How Financial Stress Affects Employee Health. What Employers Can Do About It

Financial stress is one of the most underestimated drivers of poor employee health. It’s also one of the most expensive problems employers are quietly absorbing. Most benefits conversations focus on coverage tiers and deductibles. But for hourly workers, the more pressing question is whether they can afford to use the coverage they have.

Financial stress, defined broadly as anxiety or difficulty managing day-to-day expenses, is a direct driver of health outcomes, workforce productivity, and employer costs. And among hourly workers, it is widespread and getting worse.

A 2024 survey by the American Psychological Association found that money remains the top source of stress for American adults, ahead of work, family, and health concerns. For hourly workers who are more likely to experience income volatility and less likely to have emergency savings, this stress is compounded significantly.

More recent data makes the picture starker. PwC’s 2026 Employee Financial Wellness Survey found that 59% of employees are stressed about their finances, and 49% say their compensation is not keeping up with costs. More than half report having less than $5,000 saved for emergencies.

The health consequences are well-documented. Chronic financial stress is associated with:

• Higher rates of anxiety and depression

• Delayed or avoided medical care due to cost concerns

• Increased reliance on emergency care rather than preventive services

• Elevated rates of chronic conditions, including hypertension and diabetes, which worsen when care is deferred

The result is a reinforcing cycle: financial stress leads to deferred care, deferred care leads to worse health outcomes, and worse health outcomes lead to higher out-of-pocket costs — which drive more financial stress. For hourly workers operating without financial buffers, each turn of this cycle is harder to break.

For companies with hourly workforces, the implications are direct and measurable. A 2025 report by HR Executive and Valoir estimated that employee financial stress costs U.S. employers approximately $1.1 trillion annually in lost productivity — roughly 8% of the average worker’s output. The average employee spends 3.3 hours per week handling personal financial issues while on the clock.

Beyond productivity, financially stressed employees are more likely to call out sick, more likely to leave for another employer, and more likely to use emergency rooms instead of primary care. Each of these outcomes drives up costs: higher absenteeism, increased recruiting and training spend, and elevated claims experience on employer-sponsored health plans.

Benefits are one of the few levers employers have to interrupt this cycle. But only if those benefits are accessible. High-deductible plans that look affordable on paper can actually increase financial stress for hourly workers who cannot afford to meet the deductible before their coverage kicks in. The same dynamic applies to Rx costs, specialist copays, and urgent care visits.

The most effective interventions share a common characteristic: they reduce the cost of accessing care, not just the premium. That means:

• Low or no-cost urgent care and telehealth access, so employees seek care early rather than waiting until a problem becomes severe

• Prescription drug coverage with meaningful cost reduction at the pharmacy counter

• Plain-language communication about what is covered, so employees trust that using their benefits will not result in a surprise bill

• Supplemental benefits that layer onto existing coverage, filling the gaps where high-deductible plans fall short

LEVREDGE was built specifically for this gap. As a supplemental benefits program designed for hourly workforces, it layers onto existing employer coverage to reduce the out-of-pocket cost of everyday care, such as virtual urgent care and primary care visits, prescription drugs, and digital health coaching, without requiring employers to overhaul their primary plan. Removing that cost barrier encourages employees to use their benefits and catch small problems before they become expensive.

You do not need to overhaul your benefits plan to make a meaningful difference. A few targeted changes can have an outsized impact:

• Audit your current plan’s cost-sharing structure for low-wage employees. What does a typical urgent care visit actually cost someone earning $15/hour? If the answer is more than $50, you likely have an access gap that supplemental benefits can close.

• Invest in benefits communication. Employees who understand their benefits use them more. Utilization is the point — a benefit no one uses is not a benefit. Plain-language summaries, multilingual materials, and manager training all drive utilization.

• Add supplemental benefits that fill gaps in your primary plan. Unlike major medical plans, supplemental programs do not have to follow the same open enrollment schedule, which reduces HR workload and allows faster deployment when your workforce needs it.

Financial stress is not a personal problem that employees bring to work. It is a structural issue with structural solutions, and benefits are one of the most powerful levers employers have to address it. For organizations with hourly workforces, the room to do more is significant, and the cost of inaction is measurable.

Want to see how LEVREDGE can reduce financial stress for your hourly employees? Explore the program or reach out to our team to learn how it works alongside your existing benefits plan.