School never taught you about money. Does that mean your job is right?
Employers collectively spend nearly $90 billion a year worldwide on workplace wellness programs, but research shows those efforts are falling short, with reports of employee burnout and 10-year engagement still high.
Another growing criticism is that many programs ignore a key driver of well-being: financial health.
New data shows that 85% of adults are motivated to improve their financial lives this year, but many still need support to work towards those goals. At the same time, financial pressure is rife in the workplace, with most employees reporting that it is affecting their performance at work.
Yet access to employer-provided support remains uneven. About half of large employers offer financial wellness programs beyond traditional retirement benefits, compared to one-third of small companies, according to Bank of America’s 2025 Workplace Benefits Report.
For many employers, the fact that employees want help with money but don’t always get it is hard to ignore.
“Employers don’t get into financial education because they want to help other people. They do this because there is financial pressure at work,” said Jeff Judge, managing partner of Chesapeake Financial Planners, to Money. “Production slips, benefits go unused and profits increase when employees go into debt or can’t afford unexpected expenses. The employer business case is real.”
How companies maximize financial returns
That business is already reshaping what workplace benefits look like.
In 2023, Walmart partnered with Khan Academy to offer free financial literacy courses to its employees and their families. Last year, Walmart reported that more than 1.5 million people participated in the program.
Amazon, on the other hand, offers several health benefits, including emergency savings and college savings plans, and a home shopping initiative that helps employees shop and compare loan rates. In partnership with Brightside Financial Care, employees and their families can also access free financial training on issues such as debt management, saving and spending.
Starbucks and Chipotle rely on tuition assistance and student loan support — a popular benefit among many large companies, including AT&T, Apple and Boeing. Starbucks also offers employees what it calls a Financial Well-Being Toolkit developed by Fidelity that includes guidance on budgeting, debt management, retirement and investing, and tools like salary-linked savings accounts to help employees apply what they learn.
Where financial health plans fail
Expanding reach is only part of the challenge. Many financial wellness programs struggle to gain traction, especially when employees don’t know they exist or don’t see them as important to their current needs.
“The workers want guidance, but they want it to be sent to where they already are,” said Jaji. “The problem is that most people don’t walk into a financial planner’s office until they are forced to. Putting resources to work lowers that barrier to implementation.”
Even when benefits are available, 85% of employees say their company needs to do a better job helping them understand and use those resources. Finding personal support is also tricky — nearly 30% of employees say they can access financial planning benefits through their employer, according to PNC Bank’s latest Financial Wellness in the Workplace survey.
That often comes from the way programs are designed, said Jaji.
For one, many rely on egalitarian content that doesn’t reflect where workers actually stand financially: “It treats a 28-year-old with $60,000 in student loans the same as a 55-year-old with three years to retirement,” he says.
Others lack access to real guidance: “Webinars and calculators don’t answer the question you’re actually afraid to ask,” he adds.
Finally, employers tend to focus on participation over impact. There is too much emphasis on enrollment metrics rather than actual financial results, Judge said.
As employers continue to expand their role in education and wellness, the next step will be moving beyond outreach — turning these resources into real behavioral changes at a time when employees are busy looking for financial help but don’t know where to start.
More from Mali:
Most Teens Can’t Pass These Personal Finance Questions. Can you?
Only 27% of American Adults Can Pass This Basic Income Quiz. How Do You Score?
Credit Ratings Just Went Down Again. How do you collect?
