2024-2025 Inside Employees’ Minds 

Essential to industries like retail, food service, healthcare, and manufacturing, they have become acutely aware of their value in the marketplace — and just as disappointed by an employer deal that appears to be moving them backward instead of forward.

This year’s data finds the workforce navigating growing financial strain, inequitable benefits, limited flexibility, and barriers to career advancement. Because these challenges tend to disproportionately impact hourly workers, that cohort serves as both a microcosm and also a bellwether for broader systemic issues in the employee value proposition (EVP). Addressing and improving equity and employee experience for hourly workers is essential for their survival — but will ultimately create a better workplace for all.

In this year’s Inside Employees’ Minds report, we chose to focus on the experience of hourly workers because it illuminates deeper cracks in the employer employee relationship. Despite their critical role in the labor market, hourly wage earners face challenges that are too often overlooked—especially for those earning the lowest wages. Constrained by limited flexibility and sparser benefits, these workers consistently score lower than their salaried peers on key career, well-being, and financial metrics, and many struggle to envision a path toward stability, let alone prosperity. Inflation and market volatility further compound these pressures, with hourly employees expressing greater financial worry this year. These mounting stressors take a toll, particularly as workplace relationships fray; since 2022, there has been a 27% increase in the number of hourly employees citing stressful relationships with bosses or colleagues as a key reason for leaving their roles.

The resulting strain is reflected in declining engagement levels. Motivation among hourly workers has dropped by 5 percentage points compared to last year in every industry except high tech.

Key engagement behaviors like referrals and motivation have also fallen. In fact, hourly workers overall are now projected to be 10% less engaged than their salaried peers, highlighting the urgency of addressing these disparities.

Download Mercer's 2024-2025 Inside Employees' Minds survey findings to better understand the challenges shaping the hourly workforce and what you can do to address disparities that undermine engagement and stability.