Closing the financial health gender gap: what employers can do

Financial health isn’t simply about how much someone knows about money. It’s about having the knowledge, confidence, and support to make informed decisions and take action, from managing everyday finances to preparing for retirement.

Yet in the U.S., a financial literacy gap between women and men persists.

The 2025 TIAA Institute-GFLEC Personal Finance Index (P-Fin Index) found that women answered 45% of its financial literacy questions correctly, compared with 53% of men. Only 11% of women demonstrated very high financial literacy, compared with 22% of men.

The FINRA Investor Education Foundation’s National Financial Capability Study also highlights differences in financial knowledge and confidence. Its latest study found that men were more likely than women to answer financial literacy questions correctly. Men were also more likely to feel confident in their ability to achieve a financial goal, at 74% compared with 66% of women.

But knowledge is only one part of the picture.

Differences in earnings, career breaks, caregiving responsibilities, and other life experiences can all influence someone’s financial position and the decisions available to them. These differences can compound over a lifetime, particularly when it comes to building savings, and preparing for retirement.

The U.S. Department of Labor highlights several factors that can affect women’s retirement security, including spending fewer years in the workforce, earning less on average, and living longer.

For employers, that creates an opportunity to think differently about how financial health support reaches and engages women.

From financial literacy to financial health

Traditional financial education has often focused on giving people more information. Information matters, but knowing something doesn’t necessarily mean someone feels confident enough to act on it.

That distinction is important.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) defines financial wellbeing around a person’s ability to meet current and ongoing financial obligations, feel secure about their financial future, and make choices that allow them to enjoy life.

At nudge, we think about financial health in similarly practical terms: helping people understand where they stand, make informed decisions, and take action, then continue adapting as life changes.

The workplace can play an important role in making that possible.

Employees already make significant financial decisions around workplace benefits, including 401(k)s, health benefits, HSAs, and FSAs where available, insurance and other programs. But simply providing those benefits doesn’t mean everyone understands them, knows how they fit together, or feels confident using them.

That’s where personalized financial education can help bridge the gap between access and action.

Different people need different support

Our own data has long shown that people don’t all engage with their finances in the same way.

In an earlier analysis of interactions with the nudge platform, women showed greater engagement with content around borrowing, budgeting, everyday finances, housing and inheritance, while men were more likely to engage with topics such as tax, investing, and retirement.

That pattern remained even when salary differences were taken into account.

This shouldn’t be interpreted as women simply being interested in short-term finances and men in long-term wealth. Financial lives are much more complex than that.

Instead, it highlights a bigger point for employers: a one-size-fits-all approach to financial education is unlikely to work for a diverse workforce.

People need support that reflects their financial circumstances, goals, and life moments and helps them connect what matters now with what they may need later.

Someone focused on managing childcare costs today, for example, may also need help understanding how a career break or reduced working hours could affect their retirement savings.

An employee navigating healthcare costs may need support understanding their HSA alongside their emergency savings.

Someone receiving a pay increase may be at the right moment to consider increasing their 401(k) contribution.

The most useful support connects those decisions rather than treating them as separate financial topics.

Confidence matters too

Financial knowledge isn't the only potential barrier to action.

Research consistently points to differences in financial confidence, particularly around areas such as investing and retirement planning.

That matters because employees can have access to valuable workplace benefits and still not make full use of them if they don’t understand their options or feel confident about what to do next.

Retirement is a particularly important example. Research from organizations including the Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI) examines how U.S. workers and retirees are preparing for retirement and how confident they feel about their financial future. The research includes analysis by gender and marital status, as well as dedicated research into how caregiving can affect finances and retirement preparation.

The challenge for employers, then, isn't simply to provide more financial information. It's to make it easier for employees to turn that information into decisions and action.

What can employers do?

Closing the financial health gender gap requires more than a campaign aimed at women once a year. It means creating an employee experience that recognizes different needs, circumstances and moments throughout people's lives.

Total Rewards and Benefits teams can help in five important ways:

Make financial support personal.
Move beyond generic education and help employees find information and tools relevant to their circumstances, goals, and financial priorities.

Connect education with employee benefits.
Help employees understand not only what benefits are available, but when and why they might matter, from 401(k)s and HSAs to insurance and other workplace programs.

Support the moments when financial decisions matter most.
Starting a family, becoming a caregiver, changing jobs, receiving a promotion, navigating health changes or approaching retirement can all reshape someone's finances. Timely support can help employees understand the financial implications and their options.

Build confidence as well as knowledge.
Give employees practical ways to apply what they're learning, understand their starting point, and identify an achievable next action.

Look beyond engagement.
Opening an article or attending a webinar can be useful first steps, but the bigger question is what happens next. Look at whether employees are becoming more confident, taking action and making better use of the benefits and resources available to them.

From information to action

The financial health gender gap is complex. It won't be solved by assuming every woman has the same needs or by simply giving employees more information.

But employers can create an environment where more people have the knowledge, confidence, and tools to make informed financial decisions.

That's the shift from financial education alone to financial health: helping people understand their options, connect their finances with the benefits available to them, and take action at the moments that matter.

nudge brings this together in one global financial health platform, personalized for every employee. Combining intelligent technology and human expertise, nudge delivers impartial financial education and timely, relevant support that helps employees understand their finances, navigate their benefits and take action.

For U.S. employers, that can mean helping people connect everyday financial decisions with benefits such as 401(k)s, HSAs, and FSAs, while helping Total Rewards teams drive greater understanding, utilization and value from the benefits they already provide.

Want to build a more financially healthy workforce? Talk to nudge.

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