——     Inside the Wallets of Working Americans


Financial wellbeing in the workplace:
The opportunity

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We believe that holistic financial wellbeing programs – ones that support emergency savings, inclusive access to earned wages and affordable loans, as well as wrap-around financial resilience programs including coaching and education – will lead the efforts to close the benefits gap.

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Research from the Employee Benefits Research Institute (EBRI) found that these types of programs are rising in popularity, with 54% of employers offering one in 2021 vs. only 42% in 2019.

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There’s also an increasing awareness of and openness to newer categories of financial wellbeing benefits, like salary-linked loans and early wage access. Employers are becoming more open to benefits that directly address financial issues like high-cost debt, variable cash flow, and lack of emergency savings. 
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In EBRI's 2020 survey, 36% of respondents were offering or planning to offer loans repaid through payroll deduction, and 34% were offering or planning to offer payroll advance or early wage access solutions. In last year's survey (one year later), those numbers had gone up to 55% and 51%, respectively. 
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Having emergency funds is the largest predictor of financial wellbeing, so elevating employer programs focused on building short-term savings should be a critical priority. 
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Emergency savings solutions are increasing in popularity, with 42% of employers likely to offer one in the next 1-2 years, according to EBRI. This reflects what employees want: as mentioned previously, 53% of employees in this survey expressed interest benefits that help them save more money. 
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