Financial wellbeing benefits are reshaping what Australian employers offer. Here’s what actually moves the needle for employees feeling the cost of living squeeze.
Australian employees are losing an average of six working hours every month to financial stress. Obviously, that number lands differently depending on your team size. Multiply it across a hundred employees and you’ve got 600 hours a month of paid time that evaporated before anyone noticed. The business case for taking financial wellbeing seriously is pretty clear.
Annual living costs in Australia rose between 2.3% and 4.2% in the December 2025 quarter, driven largely by housing, food, and energy. Wages have technically kept pace, but not in ways that feel reassuring when the grocery receipt is twice what it was eighteen months ago. Fifty-six percent of Australians say they are more stressed about their finances this year than the year before. Of course they are bringing that stress to work, it would be strange if they weren’t.
The good news, if you’re an employer trying to respond to this without simply giving everyone a pay rise (admirable, occasionally possible, rarely scalable), is that a well-designed benefits package can do meaningful work here.
What Employees Value Right Now
Financial wellness initiatives have grown to 33% of employer offerings in Australia, nearly double the 2023 figure, according to Mercer’s 2025 data.
More than half of Australian employees value bonuses and performance-based incentives as a top benefit, according to Reward Gateway’s 2025 research. That one is unsurprising. But the more interesting finding sits just below the headline: benefits that reduce what employees actually spend, day to day, are climbing fast in perceived value. Benefits that cut personal financial exposure directly, things like dental cover, salary packaging, and novated leases, carry immediate value in a way that abstract, long-term benefits simply don’t.
Superannuation is valuable, income protection insurance is valuable. Most employees, in the middle of a cost of living squeeze, will tell you both feel theoretical compared to something that changes their fortnightly take-home pay this week.
The Tax Efficiency Most Employees Don’t Know They’re Missing
Salary packaging is one of those benefits that sounds complicated enough that a lot of people assume it isn’t for them. It is for them. The basic principle is straightforward: instead of paying for certain expenses out of your after-tax salary, your employer deducts them from your pre-tax income. You pay less tax, your take-home goes up.
What can be packaged varies by employer and industry, but common options include additional superannuation contributions, work-related expenses, and in many cases, the cost of a car through a novated lease.
Above-minimum super contributions are one of the most noticed elements of a benefits package, particularly for candidates comparing offers, and even a 1% increase above the mandatory minimum registers with employees in professional services and finance. For employers who can’t move base salaries as quickly as they’d like, this is a lever worth understanding.
Matthew Newman, Head of Novated and Consumer at SG Fleet, makes the point that the education component is just as important as the saving itself. “Financial wellness is a core expectation of a modern employer. It isn’t just about saving money,” he says. “It’s about empowering employees to understand and take control of their financial position.”
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Novated Leasing: The Benefit You Can See in the Driveway
Novated leasing works as a three-way arrangement between an employee, their employer, and a leasing provider. The employer deducts the vehicle cost and running expenses from the employee’s pre-tax salary, reducing their taxable income and, by extension, their annual tax bill. Fuel, insurance, registration, servicing, and tires can all be bundled into a single pre-tax deduction.
“For the employer, it’s a benefit that costs nothing to administer and requires no capital outlay, yet it consistently ranks among the most valued perks in engagement surveys. SG Fleet’s dedicated employer support team works alongside HR to integrate seamlessly into existing payroll systems, provide employee education sessions, and manage the entire lease lifecycle,” said Newman.
“From onboarding communications to renewal touchpoints, we take the complexity off HR’s plate entirely. The result is a high-impact benefit that strengthens attraction and retention.”
Newman also explains the employee side of the equation. “Unlike many benefits that are intangible or long-term in nature, novated leasing delivers an immediate and meaningful improvement to an employee’s weekly take-home position. It’s a benefit that employees can see, touch, and drive every day, which makes it one of the most emotionally resonant financial wellbeing tools available.”
The numbers make the case concretely. Based on indicative figures for a Sydney employee earning $90,000 a year, leasing a BYD Sealion 7 Premium over five years at 15,000km annually, the total weekly cost including vehicle, insurance, servicing, registration, repairs, and tires comes to $253. Compared to financing the same car privately, the estimated annual saving is $8,119, or $40,596 across the lease term. Those figures use 2025-26 income tax rates and current EV FBT exemption settings. Individual circumstances vary, and a personalized quote is the only way to get an accurate figure for your situation.
For employers, the administrative burden is low. SG Fleet handles payroll integration, employee education, and the full lease lifecycle. Newman notes that some employers redirect the resulting payroll tax savings into employee recognition programs, “including quarterly awards, team experience days, and a peer-recognition platform,” with measurable lifts in engagement scores as a result.
What Great Workplaces Know About Financial Care
Great Place To Work® has spent decades researching and measuring what makes employees trust the organizations they work for. The Trust Index survey covers credibility, respect, fairness, pride, and camaraderie across 60 statements. Financial wellbeing doesn’t appear as a standalone category, but it shows up everywhere inside the results. Employees who feel their employer genuinely supports them, including financially, consistently report stronger trust in leadership, higher intent to stay, and greater pride in their workplace.
The mechanism is straightforward. Financial stress erodes concentration and compounds with other pressures. It makes people feel that their employer sees them as a cost to be managed rather than a person to be supported. Benefits that address it directly, visibly, in ways employees experience week to week, send a different signal entirely.
Wellbeing benefits are vital for creating a healthy, resilient, and positive work environment, and essential for building a sustainable and engaged workforce.
The best EVPs being built right now don’t try to offer everything, but instead they offer the things that land. And in 2026, what lands is anything that makes someone’s actual financial life a little less stressful before they’ve had their morning coffee.
Frequently Asked Questions
What financial wellbeing benefits do Australian employers usually offer?
The most common financial wellbeing benefits in Australia include performance bonuses, salary packaging arrangements, novated leases, income protection insurance, above-minimum superannuation contributions, and employer-paid dental cover. According to Mercer’s 2025 Australian Benefits Review, financial wellness initiatives now feature in 33% of employer offerings, nearly double the 2023 figure. The benefits gaining most traction are those that reduce what employees spend right now, rather than benefits felt only decades later.
How does salary packaging help employees with cost of living pressures?
Salary packaging lets employees pay for eligible expenses from their pre-tax income, which lowers their taxable salary and reduces the income tax they owe. The result is a higher net take-home pay without any change to their base salary. Common items that can be packaged include superannuation top-ups, novated leases on vehicles, and in some industries, a broader range of living expenses. The tax saving is real and immediate, which is why it’s one of the most valued benefits in a cost of living environment.
What is novated leasing and how much can an employee save?
A novated lease is a salary packaging arrangement for a vehicle, where the employee’s car costs including repayments, fuel, insurance, registration, and servicing are deducted from pre-tax salary. As an indicative example, a Sydney employee on $90,000 leasing a BYD Sealion 7 Premium over five years could save approximately $8,119 per year compared to private financing, based on current tax rates and EV FBT exemption settings. Savings vary by salary, location, vehicle, and lease term. A personalized quote from a leasing provider will give accurate figures.
Does offering financial wellbeing benefits improve employee retention?
The evidence points strongly in that direction. According to Aon’s 2025 Human Capital Employee Sentiment Study, two in three Australian workers are either actively changing employers or considering it in the next year. Gallagher’s 2024 Workplace Wellbeing Index found employees with high wellbeing report 3.4 times stronger intentions to stay with their employer. Benefits that reduce financial stress directly and visibly, week to week, tend to register more strongly with employees than abstract long-term incentives.
