Help employees manage their finances

Long story short: Employees need a financial boost — how you can help

October 28, 2022 12:40 PM

Between threats of a recession, high mortgage rates and ballooning inflation, there seems to be no end to the financial stress employees are shouldering these days.

While employers can do the bare minimum by providing a liveable wage, they're being called to do much more to alleviate these pain points and help employees accomplish their financial goals. In this week's top stories, empowering women to ask for raises is one way to boost financial stability. Women continue to be woefully underpaid, yet just 57% feel comfortable asking for a raise. Providing salary negotiation training could help them ask for what they're worth.

And once they have those dollars, all employees want help maximizing their value — homeowner assistance benefits are an emerging trend as employees navigate a competitive housing market. Yet while offering money toward the cost of a home could be helpful for some, providing more robust financial wellness benefits like student loan repayment and automatic savings programs can help all employees put more discretionary income aside.

Whether those financial needs are immediate or in the distant future, workplace savings plans are an essential tool for many. Tax-advantaged savings plans like a 529, which help workers save money for their child's college, or ABLE plans, which support individuals with disabilities, have a variety of benefits and long-term savings incentives that can put employees' minds at ease about their future financial responsibilities.

Ascensus exec: 529 and ABLE plans can shore up families' financial futures

Families and individuals are increasingly having to choose between near-term savings and expenses and future financial security. But tax-advantaged investment programs such as 529 or ABLE plans can help provide a financial safety net.

"How to prioritize saving for, say, a child's college education against other goals like emergency savings or retirement savings is a question we hear all the time," Peg Creonte, president of the government savings business unit at Ascensus, tells editor-in-chief Stephanie Schomer. "People are concerned." Creonte breaks down the benefits of these plans and how employees can start saving right now.

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Ascensus exec: 529 and ABLE plans can shore up families' financial futures

Just 57% of women are comfortable asking for a raise

Eighty-four percent of women are confident that they can succeed in their job, according to a recent survey by financial services company Fidelity, and 77% have a healthy work-life balance. But those wins are paired with a cruel reality: just half of respondents said they feel equally confident when it comes to negotiating pay or asking for a promotion.

"When we're young girls we are often taught to say thank you and be good — and 'being good' does not include asking for things," Lorna Kapusta, head of women investors and customer engagement at Fidelity, tells associate editor Paola Peralta. She shares the importance of year-round check-ins to get women more comfortable advocating for better pay.

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Just 57% of women are comfortable asking for a raise

Why homeowner assistance will become a must-have benefit amid inflation and rising mortgage rates

In 2020, 30% of all households had what was considered "unaffordable" rent or mortgage payments, and two years later, the problem has only worsened — home prices rose another 20.6% from March 2021 to March 2022 and rents jumped 12%. As a result, one out of every five employees plan to delay buying a home due to their financial status, according to SoFi's recent Future of Workplace study.

Sixty percent of employees said that they wanted their company to add, improve or expand on homeownership assistance benefits, according to SoFi's report. A more realistic first step to offsetting the costs of housing expenses is expanding existing financial wellness programs to help shore up workers' financials, such as student loan repayment, automatic savings programs and financial wellness coaches. Associate editor Paola Peralta breaks down where employers are obligated to help.

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Why homeowner assistance will become a must-have benefit amid inflation and rising mortgage rates

Hiring seasonal workers? DailyPay's new transparency tool can make recruiting easier

The effort to empower hourly workers around their pay is a year-round commitment, but with the holiday season right around the corner, it's more vital than ever. On-demand pay provider DailyPay recently launched a "shifts worked" function that breaks down how much an employee will earn per shift, and what amount is available for them to use before payday.

The feature is an extension of the platform's popular "pay balance" function — which disclosed the amount of money an employee made in their current pay cycle. Associate editor Paola Peralta explores why this can benefit hourly workers, and serve as an appealing recruiting tool for employers.

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Hiring seasonal workers? DailyPay's new transparency tool can make recruiting easier