Financial wellness: The major role employers play
For people working today, the challenge of saving for retirement differs by generation. Gen Zs and millennials have been dealing with paying down immediate debts and credit card balances, Lorna Sabbia, head of workplace benefits at Bank of America (BAC), told Yahoo Finance. “So sometimes that is the priority versus long-term planning. And so to balance those two things (is) a little bit more difficult.” Gen X, Sabbia said, seems to feel the weight of impending retirement heavily, reporting a marked drop in their overall feeling of financial wellness in recent years. And there’s one burden weighing on workers of every age: caregiving. About 50% of employees are caregivers — and they don't want to tell anybody about it. ‘It’s not like they're walking around their workplaces with a t-shirt that says ‘I'm a caregiver,’ Sabbia said. “But in reality, they're dealing with those additional expenses. So it's more of a struggle. On average, we find folks actually spend $7,000 a year out of pocket.” That can be small expenses, like buying meals for a relative recovering from surgery, but added together they take available money away from retirement savings. There’s a disconnect between working caregivers and employers. While most employers say they offer support to caregivers, 6 in 10 of caregivers are not aware of available support, Sabbia added. So what should companies provide in financial wellness programs? “First of all, … the majority of companies do believe today it is their responsibility to help their employees on their own financial wellness. So we start there. That's a really great thing,” she said. But to provide meaningful ongoing support, they need to be looking at the right measures. Employees’ stress levels, for example, as well as whether they have enough saved for retirement based on their time horizon, and how confident they feel about reaching a level of security. “So it's a constant moving target depending on the company and the employees within that company,” she said. “But it should be ongoing metrics that drive the answer.” You can find our Breaking Barriers: Women's Financial Freedom Panel here or watch on your preferred streaming service.
