Nearly half of US workers struggle to cover essential expenses, while 63% have considered changing jobs over financial concerns, revealing a growing gap between employer support and employees’ needs.
Employee confidence in workplace financial wellbeing support has more than halved in just one year, exposing a widening gap between the benefits employers provide and the financial pressures workers are actually experiencing. The 2026 Employee Financial Wellness Report from Payroll Integrations finds that just 35% of employees now feel their employer provides strong financial wellness support, down sharply from 74% in 2025.
Yet 63% of employers still believe they are delivering strong support. The disconnect comes as everyday financial pressures increasingly spill into working life. Nearly half of employees, 46%, say they were unable to cover an essential expense before payday at least once during the past year, including 24% who experienced this more than once.
Employers are seeing the consequences too. Some 45% report turnover in the past year that they primarily attribute to employee dissatisfaction with pay or benefits. The findings suggest traditional financial wellness programmes may no longer be enough when employees are struggling with the fundamental cost of living.
DISCONNECT BETWEEN FINANCIAL BEHAVIOUR & CONFIDENCE
The research reveals a striking disconnect between financial behaviour and financial confidence. Some 82% of employees contribute to a retirement plan, yet only 34% believe they will be able to retire comfortably. The rising cost of living is now the biggest barrier to retirement confidence, cited by 45%, followed by concerns about Social Security at 34% and not saving enough each month at 27%.
“Employees are doing many of the things we traditionally associate with financial wellness, like contributing to retirement, enrolling in benefits and trying to plan for the future, but it’s not translating into a sense of financial security,” said Doug Sabella, CEO and Co-Founder of Payroll Integrations. “The widening gap between how employers view their financial wellness support and how employees experience it is a sign that offering benefits alone isn’t enough. Employers need to understand whether those benefits are actually helping employees manage the financial pressures they face today.”
That distinction matters because although workplace can offer retirement plans, financial education and benefit programmes, employees still struggle to pay everyday bills. The existence of a benefit is therefore not necessarily evidence that it is solving the problem employees actually have. Fair Play Talks has tracked that gap for several years. As far back as 2021, 95% of employers said they felt responsible for employee financial wellbeing, while subsequent CIPD research highlighted the importance of fair pay, accessible financial support and opportunities for progression.
FINANCIAL STRESS IS FOLLOWING EMPLOYEES INTO WORK
Financial pressure is increasingly affecting employee mental health and performance. Some 38% say financial stress has strongly affected their mental health at work, while 31% say it has strongly affected their focus or productivity. When workers were asked how financial stress had affected them during the past year:
- 41% said they had been distracted or less productive;
- 26% had taken on a second job; and
- 23% had declined employer-provided benefits because of the cost.
That turns financial wellbeing into much more than a personal finance issue. It becomes a workplace wellbeing, productivity and retention issue. That pattern is consistent with recent research showing nearly two-thirds of US workers are anxious about money, with financial stress affecting concentration and productivity.
Separate research found more than half of workers could not cover an unexpected $500 emergency from savings, with financial insecurity contributing to missed work, delayed essential spending and poorer performance. Financial strain also forms part of a wider workplace mental health challenge. Fair Play Talks’ World Mental Health Day 2026 coverage highlighted mounting pressures around anxiety, burnout and inadequate employee support.
More recently, International Stress Awareness Day research highlighted how financial insecurity, excessive workloads, AI disruption and caring responsibilities are combining to intensify workplace stress, strengthening the argument for employers to address underlying pressures rather than relying solely on wellbeing programmes.
SIX IN 10 HAVE CONSIDERED CHANGING JOBS BECAUSE OF MONEY
Financial concerns are also affecting retention. Nearly two-thirds, 63% of employees, say they have considered changing jobs because of financial concerns during the past year. Pay remains the biggest driver. Some 52% cite higher pay as a reason to consider moving, compared with 32% who cite better benefits.
That echoes wider research showing employees increasingly connect job satisfaction with whether their pay keeps pace with the cost of living. Recent research found a third of low-paid UK workers had no savings, while only around one in 10 could cover a £200 emergency from their current income without difficulty. The research reinforced the connection between pay, household financial resilience, retention and organisational credibility.
Another study found a quarter of UK workers were planning to change jobs, with feeling underpaid and undervalued among the factors influencing their decisions.
WORKERS SAY FINANCIAL WELLNESS MEANS HIGHER PAY
The clearest message from the Payroll Integrations research may be what employees say would actually improve their financial wellbeing. Some 62% say higher pay or cost-of-living adjustments would help most. That is followed by:
- 41% wanting advancement opportunities and performance bonuses; and
- 36% wanting more paid time off and mental-health days.
By contrast, interest in more traditional financial wellbeing products has fallen sharply. The proportion of employees wanting budgeting and savings tools dropped from 44% in 2025 to just 11% in 2026. Interest in financial education or access to an adviser fell from 35% to 13%.
That suggests employees may increasingly see financial strain as an income and cost problem rather than a financial-literacy problem. Teaching someone how to budget can only go so far if their income does not comfortably cover essential expenses. The importance of financial incentives has also emerged in recent research on workplace flexibility.
Another recent study found that 67% of remote and hybrid employees would consider spending more time in the office for higher pay, while 45% of fully on-site employees would accept a pay cut for greater flexibility. Together, the findings reinforce why financial wellbeing cannot be separated from pay, working arrangements and the everyday costs employees face.
NEARLY HALF COULDN’T COVER AN ESSENTIAL EXPENSE BEFORE PAYDAY
The scale of short-term financial vulnerability is one of the starkest findings in the report. Some 46% of workers were unable to cover an essential expense before payday during the previous year. Among employees carrying medical debt, that rises to 69%, including 45% who experienced the problem more than once. Only 17% of employees with less than three months of emergency savings say their financial wellbeing is very or completely supported by their employer.
The same is true for just 17% of people carrying medical debt. Among employees working a second job or undertaking gig work, only 21% feel strongly supported. Those findings closely mirror other recent evidence. Recent research revealed that 55% of employees could not cover a $500 emergency from savings, while 26% had no emergency savings at all.
The people most in need of financial wellbeing support may therefore be those least able to build the savings or financial buffers that traditional programmes often encourage.
EMPLOYEES ARE DIPPING INTO RETIREMENT SAVINGS
Short-term financial pressures are also threatening longer-term security. Some 22% of employees have already withdrawn money from retirement savings. Among those who have done so:
- 38% used the money for everyday living costs;
- 36% for unexpected emergencies;
- 29% to deal with high-interest debt; and
- 28% for housing costs.
Another 9% plan to withdraw retirement savings within the next year. Workers with medical debt are particularly exposed. Some 31% have already withdrawn retirement funds, while another 17% expect to do so during the next year. The consequences can extend far beyond the immediate crisis, potentially leaving employees with less financial security later in life.
CAREGIVERS FACE PARTICULAR FINANCIAL PRESSURE
Employees caring for family members are another group facing heightened risk. Among workers caring for an ageing relative, 23% expect to withdraw retirement savings during the coming year – the highest rate identified among the groups highlighted in the study.
That reflects a wider challenge around the hidden financial cost of care. Earlier research found America’s sandwich generation spends almost 24 hours a week on unpaid caregiving alongside paid work, with many carers turning down opportunities, concealing caring responsibilities and experiencing growing financial pressure.
More recent research suggests the long-term financial consequences can be substantial. A recent study examining the financial impact of caregiving found that 91% of financial caregivers supporting older adults spent their own money on care, with those not fully reimbursed paying an average of $8,737 annually out of pocket.
Among financial caregivers, 38% had reduced or stopped saving, while 18% had reduced or paused retirement contributions. The findings reinforce the importance of looking beyond immediate financial pressures to the longer-term consequences of caring responsibilities.
As Fair Play Talks also highlighted during National Family Caregivers Month, seven in 10 working-age American caregivers are also employed, underlining the scale of the challenge for organisations seeking to support and retain employees. Caregivers can face additional costs at the same time as reducing working hours, declining promotions or struggling to maintain retirement contributions.
The workplace response therefore needs to connect financial wellbeing, flexibility and carers’ support, rather than treating them as unrelated issues. Research has also highlighted how lack of flexible working has forced one in three UK parents with children under seven to leave a job, illustrating how inflexible working arrangements can undermine employment and household financial security.
GEN Z IS MOST CONFIDENT ABOUT RETIREMENT
Perhaps surprisingly, younger workers report the greatest confidence about retirement. Some 48% of Gen Z workers aged 18 to 27 believe they will be able to retire comfortably. That compares with:
- 38% of Millennials;
- 31% of Gen X; and
- just 22% of Boomers.
Gen Z also has more optimistic expectations about retirement timing. Some 62% expect to retire before age 65, compared with 36% of Millennials, 31% of Gen X and just 3% of Boomers. Whether that optimism proves realistic remains to be seen. Younger workers have more time to build retirement savings, but they also face significant long-term uncertainty around housing, living costs and retirement provision.
The findings contrast with separate research showing one in five Gen X workers expects never to fully retire, while almost six in 10 say their income barely covers, or fails to cover, their expenses. The generational differences reinforce why employers need to provide financial wellbeing and retirement support that reflects different life stages, rather than assuming employees share the same financial priorities.
BENEFITS STILL MATTER BUT THEY HAVE TO MATCH WHAT PEOPLE NEED
The findings do not suggest employees no longer value benefits. Rather, they suggest that the type of support matters. Separate research found more than two-thirds of UK employees value paid sick leave particularly highly, while six in 10 value salary increases that keep pace with inflation.
Employees therefore appear to be prioritising benefits that protect them against real financial shocks – sickness, loss of income, rising prices and unexpected costs – rather than purely informational support.
But the existence of a benefit does not guarantee that employees feel able to use it. A recent UK workplace mental health study found that 91% of employees had access to employer-provided mental health support, yet only 37% said they would use it if they needed help.
While financial wellbeing and mental health services address different needs, the findings illustrate a common challenge: employers must consider whether support is accessible, trusted and genuinely useful, not simply whether it exists.
DEMAND FOR FASTER ACCESS TO PAY
The study also found greater interest in earned wage access among workers facing more immediate financial pressure. A third, 33%, of employees with a second job or gig work say they want faster access to earnings, compared with 12% of other employees.
Interest is also higher among renters, at 26%, compared with 10% of homeowners. Earned wage access can help workers manage cash-flow gaps, but it should not become a substitute for adequate pay or emergency savings.
Used repeatedly, early access to wages can simply move a financial shortfall from one part of the month to another.
FINANCIAL WELLBEING IS BECOMING A RETENTION ISSUE
The finding that 63% of employees have considered changing jobs because of financial concerns should make financial wellbeing a strategic workforce issue. Employers may spend significantly on benefits but still lose employees if salaries, career progression or benefits affordability do not meet their needs. And with 45% of employers already reporting turnover they primarily attribute to dissatisfaction with pay or benefits, the cost is no longer theoretical.
The connection between financial support and retention is not new. Earlier research found that organisations providing financial wellbeing support could reduce employee turnover by a third. However, the latest findings suggest organisations need to look beyond simply offering programmes and assess whether the support available reflects employees’ current financial circumstances.
The lesson is that employers should measure whether their benefits improve employees’ actual financial outcomes, not simply how many programmes are available.
WHAT EMPLOYERS SHOULD DO
The research suggests organisations need to rethink financial wellbeing around the realities employees are experiencing today. Employers should:
- Review whether pay has kept pace with living costs, particularly for lower-paid workers.
- Assess whether benefits are affordable enough for employees to use.
- Measure financial wellbeing by employee outcomes rather than the number of programmes offered.
- Provide transparent pay and career progression opportunities.
- Consider targeted cost-of-living or hardship support where appropriate.
- Ensure employees understand retirement and benefit options without assuming education alone solves income pressures.
- Provide confidential support for debt and financial difficulty.
- Review whether medical costs are creating disproportionate hardship.
- Consider earned wage access carefully as part of a broader strategy.
- Support employees with caring responsibilities through flexibility and relevant benefits.
- Connect financial wellbeing with mental health, retention and workforce planning.
Most importantly, organisations should listen to what employees themselves say they need.
This year’s research suggests many are asking for higher pay, better progression and more paid time away from work, and not simply another budgeting tool.
BENEFITS ALONE MAY NO LONGER BE ENOUGH
The sharp fall in confidence from 74% to 35% in a single year is difficult to dismiss as a minor shift in sentiment. Employees are contributing to retirement plans. They are enrolling in benefits. They are trying to prepare for the future. Yet many still do not feel financially secure.
Nearly half have struggled to cover essential expenses before payday. More than one in five have accessed retirement savings early. And more than six in 10 have considered changing jobs because of their finances. The broader evidence supports the same conclusion. As recently reported, financial wellbeing is becoming inseparable from workforce wellbeing and business performance.
For employers, the message is increasingly clear – financial wellness cannot be measured by what an organisation offers. It needs to be measured by whether those measures actually help employees live, save and plan for the future.
Click here to download the 2026 Employee Financial Wellness Report.
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