keep them on the team without adding overhead costs to the business.
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Zero IT required. We configure everything from your existing data feeds — you enable data sharing through your platform settings and that's it. Most partners launch this way, in days, with no engineering resources.
Zero IT required. We configure everything from your existing data feeds — you enable data sharing through your platform settings and that's it. Most partners launch this way, in days, with no engineering resources.
Zero IT required. We configure everything from your existing data feeds — you enable data sharing through your platform settings and that's it. Most partners launch this way, in days, with no engineering resources.
Zero IT required. We configure everything from your existing data feeds — you enable data sharing through your platform settings and that's it. Most partners launch this way, in days, with no engineering resources.
- DailyPay — "How DailyPay Works" and FAQ (intercept model, direct deposit requirement). dailypay.com/faq
- DailyPay — Integration count (180+). dailypay.com/integrations
- DailyPay — Transfer limit (5 per day). DailyPay Manager's Guide
- Tapcheck — 300+ payroll integrations, ADP Marketplace Platinum Partner. tapcheck.com/marketplace
Zero IT required. We configure everything from your existing data feeds — you enable data sharing through your platform settings and that's it. Most partners launch this way, in days, with no engineering resources.
Zero IT required. We configure everything from your existing data feeds — you enable data sharing through your platform settings and that's it. Most partners launch this way, in days, with no engineering resources.
Zero IT required. We configure everything from your existing data feeds — you enable data sharing through your platform settings and that's it. Most partners launch this way, in days, with no engineering resources.
Zero IT required. We configure everything from your existing data feeds — you enable data sharing through your platform settings and that's it. Most partners launch this way, in days, with no engineering resources.
- PayActiv — Estimated net pay methodology (80–90% of gross). payactiv.com/trust-center/compliance-handbook
- PayActiv — Access calculation (50% of estimated net). payactiv.com/get-started
- PayActiv — Transfer cap ($500 per pay period). payactiv.com/blog
- Tapcheck — 300+ payroll integrations, ADP Marketplace Platinum Partner. tapcheck.com/marketplace
- PayActiv — Integrations (ADP Marketplace Platinum Partner). payactiv.com/partnerships
Zero IT required. We configure everything from your existing data feeds — you enable data sharing through your platform settings and that's it. Most partners launch this way, in days, with no engineering resources.
Zero IT required. We configure everything from your existing data feeds — you enable data sharing through your platform settings and that's it. Most partners launch this way, in days, with no engineering resources.
Zero IT required. We configure everything from your existing data feeds — you enable data sharing through your platform settings and that's it. Most partners launch this way, in days, with no engineering resources.
- Rain — 50% of gross pay calculation. rainapp.com/ewa-provider-guide
- Tapcheck — 300+ payroll integrations, ADP Marketplace Platinum Partner. tapcheck.com/marketplace
- Rain — Payroll integrations. rainapp.com/integrations
Zero IT required. We configure everything from your existing data feeds — you enable data sharing through your platform settings and that's it. Most partners launch this way, in days, with no engineering resources.
Zero IT required. We configure everything from your existing data feeds — you enable data sharing through your platform settings and that's it. Most partners launch this way, in days, with no engineering resources.
Zero IT required. We configure everything from your existing data feeds — you enable data sharing through your platform settings and that's it. Most partners launch this way, in days, with no engineering resources.
- ZayZoon — 50% of net pay, $1,000/period cap, integration count. zayzoon.com/go/paytime_payroll
- Tapcheck — 300+ payroll integrations, ADP Marketplace Platinum Partner. tapcheck.com/marketplace
FAQs
Getting started begins with a short conversation about your payroll and timekeeping setup. From there, Tapcheck's team manages implementation, employee communication, and ongoing support.
Tapcheck provides ongoing support for both employers and employees after launch, including employee-facing help and dedicated support for internal teams, so nothing falls on HR or payroll to manage alone.
No. Tapcheck assumes the financial risk associated with wage advances, not the employer. Your company's cash flow and payroll funding remain untouched.
Tapcheck is transparent about pricing for both employers and employees. Employers pay nothing, and employee fees are shown clearly before every transfer, with no monthly fees, interest, or surprise charges.
No. Tapcheck integrates with your existing payroll and timekeeping systems, so your payroll team keeps full control and there are no changes to how payroll runs. Every transfer shows up as an itemized line on the employee's paystub, giving payroll a clear, auditable record.
Yes. PwC's 2026 Employee Financial Wellness Survey found that financially stressed employees are roughly five times more likely to be distracted at work and often spend three or more hours a week during business hours managing personal financial matters.
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