JPMorgan Chase is making philanthropic commitments to organizations focused on workplace and public benefits with a financial health focus, the bank announced April 30.
The commitments, which total $14.5 million, include a $7 million donation to Commonwealth, which will pilot benefits programs in Columbus and Chicago, and $1.58 million to Washington University in St. Louis, which is doing research on how workplace benefits can improve the financial wellbeing of low- and middle-income workers.
JPMorgan Chase’s announcement speaks to total rewards leaders’ growing interest in “financial wellness” benefits. Such offerings seek to address financial challenges among the workforce, particularly those experienced by lower-income workers.
Company hopes to see deeper investments in financial health. The firm hopes these grants will spur more employers to offer benefits like retirement matches, education savings through 529 plans, health savings accounts, and equity compensation, said Mercedeh Mortazavi, who heads up financial health for global philanthropy and corporate responsibility at JPMorgan Chase.
The Financial Health Network, a nonprofit financial services consultancy, estimates that fewer than one-third of employees have access to benefits to help with “critical financial needs,” representing a gap that JPMorgan hopes to address, Mortazavi said. The bank’s foundation has identified financial health as one of its core pillars, and is interested in advancing “financial stability and resilience,” as well as supporting “opportunities for wealth building and protection of assets” through its work.
Of particular concern to JPMorgan Chase are low- and middle-income workers who may not qualify for certain financial benefits, such as a retirement plan, Mortazavi told HR Brew. Commonwealth, a nonprofit focused on building financial security, will partner with employers that have large shares of these workers to better understand what their most pressing financial needs are, she said.
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The hope is that if employers find ways to offer benefits that are “actively contributing towards savings, debt reduction and wealth building” to these workers, they’ll create a “win-win” scenario, Mortazavi said: “The employee wins by having access to these solutions to build financial security, and the employer wins by having more focused, productive employees who are really bringing their best selves to work.”
Filling in financial gaps. When it comes to financial wellbeing, there’s a disconnect between what workers want and what employers offer. A recent Gallup survey found that while 59% of employees want their employers to focus on financial wellbeing, only 22% prioritize it.
The employers that do prioritize financial wellbeing see particular promise in offerings that extend to the low- and middle-wage earners JPMorgan Chase points to in its philanthropic work. Companies that rely on gig workers, like DoorDash and Grubhub, have piloted programs to help contractors in their network save for healthcare or retirement, for example, as part of a strategy to compensate for benefits they don’t typically receive in their jobs.
While benefits aren’t a substitute for wages, they’re one lower-cost strategy HR can rely on to help workers achieve financial security, Commonwealth’s co-founder and CEO Timothy Flacke previously told HR Brew.
“We think it would be a missed opportunity if the conversation became exclusively about wages, without recognizing that really all of us need tools and opportunities to turn those wages into the outcomes that we want,” he said.