More than half of US employees have either no emergency savings or less than three months of expenses set aside. Fewer than one in 20 employers offer a formal program to address it, according to Gallagher’s 2026 US Workforce Trends Report: Financial Benchmarks. The report combines responses from 3,717 US organizations surveyed from January through March 2026 with employee-level data from Gallagher’s 2026 Financial Health Assessment. Employer figures and employee figures draw on their respective sources throughout.
According to the report, 27% of employees report having no emergency savings at all, while another 24% have saved less than three months of expenses.
Vanguard’s How America Saves 2026 report found that 6% of plan participants took a hardship withdrawal in 2025, up from 4.8% the prior year and triple the pre-pandemic rate. It was the sixth consecutive year hardship withdrawals have risen. That figure reflects what happens downstream when employees hit an unexpected expense with no buffer. They reach into the one account that is supposed to be untouchable. The connection between emergency preparedness and retirement plan integrity is direct, and the Gallagher data make it visible at the employer level.
The Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement (SECURE) 2.0 Act of 2022 gave employers two mechanisms to address this without creating entirely new benefit infrastructure. Pension-linked emergency savings accounts (PLESAs) allow non-highly compensated employees to contribute up to $2,600 into a dedicated emergency savings account, with optional employer matching and auto-enrollment, while keeping those funds separate from retirement contributions. A second provision permits penalty-free emergency withdrawals of up to $1,000 from retirement accounts, giving employees a short-term release valve without forcing them into a full hardship withdrawal.
Adoption of both provisions has been limited. The Gallagher report found that nearly half of employers had implemented no optional SECURE 2.0 provisions or were uncertain whether any had been adopted. That pattern is part of a broader trend of financial wellbeing gaps widening despite rising employer investment, with emergency savings standing out because the fix is relatively bounded. A PLESA does not require rebuilding a plan. It requires a plan design review and an amendment decision.
“Financial wellbeing is no longer viewed as a stand-alone benefit,” said John Tournet, US CEO of Gallagher’s benefits and HR consulting division. “Employers increasingly recognize the connection between financial health, workforce engagement and business performance.”
The 74% of employees who told Gallagher researchers they make healthcare decisions with their finances in mind makes that point concrete. An employee without an emergency fund who faces a $500 car repair does not just have a savings problem. The same shortfall feeds healthcare utilization decisions, retirement plan leakage, and workplace engagement, all at once. The 5% employer adoption rate on emergency savings programs suggests most plans have not yet mapped that connection.
