Whole Foods Plans Benefit to Plug Workers’ Saving Gaps

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.