Access to Employer Benefits and Financial Insecurity Among Frontline Healthcare Workers

Abstract

Concern is growing about financial stress among U.S. workers, many of whom experience financial insecurity (FIS) as they struggle to make ends meet, manage debt, and save. Benefits comprise almost a third of total compensation and affects hiring and retention, which is important with respect to the shortage of frontline healthcare workers (FHWs). We present results from a survey of 2321 FHWs, finding that FHWs without college degrees and working in home health and private duty settings have lower access to benefits and greater FIS compared to those with college degrees and who work in facility-based settings. Among all FHWs, access to benefits has a strong association with FIS, even while controlling for income. Our findings suggest that employers consider improving benefits to help address FIS and within healthcare, address issues of compensation equity based on educational attainment. Still, addressing worker FIS may take strengthening the public social safety net.

Employee benefit availability, use, and subjective evaluation: A meta-analysis of relationships with perceived organizational support, affective organizational commitment, withdrawal, job satisfaction, and well-being.

“…This philosophy means that the fair distribution of benefits requires making them available to those who need them and paying benefits out as employees need them. Thus, disparities in benefit access may decrease employees' evaluation of their benefits (Despard et al, 2023). Unfortunately, in some cases, there are differences in benefit access across employee groupings, such as geographical location or type of employment relationship (Laundon et al, 2019).…”