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School never taught you about money. Does that mean your job should?

Employers collectively spend nearly $90 billion a year globally on workplace wellness programs, but research suggests those efforts are falling short, with reports of employee burnout still high and engagement at a 10-year low.

One growing critique is that many programs overlook a key driver of well-being: financial health.

New data shows 85% of adults are motivated to improve their financial lives this year, but many are still looking for support to act on those goals. At the same time, financial pressures are spilling into the workplace, with a majority of employees reporting that it affects their performance on the job.

Yet access to employer-provided support remains uneven. About half of large employers offer financial wellness programs beyond traditional retirement benefits, compared with just a third of small companies, according to Bank of America’s 2025 Workplace Benefits Report.

For many employers, the fact that workers want help with money but can't always get it is becoming harder to ignore.

“Employers aren't stepping into financial education because they're altruistic. They're doing it because financial stress is showing up at work,” Jeff Judge, managing partner of Chesapeake Financial Planners, tells Money. “Productivity slips, benefits go unused and turnover climbs when employees are drowning in debt or can't cover an unexpected expense. The employer's business case is real.”

How companies are expanding financial benefits

That business case 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 over 1.5 million people participated in the program.

Amazon, meanwhile, offers a handful of financial wellness benefits, including emergency savings and college savings programs, as well as a home purchase initiative that helps employees shop and compare mortgage rates. Through a partnership with Brightside Financial Care, employees and their families can also access free financial coaching on issues like debt management, saving and spending.

Starbucks and Chipotle have leaned into tuition assistance and student loan support — a popular benefit among many major companies, including AT&T, Apple and Boeing. Starbucks also offers employees what it calls a Financial Well-Being Toolkit developed with Fidelity that includes guidance on budgeting, debt management, retirement and investing, along with tools like payroll-linked savings accounts to help employees put what they learn into practice.

When financial wellness programs fall short

Expanding access is only part of the challenge. Many financial wellness programs struggle to gain traction, especially when workers don’t know they exist or don’t see them as relevant to their immediate needs.

“Employees do want guidance, but they want it delivered where they already are,” Judge says. “The problem is most people don't walk into a financial planner's office until a crisis forces them. Putting resources at work lowers that activation barrier.”

Even when benefits are available, 85% of employees say their company needs to do a better job helping them understand and use those resources. Obtaining personalized support is also tricky — only about 30% of workers say they have access to a financial planning benefit through their employer, according to PNC Bank’s latest Financial Wellness in the Workplace survey.

That often comes down to how the programs are designed, says Judge.

For one, many rely on one-size-fits-all content that doesn’t reflect where employees actually are 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 someone's actually afraid to ask,” he adds.

Lastly, employers tend to focus on participation over impact. There’s too much emphasis on enrollment metrics instead of actual financial outcomes, Judge says.

As employers continue to expand their role in education and wellness, the next step will be moving beyond access to impact — turning these resources into real behavior changes at a time when workers are actively looking for help with money but may not know where to start.

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