May is Mental Health Awareness Month, and many employers use this moment to remind employees about mental health benefits, EAP access, and other forms of support.
It’s all well-intentioned and important. But with 70% of employees living paycheck to paycheck, these resources don’t address one of the biggest drivers of anxiety, depression, and overwhelm: financial stress.
How financial stress affects employee mental health
The link between financial stress and mental health isn’t new, but employers often underestimate how deep it runs. According to Bank of America’s 2025 Workplace Benefits Report:
- 75% of employees earning less than $75,000 a year say managing everyday finances is a major source of stress in their lives
- 46% say their debt impacts their ability to focus and be productive at work
Financial stress also makes it harder for people to think clearly, weigh options, and take action — and the impact shows up on the bottom line. Vanguard’s research found that workers lose 3.8 hours each week distracted by financial stress — costing employers about $6,775 per employee, per year.
Multiple peer-reviewed studies link financial hardship to higher rates of anxiety, depression, and insomnia. The relationship runs both ways: stress about money worsens mental health, and worsening mental health makes financial decisions harder.
Why EAPs and mental health benefits aren’t enough on their own
Further perpetuating the cycle, the same financial stress that drives mental health challenges keeps employees from getting help. A 2025 LifeStance study found that 41% of people highly affected by economic stress cited cost as a significant barrier to mental health care.
When an employee is losing sleep over an unexpected car repair or can’t afford to fill a prescription that supports their mental health, that’s not a problem therapy solves. It’s a liquidity problem.
EAPs, mental health apps, and therapy benefits are valuable — but they don’t treat underlying financial pressures that cause employees’ stress.
Employees need Financial Care – not just financial wellness
The only way to break the cycle? Address what’s creating it. Employees need real, personalized, and unbiased financial support for everyday money problems and all other financial needs. This is not something traditional financial wellness, financial education, retirement-readiness, or financial planning benefits are built to offer.
With Brightside Financial Care, employees get their own Brightside Financial Assistant — a real person they can talk with by phone or chat. They listen without judgment, explain options clearly, find free and low-cost solutions that address employees’ challenges, and help them take next steps, one at a time.
Whether it’s dealing with an emergency like eviction, finding free resources for food and other basics, covering an unexpected expense, managing and reducing debt, or helping employees apply for hardship funds, Financial Assistants find real solutions that make a real difference, fast.
Critically, that includes an integrated approach that helps employees find and use their other benefits – including EAP support, mental health coverage, or other resources that they may not know about or are too overwhelmed to navigate alone.
How Financial Care addresses mental health: a real employee story
Consider Idris (not his real name), a fulfillment center employee earning $44,000 a year.
After losing his mother, he was struggling with his mental health. He’d fallen behind on rent, car insurance, and groceries — and without car insurance, couldn’t get to work.
The financial pressure was deepening his grief, and the grief was making every financial decision harder.
When Idris called Brightside, his Financial Assistant recognized that his mental health needed support just as urgently as his bills. In addition to finding an organization in Idris’ area to provide ongoing food assistance at no cost and options to catch up on his bills, she connected Idris with his Employee Assistance Program for grief counseling — a no-cost benefit he didn’t know he had.
Once his Financial Assistant walked him through options, Idris chose an affordable loan with one of Brightside’s partners to cover rent, car insurance, and other outstanding bills.
Today, he’s saving $20 per paycheck in a Brightside Savings Account and continues to work with his Financial Assistant for ongoing support.
How to close the gap between mental health and financial benefits
Mental Health Awareness Month is a good time for all benefits leaders to reflect on their benefits strategy and consider a tough question: Are we offering mental health benefits without addressing the financial stress that drives so many of them?
For many workforces, the answer is yes. But employers who recognize that — and take action to pursue a different approach — will see real, lasting improvement in employee wellbeing.
Schedule a demo to learn how Brightside Financial Care improves employees’ financial and mental health with a human-led model that delivers measurable impact for employees and ROI for their employers.