An Employer’s Role in Financial Health: A Holistic View
Well beyond providing a paycheck, employers play a significant role in their employees’ financial health. Workplace benefits make up nearly one-third of total compensation, enabling financial resilience and providing wealth-building opportunities for workers.9
Yet ample evidence suggests that other workplace policies – including scheduling and paid leave policies – also have a dramatic impact on workers’ financial well-being. Unstable and unpredictable work schedules are associated with household economic insecurity, increased hunger and other hardships, worse child behavioral outcomes, and poorer psychological and physical health.10,11 Similarly, workers without access to paid leave are more likely to be economically vulnerable.12 In both cases, lower-wage workers, particularly women and workers of color, are most likely to be exposed to these precarious working conditions.
Thus, employers must take a holistic view of their role in supporting their employees’ financial well-being, beyond just wages and benefits.
