Burnout among U.S. workers has increased to a six-year high, with almost three-quarters of employees feeling significant stress at work, according to a new Aflac report.
Highlights from Aflac's Workforces Report, based on surveys of more than 1,000 employers and 2,000 employees:
Burnout in U.S. workplaces has climbed to its highest level in six years, with 72% of employees reporting moderate to very high stress.
74% of Gen Z workers feel at least moderate burnout, surpassing millennials at 66%.
Confidence in employer support is slipping. Just 48% of workers believe their employer cares about their mental health, down from 54% in 2024.
44% of workers say they couldn’t cover a $1,000 unexpected medical cost. That figure rises to 54% among African Americans, 51% for Gen Z, and 46% for Hispanic workers.
The term “medanxiety” captures a new fear: 52% of workers worry about health care costs not covered by insurance. (61% of Gen Z workers experience "medanxiety.")
A stronger sense of belonging yields measurable benefits: employees who feel they belong report lower burnout (55% vs. 78%) and less stress (30% vs. 56%).
Read more via Aflac
In 2015, Walmart increased its starting wage to $9 an hour, raising the salaries of "nearly half of its more than a million U.S. hourly workers" and marking the "biggest pay raise in history." Investors weren't pleased and “reacted by sending Walmart shares down 10%.”
Executives from other employers recently traveled to Walmart's Arkansas headquarters to "learn about Walmart’s future workforce management and hear the story of the 2015 wage increase from Walmart’s chief executive."
Walmart Chief Executive Doug McMillon told the Journal that Walmart's decision to increase hourly pay was motivated not by benevolence, but by high turnover and a poor customer experience.
Walmart's focus on "improving profits by keeping down costs" included wages and "sales stagnated" as a result.
McMillon "crafted a plan to raise wages," reduce employee turnover, and improve store and warehouse operations.
Walmart's pay increases did not come "all at once and it didn’t try to be a leader."
Instead, the company "moved from the bottom rung of hourly pay to just above the middle compared with competitors."
In the years since, Walmart has continued raising wages, though "not as fast as some competitors."
The Wall Street Journal reports that Walmart's successful experience with raising wages is set to be the focus of a soon-to-be-published Harvard Business School case study.
Read more via The Wall Street Journal
Finding accessible and affordable child care has become increasingly challenging for workers across the U.S. Increasingly, workers believe employers should be stepping up to offer support.
Working parents are looking for more support from employers around child care: More than 75% of working parents think "employers should offset the cost of child care," according to KinderCare's 2025 Parent Confidence Index. 59% of working parents surveyed by KinderCare said they would "rather have their employer subsidize child care costs than give them a raise."
Employer child care benefits aren't always easy to understand – or use: 63% of working parents said their current employer-provided child care benefits are "more difficult to use than health benefits," according to KinderCare's 2025 Parent Confidence Index.
Child care challenges have a disproportionate impact on women: 49% of manufacturing leaders said a lack of child care is a challenge they hear about from female employees, compared to just 8% who heard the same from male employees, according to a 2023 white paper published by the Manufacturing Institute.
Return-to-office mandates have increased child care challenges: According to KinderCare's 2025 Parent Confidence Index, almost three-quarters of working parents are "now working in-office full-time or in hybrid roles, and 60% say this has impacted their child care needs."
Small businesses are being impacted as well: 59% of small-business owners said "barriers to child care access were impacting their business" and hurting their opportunity to grow, according to a report by Small Business Majority.
Read more via HR Dive, The Manufacturing Institute, Inc., Small Business Majority, KinderCare
