There is a significant difference between the wealth building and wealth transfer behaviors of different ethnic groups, according to a new report. Those findings, drawn from an analysis of employees who participated in a workplace financial wellness program in 2016, indicate that these differences in financial behavior occur at each income level of the workforce and may be in part due to past and current socioeconomic factors.
The report, “Optimizing Financial Wellness for a Diverse Workforce,” the latest study from workplace financial wellness firm Financial Finesse, notes that those differences do have a cost for employers: Employees with low or no assets, uncomfortable levels of debt and poor cash management behaviors – those with the lowest levels of financial wellness – cost employers an average of $94 to $198 annually. Moreover, a disproportionate number of employees in the “struggling” and “suffering” categories of financial wellness are from groups that exhibit the cycle of low financial wellness most frequently: African-American and Hispanic employees – even when controlling for age and income.
Read more: Study Finds Ethnic Group Gaps in Financial Wellness – NAPA Net
