Whole Foods Plans Benefit to Plug Workers’ Saving Gaps
Oct 23, 2023
The
company announced this week it will offer emergency savings accounts in 2024.
Amazon
subsidiary Whole Foods Market will join a growing number of large U.S. employers that offer emergency savings
accounts as an employee benefit, announcing plans to bring emergency savings
accounts to full-time and part-time U.S. employees beginning in 2024.
Julie Cunningham, vice president of total rewards,
talent and learning & development posted on LinkedIn information about the
launch including:
The
American multinational supermarket chain, headquartered in Austin, Texas,
worked with Fidelity Investments to build the program.
Almost 1,500 Fidelity workplace clients have
chose to use Fidelity Goal Booster, says Emily Kolle, vice president, Goal
Booster.
“Emergency savings is one of several goals available through Goal Booster,
which makes it difficult to say which employers are focused on emergency
savings alone, but we do know that emergency savings has been the most popular
goal selected by employees for some time,” says Kolle.
“We are continually looking for new and innovative benefit offerings for our
team members,” said Brian O’Connell, Whole Foods’ senior vice president of team
member services, in a statement. “We are excited to add Fidelity’s savings program
to our suite of financial wellness benefits, creating an easy way for team
members to save for unexpected expenses—one paycheck at a time.”
Delta Air Lines and Starbucks are among several large companies that have
recently implemented emergency savings benefits to help employees achieve
savings goals, with Delta enhanced its program in August to provide greater
flexibility. According to Delta, employees who enrolled in the emergency
savings program have increased their 401(k) contributions.
“It’s great news that more and more
employers are looking to add emergency savings: we think it’s foundational,”
says Pamela Hess, executive director of retirement research at the Defined Contribution
Institutional Investment Association. “It sets a foundation for folks’ and
their financial health and that ability to withstand shocks and withstand
financial challenges is critical so they continue to save and reach their
long-term goals. It’s wonderful to see Whole Foods signing-on and being another
large employer taking that step and we think the more it becomes a snowball
effect, the more employers doing the more mainstream it becomes, which we think
is really critical to help all workers.
Fidelity recently published data highlighting that Americans’ persistent lack of savings to
cover unexpected expenses—coupled with economic events like inflation and
market volatility—has increased the stress on their finances. In a sign of
financial stress, 57% of U.S adults could not afford a $1,000 emergency expense, according to a
Bankrate LLC report published in January.
“We’re seeing a lot of employer interest in
implementing emergency savings programs for a diverse workforce, like
organizations in the retail sector such as grocery chains, says Nick Maynard,
senior vice president at Commonwealth. “Employees earning low and moderate
incomes are often living in the financial present, carrying financial anxiety
and stress. [Research] has demonstrated that having emergency savings
contributes to both short- and long-term financial well-being, like retirement.”
Whole Foods’ workforce comprises more than 90,000 employees, according to the
company’s LinkedIn page. Representatives for Whole Foods Market did not provide
additional details on the emergency savings program.
Source: Plansponsor