Younger Generations Name Emergency Savings No. 1 Worry

What keeps younger employees up at night might also turn employers into night owls.

Early-career employees, defined as those between the ages of 18 and 30, ranked emergency savings as their top financial worry in CAPTRUST Financial Advisors’ “Financial Wellness Survey Report: Silent Financial Stress in the Workplace,” published January 15.

Meanwhile, half of Americans surveyed by Empower said they were stressed about their current level of emergency savings, and 64% said it was a financial priority for them to grow their balance, according to data the firm collected in 2025. The median emergency savings Americans reported having was $500, but the size of the safety net varied considerably by generation. Baby Boomers reported the highest median savings, at $2,000, while Millennials reported only $300.

These findings reveal “a great opportunity for plan sponsors to focus on the early-career individual,” says Chris Whitlow, CAPTRUST’s senior director and head of its financial wellness solutions program, CAPTRUST at Work. The younger cohort has not yet had the chance to build the “right coping mechanisms” to deal with the pressure and anxiety of combined stressors such as paying off student debt, renting their first apartment and figuring out how much to save for retirement, Whitlow explains.

Morry Worry, Less Work

Younger employees reported worrying about financial issues nearly twice as much as those in the later stages of their careers, according to CAPTRUST’s survey. They were also the most likely to report mental or physical manifestations of their stress: 67.8% reported experiencing either or both, while 58.3% and 40% of mid-career and late-career employees, respectively, said the same.

What’s more, no employee is able to “keep their financial worries in the parking lot,” Whitlow says. The more time employees spend worrying, the less productive or more absent they will be at their jobs.

Three-quarters of respondents to CAPTRUST’s survey said that being financially stressed impacts their motivation at work. A Fidelity study published in November 2025 revealed that lost productivity costs U.S. employers about $183 billion annually.

To help employers and employees alike, Whitlow says plan sponsors can focus on educating employees about the basics of emergency savings and why having a stash is important. Employers can also teach employees what the best places are to store rainy-day funds, such as in high-yield savings accounts.

Additionally, the SECURE 2.0 Act of 2022 authorizes participants to open pension-linked emergency savings accounts as part of their retirement plan. SECURE 2.0 limits PLESAs to non-highly-compensated employees, defined as those earning less than $155,000 per year. PLESA balances can reach $2,500, and participants can withdraw funds early with no penalty.

‘Sitting on a Gold Mine’ of Data

Aside from educating, employers can also leverage financial advisers working with the retirement plan to prepare their employees for emergencies. Nearly all (98%) respondents to CAPTRUST’s survey said they would use a financial adviser if one was available at no cost, and 40% ranked one-on-one advice as the most helpful resource for decreasing their financial worries. Empower’s data indicated Americans have already sought advice: More than one-quarter (26%) of respondents reported working with a financial professional to plan for emergencies, including 33% of Generation Z and 29% of Millennials.

“Employers broadly realize they’re sitting on a gold mine of data that they can use to analyze their employees’ financial wellness needs,” said Jake Spiegel, a senior research associate for health and wealth at the Employee Benefit Research Institute, during a panel discussion at EBRI’s 2025 Financial Wellbeing Symposium in December. That data might just lead them to implement critical financial well-being solutions.

More than half (51%) of employers that responded to EBRI’s 2025 Financial Wellbeing Employer Survey said they offered emergency savings funds to their employees, and 40% of employers reported planning to do so. Among those offering or planning to offer forms of emergency funds, 49% planned to offer an emergency savings vehicle or account outside of a retirement account without incentives, and 47% planned to do the same with incentives.

“If [businesses] are the engine of the economy, their employees are the fuel,” said Sarah Faye Pierce, the head of government relations at Paychex, during the symposium panel. “Financial well-being … is not really [just] a nice-to-have anymore.”

Empower’s study was fielded online among 2,202 American adults from June 3 through June 5, 2025.

CAPTRUST collected responses online from 4,307 employees at 795 organizations between May 1 and May 30, 2025.

EBRI surveyed 406 full-time benefits decisionmakers, each at companies with at least 500 employees, online in July and August 2025.