Emergency Savings: Employer Perspectives and Solutions


Wednesday, April 8, 2020 (2pm - 3pm US/Eastern)


Data from the Federal Reserve show that among families with working family heads, only 20.1 percent had liquid savings of more than three months of their family income in 2016. In other words, most workers would likely struggle with unexpected expenses such as car repairs or medical expenses. Clearly, this can have a bottom-line impact on employers: Financially stressed employees may be less productive. Indeed, if an employee cannot afford to repair their car, they may not even be able to make it into their workplace.

It’s little wonder that employers are increasingly concerned about workers’ emergency savings situation. Reported approaches to encouraging employees to save for emergencies range from providing guidance and tools to offering incentives, creating “sidecar” or rainy day accounts, and matching employee emergency savings contributions.

To better understand employer goals, motivations, and challenges when it comes to helping employees with their emergency savings, attend EBRI’s webinar: Emergency Savings: Employer Perspectives and Solutions on April 8 at 2 p.m. ET. EBRI President & CEO Lori Lucas will discuss responses from “emergency-fund-focused employers” or those employers in its 2019 Employer Approaches to Financial Wellbeing Solutions survey that said they offer or plan to offer an emergency fund or employee hardship assistance as a financial wellness initiative. David John, Senior Strategic Policy Advisor at the AARP Public Policy Institute will discuss Unlocking the Potential of Emergency Savings Accounts, and AARP efforts in assessing ways to help employees with rainy day savings. David and Lori will be joined by Suzanne Schmitt, Vice President, Financial Wellness, Prudential Financial. Greg Ward, Director of the Financial Wellness Think Tank at Financial Finesse, will moderate.