Despite feeling ongoing stress, most employees are satisfied with their current benefits package and appreciate their employer’s response to improve overall well-being, according to EBRI’s second annual Workplace Wellness Survey.
Conducted by EBRI and Greenwald Research, this year’s survey finds that more than half of employees (51%) are “extremely/very satisfied” with their benefits package, with 62% saying they are satisfied with their workplace retirement savings plan; 63% are satisfied with their health insurance.
In addition, most employees are contributing to their plan and receiving contributions from their employer. Of those receiving employer contributions, two out of three say they are satisfied with the contribution they get. EBRI found that just under half contribute either equal to or up to their employer match, while 4 in 10 contribute more.
Most employees also indicate that they don’t want to trade their benefits with their wages. In this instance, EBRI found that about two in three employees are satisfied with the retirement plan contributions, and 6 in 10 are satisfied with the health and paid leave benefits they have now and would not want to trade benefits for higher wages.
Only about one in six (16%) would be interested in more retirement plan contributions or health benefits (18%) for lower wages, while 2 in 10 would be interested in fewer health benefits (21%) for higher wages.
Employees also rate their employers’ efforts positively, with 50% saying their employer has done an “excellent or very good” job helping them improve their emotional and physical well-being, while 46% say the same about their financial well-being, which is up 4% from last year.
At the same time, 7 in 10 employees feel their employer has a responsibility to ensure the health and financial security of employees. “Since this is consistent with last year, it raises a thought that employees expect a strengthened social contract as the result of the pandemic,” notes Lisa Greenwald, CEO of Greenwald Research.
Just over 3 in 10 (31%) employees feel that their employer’s efforts to improve their overall well-being have increased, which EBRI notes is a modest increase from last year (at 28%). Another 6 in 10 (60%) say it stayed the same, which is about the same as last year.
Financial Stress and Emergency Savings
While retirement savings plans continue to be an anchor of financial well-being, with 60% saying their retirement plan contributes a lot to feeling financially secure (up 5% from 2020), many employees continue to feel stress.
The survey found that nearly half of employees are concerned with their household’s financial well-being, citing saving for retirement and having emergency savings as top sources of financial stress. In addition, the survey found that employees are carrying an average of $26,000 in non-mortgage debt. Despite this stress, 8 in 10 feel prepared for an unexpected expense of $500 and 6 in 10 feel prepared for a $5,000 unexpected expense.
Still, even though employees say they “feel prepared” for unexpected expenses, 54% say their retirement plan savings are the only significant emergency savings they have.
Interestingly, when given the scenario of allocating $600 from their employer among six different accounts, employees allocated the largest amount to retirement savings at an average of $212. The second largest amount went into the emergency savings account at an average of $133. Other options included a health savings account, additional time off for purchase, college savings and a student debt pay-down plan.
Correspondingly, 83% of employees were at least somewhat interested in an emergency savings account that allowed them to save through payroll deduction. This is probably driven by those who felt they did not have enough savings to handle an emergency, EBRI notes.
Beyond Retirement Benefits
Outside of greater financial contributions, employees believe that more flexibility in their benefits and choices and more benefits to help with their financial well-being would be the most valuable improvements to their current benefits package.
Roughly half cited life insurance and financial wellness as contributing a lot to their financial security. Employees also highly value mental well-being initiatives and work-life balance.
And while much of the survey reveals positive outlooks on employer initiatives, employees expressed declining satisfaction with their work-life balance. Fewer than half (48%) are satisfied with their current work-life balance, compared with 59% in 2018. What’s more, 28% say paid leave has increased in importance in the past year.
Employees also indicate that they could still use assistance in navigating the options. More than 8 in 10 employees say they would probably use a free online program offering benefit advice. Spouses currently are the most common source of information consulted when making benefit decisions, according to EBRI’s findings.
The 2021 results are based on an online survey of 2,016 American workers aged 21-64 conducted from July 7–27, 2021. EBRI notes that a future release examining the sentiments of black and Hispanic workers will be released in mid-November.
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