Majority of Hourly Workers Seek Raises, Career Stability

By Cindi Choi.
Updated Aug 5, 2021

MINNEAPOLIS (PRWEB) August 05, 2021 - Branch, which helps businesses accelerate payments to empower working Americans, announced findings from its third annual Branch Report, a look at the financial, work, and lifestyle interests of todays hourly workers. Surveying over 3,000 hourly employees across a variety of sectors including food service, retail, and healthcare, the 2021 report reveals how hourly workers have reacted to the labor shortage, what they want from their workplace, and how their emergency savings have improved after the first year of the pandemic.

As employers struggle to fill jobs, about 60 percent of respondents believe that companies are having a hard time hiring workers, while 15 percent believe the difficulty is only in certain regions and industries. What they cite as a key cause: the need for higher wages. The majority believe that the labor shortage is caused by workers earning more on unemployment benefits and stimulus checks (68%) and that companies need to provide higher wages (59%). They also believe that fear of COVID-19 exposure is the third leading factor (46%). But unemployment benefits and stimulus checks have not impacted how much todays hourly workers are working 71 percent are working about the same and another 11 percent are even working more.

Also potentially contributing to the tight labor market is that many are unlikely to leave their current jobs soon: the majority of respondents (58%) dont plan on switching jobs in the next six months. About a quarter are open to switching but not actively looking (27%), and only 11 percent are actively looking. If they were to make the jump, the biggest motivator would be higher wages (64%), with the option to work from home a distant second (15%). While they may be staying put, theyre still seeking higher wages in their current positions. When asked about what they want out of their current workplace, 69 percent cited higher wages followed by scheduling predictability (51%) and strong work culture (45%).

Hourly workers financial situations saw improvement in the last year likely due to rising wages and stimulus checks, with emergency savings and financial priorities returning to pre-pandemic levels. The percentage of hourly workers with $0 savings dropped from 52 percent down to 41 percent, on par with the 40 percent reported in 2019. The portion of workers with more than $1000 saved in emergency savings doubled from 7 percent to 15 percent. However, the vast majority (77%) still have less than $500 saved.

Companies will need to provide a range of benefits along with higher pay in the competition for attracting and retaining hourly talent, said Atif Siddiqi, Branch Founder and CEO. Especially as workers recover from the financial toll of the pandemic, companies that offer wages and benefits that can set workers on a stronger path to financial and career stability will win out.

Among financial concerns, hourly workers cited home/rent affordability (62%) at higher rates than previous years, followed by utility bills (53%), and groceries (38%). Workers became even more concerned with medical/healthcare costs (32%), which surpassed autocare/transportation (28%) this year.

Additional findings include:

Finances: Digital, Fast, and Free With the pandemics acceleration of digital payments, hourly workers have embraced the cashless life. While debit cards still reigned as the top payment method for hourly workers this year (74%), credit cards (10%) outranked cash (6%) as the second most popular payment method. And workers are increasing their use of digital wallets compared to last year (4% vs. 2%), using them as often as they use online/mobile payments apps (4%).

When it comes to selecting a banking/financial services application, the majority of hourly workers cited no overdraft or maintenance fees (56%) as their top feature, closely followed by building credit (51%). Hourly workers also wanted their applications to be free and fastfree ATM usage (43%) and faster paychecks (39%) were also cited as top features. Rounding out the top five was responsive customer support (34%).

Lifestyle: TikTok Usage Nearly Doubles Theres a reason why employers are increasingly turning to TikTok to find new workersTikTok usage has rapidly grown, especially among hourly workers. Instagram (65%) overtook Facebook (63%) this year among workers top social media platforms, but both fell significantly compared to usage last year, while TikTok usage nearly doubled from 24 percent to 44 percent. Snapchat continued to hold steady at third, with similar usage rates as last year (52% vs. 53%).

Among entertainment platforms, Netflix continued to lead for the third straight year with 76 percent of respondents citing it as one of their most used platforms, followed by YouTube (55%). However, both platforms usage decreased slightly as Hulu (49% vs. 48%), Disney+ (34% vs. 30%), Amazon Prime Video (31% vs. 29%), and HBO Max (26% vs. 7%) all gained ground compared to last year.

For more findings or to download a copy of the report, visit: https://www.branchapp.com/branchreport.