AUGUST 2022
WISCONSIN BANKERS ASSOCIATION
FOUNDED 1892
The Cost of Employee Financial Stress
How Wisconsin employers can best invest in the security of their team By Hannah Flanders As inflation and the cost of living across the country continue to rise, more employees are feeling the increasing strain of financial burden in their day-to-day lives.
While some individuals may choose to seek higher paying positions to combat this stress, many are looking to their current employer to assist them in finding new solutions to managing these burdens.
Financial stress is often defined as any emotional tension an individual may experience related to money, debt, or upcoming expenses. According to a survey
by Purchasing Power in March 2022, 97% of all full-time employees reported that they experience financial stress. While monetary stress manifests in many different ways, employers should be concerned that
Ag Bankers Say…
State Farmers Having Good Year, But Rising Costs Threaten 2023 By Paul Gores Many Wisconsin farmers are headed for a profitable year, but they’re already uneasy about 2023, ag bankers in the state say.
» Photo taken in Clinton, Wis. by Debra Hall, First National Bank and Trust Company.
Coming off a strong 2021 that saw rising dairy and commodity prices, farmers entered the year financially fit and, in many cases, with locked-in input expenses that have blunted 2022’s surge in inflation. But with the cost of fertilizer and diesel fuel ballooning, and livestock feed for those
these stressors weaken productivity, negatively impact company culture, and decrease overall talent retention. (continued on p. 22)
who don’t produce their own feed becoming more expensive, it’s hard to see how the next growing season can be as solid as this one has been so far, bankers said. “I think there’s more anxiety about what next year looks like than there is over what this year looks like right now,” said Dave Coggins, senior vice president ag banking for Green Bay-based Nicolet National Bank. With diesel fuel now topping $5 a gallon, and with fertilizer prices up in part because key ingredients come from embattled Ukraine and Russia, input costs are increasing. “A number of farmers were able to contract prices last fall and early winter before they totally took off and escalated. So some of them have (continued on p. 12)
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