2021 marks the 50th anniversary of Paychex (NASDAQ: PAYX), a leading provider of integrated human capital management solutions for payroll, benefits, human resources, and insurance services.
The company was founded in 1971 by Tom Golisano, who still serves Chairman of the company. He was Paychex’s president and chief executive officer from 1971 until October 2004.
The concept for Paychex began with industry-shaking insight. Tom was working for a company that provided payroll services to large regional and national businesses. He knew that about 90 percent of U.S. businesses had only a few employees — a statistic that remains true today. He recognized that payroll providers ignored the needs of millions of small businesses even though they shared many of the same challenges as larger companies.
When Tom’s employer didn’t share his vision to serve small and medium-sized businesses, he decided to do it himself.
Today Paychex is the largest HR company for small to medium-sized businesses, it serves 700,000-plus clients in the U.S. and Northern Europe and pays one in 12 U.S. private sector employees.
