What Jobs Offer (and Don’t Offer) Benefits to Low-Wage Workers? Evidence from a Nationally Representative Survey

Employer-based benefits are an important for the financial security and well-being of U.S. workers. These benefits are a key path to healthcare access, retirement security, and other beneficial outcomes. But employers may also offer services that support employees’ financial wellness, and relatively little is known about the extent to which supplemental financial-wellness benefits are offered to low-wage workers or about variation in offerings by industries. Drawing on data from the Workforce Economic Inclusion and Mobility (WEIM) survey of a nationally representative sample of 2,511 low-wage U.S. workers, this Research Brief presents findings on the types of benefits provided by employers to low-wage workers. It reports on the extent to which employers offer common benefits, such as health insurance, and financial wellness benefits such as financial counseling and wage advances. It also considers how the provision of these benefits vary across occupational categories.