Why Employers Should Be Excited About Tap to Pay

Transit payment technology has been undergoing a quiet revolution over the past decade, with efforts ramping up dramatically in the past several years. Transit agencies across the United States are upgrading their fare collection systems to make commuting faster, easier, and more flexible for riders—opening up a world of new options for commuter benefit programs.

Read on to learn what this means for employers, and when these updates are rolling out in your city.

A refresher on the transit benefit status quo

Most transit riders are familiar with the experience of buying an agency’s branded smart card, loading money on it, and using that card to pay for each ride. Riders pay attention to their balance, and top up the card before their balance runs out.

These stored value cards have been the default transit payment method in the US for a few decades, essentially since these smart cards became affordable enough for transit agencies to buy and distribute in bulk. 

Transit agencies typically have a program where employers can link transit commuter benefits to these smart cards. Consider SEPTA in Philadelphia:

• Employers design their commuter benefit package, selecting what agencies they want to offer their employees. In Philadelphia, they can choose between SEPTA, PATCO, NJT and Amtrak.
• If an employee chooses SEPTA, they have to pick up a SEPTA Key card and register it online to get their personalized Reference ID. This step is typical for most transit agencies.
• Once they have their Reference ID, they can submit that ID to their benefit manager with their benefit election.
• Each month, the benefit manager gives SEPTA all the orders and associated Reference IDs.
• SEPTA loads all the employees’ benefits onto their respective Key cards.

This process has worked every month for millions of transit riders for years, but it has a few limitations:

• When employees lose their agency-issued smart card, they need to inform their benefit administrator of their new card. Replacing lost cards is one of the top customer support issues tying up HR teams.
• Privacy is important, and Jawnt believes that employers shouldn’t know exactly when and where their employees are using their transit benefits. But in this scenario, employers get no insight into how—or if—the benefit is being used at all. That lack of visibility makes some employers hesitant to offer transit benefits in the first place, since they worry about funding perks that go unused. There’s a balance to strike where some information would help employers feel comfortable expanding these programs.
• The whole process has to be repeated for each agency the employee uses to commute. This often discourages employers from offering benefits with more than one agency, penalizing people who commute from further away and often have the most expensive commutes. Sure, employers can offer a commuter benefits card like Jawnt Pass, but isn’t there an easier way than loading money on one card, transferring it to another, and then tapping that card to pay?

Modernizing transit fares with Tap to Pay

If you’ve ridden the subway in New York in the past six years, you’re probably familiar with OMNY. Through OMNY, New York transit riders can simply tap their personal bank card – the same ones accepted to buy bagels and souvenir shirts – right on the turnstile to ride. OMNY has been so successful that the MTA announced earlier this year it’s phasing out the famous Metrocard stored balance cards at the end of 2025.

OMNY is the biggest example of this new fare payment system in the US. When speaking to riders, agencies describe this system as “Tap to Pay” to emphasize how easy it is without the separate step of buying, loading, and keeping up with a separate card. In more technical conversations, agencies call this system “open loop”, because it swaps out the “closed” transit agency accounts in favor of the open global banking network.

Whatever you want to call it, it’s popular. Chicago’s CTA was actually the first agency in the US to launch Tap to Pay in 2013, followed by New York in 2019. Since then, several more agencies have followed: Las Vegas RTC in 2020, Miami-Dade Transit in 2021, Philadelphia’s SEPTA in 2023, San Diego MTS and Boston’s MBTA in 2024, and several more large agencies planned for 2025. New York is the first major agency to announce that they’re sunsetting their old system, but look for more to follow once that transition is complete.

Open loop opens new benefit options

If you’re an employer in one of these cities: congratulations, you’re able to offer a true best-in-class commuter benefits experience. Take Boston for example:

• Employers design their commuter benefits package. They only have to decide how much they want to subsidize transit. Employees can always deduct up to the monthly pre-tax limit (currently $325 in 2025) for an automatic 30% savings.
• Employees register for a commuter debit card and specify how much value they want added each month. Modern cards like Jawnt Pass can be immediately added to a mobile wallet, so it never gets lost. Contactless-enabled physical cards are available for Jawnt Pass, too.
• That’s it! New funds arrive each month, employees tap their Jawnt Pass to ride, and away they go.

What’s incredible about these commuter debit cards is that they’ve been around for years. All it took to amplify their impact was transit agencies upgrading their fare validator hardware to accept Tap to Pay.

This new employee transit benefit experience unlocks several advantages (using Jawnt Pass as an illustration):

• Contactless enabled Tap to Pay. Take advantage of the latest transit fare systems and tap your Jawnt Pass just as easily as you tap to buy a cup of coffee. Works with physical cards and mobile wallets.
• Flexible spend on transit. Employees can use their Jawnt Pass for any federally eligible transit expense, with an added layer of control set by employers. For example, Philadelphia employees can use it on their choice of SEPTA, PATCO, NJT and Amtrak. An employer might decide to prohibit use for transit agencies on the west coast.
• Reduced need for support. When commuter debit cards can be stored in a mobile wallet, they’re much more difficult to lose. Even if employees do need a replacement card, those can be requested through the Jawnt platform directly from the card issuer without HR needing to get involved.‍
• Greater employer insights. Employers automatically get insight into account balances and transaction histories, but only at the level of “was the card used today,” not specific bus stops.‍
• Greater employer control. Instead of worrying about employees incurring impossibly large balances, set a maximum balance. Jawnt automatically ensures that funds in excess of that balance are never deducted from payroll.

Which US cities have launched Tap to Pay?

If your organization has employees in one of these cities, you could be offering better commuter benefits today. 

• Chicago: CTA, Pace, Metra
• The greater New York City / Philadelphia area: MTA buses and subway, PATH, New Jersey Transit, SEPTA, CT Transit
• Boston: MBTA
• Las Vegas: RTC
• Miami: Miami-Dade Transit
• Several areas in California: SacRT, Monterey-Salinas Transit, Santa Barbara Metropolitan Transit District, Clean Air Express, Humboldt Transit Authority, Lake Transit Authority, Mendocino Transit Authority, and Redwood Coast Transit Authority 

If your organization has employees in one of these cities, Tap to Pay is scheduled to arrive this year:

• Washington, DC
• San Francisco Bay Area
• Austin, TX
• Minneapolis, MN

To learn more about Tap to Pay, the Jawnt Pass, and crafting a best-in-class commuter benefits experience, reach out today.