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“By all expectations, the mood for 2024 is radically different than what it was going into 2023,” said Aaron Terrazas, Glassdoor’s chief economist.
Employers are still budgeting more money for their compensation budgets next year as the economic environment evolves — even if it’s not as big an uptick as in 2023.
With more conservative salary budgets forecasted, inflation will continue to be salient in creating frustration among workers.

Workers operate a drilling rig for an EBR Energy LP natural gas well near Columbus, Texas.
Scott Dalton | Bloomberg | Getty Images

What kind of pay increases workers may see in 2024

Employer compensation budgets remain high compared to before the pandemic. That’s still true for 2024 — even if figures are smaller than this year as the economic environment evolves.
In June, employers surveyed by consulting firm WTW said they were planning to increase salaries by about 4% in 2024, compared to 4.6% in 2023. A Mercer survey in September found that organizations were forecasting a 3.9% increase in overall compensation budgets, compared to 4.1% in 2023.

“We’re not there yet, but I think we are seeing it shift a bit” to an employer market, where workers have less power to demand higher pay, said LaCinda Glover, a senior principal consultant at Mercer. “If we see more cooling [in the job market], those budget numbers will come down a bit.”

Wage growth has ‘come down pretty steadily’

Employees are entering a tighter job market, which has affected wage predictions, said Terrazas. A recent Glassdoor report noted that the rates of employees quitting or entering jobs has returned to pre-pandemic levels.
“We should expect less turnover to continue to tamp down wage growth in coming months,” according to the report.
Career site Indeed, like other groups, has already been monitoring a slowdown across sectors. At the current rate, Indeed’s tracker forecasts posted wage growth to reach the 2019 average of 3.1% in late 2023 or early 2024. It found that posted wages grew 4.5% year over year in August — compared to 9.3% in January 2022.

Wage growth has “come down pretty steadily” since that pandemic high, Indeed economist Cory Stahle said.
Indeed’s tracker precedes government-released data on wages by looking at what employees are actually posting in their job descriptions.

What pay raises mean stacked against inflation

Workers seeking salaries that will match the ongoing rise in the cost of living are likely to find 2024 a challenging environment.
“The average American has only kept pace with inflation, and maybe feels like they’ve lost ground relative to the pre-pandemic trend,” said Julia Pollak, chief economist at ZipRecruiter.
The data supports that: Growth in the consumer price index surpassed wage growth for full-time workers in 2021 and has not come down since, up 18.2% since the beginning of 2020.

As a result, employees on average are continuing to see negative nominal wage gains, Terrazas said. This creates a perception gap between income and the cost of daily goods, allowing “friction and resentment” to build up and push people to leave their job for another opportunity.
With more conservative salary budgets forecasted, inflation will continue to be salient and contribute to rising frustration among workers, Pollak said.

How job seekers can maximize wage growth

There are a number of steps that job seekers can take to position themselves for wage growth, despite the tightening labor market.
Those on the hunt for a job should acknowledge their “red lines” and only focus on postings that list a salary within that range, Pollak said.
If condensing your search based on your desired salary only turns up postings outside of your current skill set and experience, Pollak said workers ought to focus on polishing needed skills through freelance work, building a portfolio that showcases work relevant to their desired job, and highlighting on their resume what training they already have.

“Employers often just lack information about candidates and are very uncertain and very risk averse about making the wrong hire,” Pollak said. “Even small bits of information like a recent certification … is a great signal to employers that shows that you’re capable and you’re doing things right now.”
Employer demand is still strong in multiple sectors, Indeed’s Stahle noted, including jobs that are fully in-office and health-care jobs. Employees should use their bargaining power and be open to negotiating, he said.
“Just because we see wages coming down at home, doesn’t mean that an individual worker can’t necessarily get a larger raise than average,” Stahle said. More

President Joe Biden has managed to cancel $127 billion in student debt so far, more than any other president in history.
Consumer advocates praise the president for his actions but are pressuring him to do more.
Here’s what to know about those relief options he has utilized.

President Joe Biden delivers remarks on new efforts to cancel student loan debt at the White House on Oct. 4, 2023.
Kevin Dietsch | Getty Images

Income-driven repayment plans

Income-driven repayment plans, which date back to 1994, allow student loan borrowers to pay a share of their earnings toward their debt each month, and to get any remaining debt forgiven after a set period. There are four different plans.
Yet, many borrowers paid into the system for years without getting that promised cancellation, said higher education expert Mark Kantrowitz.

“The loan servicers weren’t keeping track of the number of qualifying payments,” Kantrowitz said.

The Biden administration has evaluated millions of borrowers’ loan accounts to see if they should have had their debt cleared.
As a result, it has cleared nearly $42 billion for more than 850,000 people enrolled in these plans.
Most people with federal student loans qualify for income-driven repayment plans, and can review the options and apply at Studentaid.gov.

Public Service Loan Forgiveness

Navigating the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program has been famously difficult. 
The program, signed into law by former President George W. Bush in 2007, allows certain not-for-profit and government employees to have their federal student loans discharged after 10 years of on-time payments. In 2013, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau estimated that one-quarter of American workers may be eligible.
Yet, after getting wrong information from their servicers about the program’s requirements, millions of borrowers hit walls. People frequently found that some or all of their qualifying payments didn’t count because they had a loan or were enrolled in a payment plan not covered under the initiative.

Paul Morigi | Getty Images

The Biden administration has tried to reverse the trend of borrowers being excluded from the relief on technicalities. It has broadened eligibility and allowed people to reapply for the relief, as long as they were working in the public sector and paying down their debt.
Some 715,000 public servants have gotten their debt erased as a result, amounting to $51 billion in relief.
With the PSLF help tool, borrowers can also search for a list of qualifying employers under the program and access the employer certification form. They can also learn about all the program’s requirements at Studentaid.gov.

Total and Permanent Disability discharge

The Biden administration has also forgiven the student debt of more than 500,000 disabled borrowers. The $11.7 billion in aid was delivered under the Total and Permanent Disability discharge.
The U.S. Department of Education has gotten better at identifying borrowers who are disabled and in need of this relief by accessing information from the Social Security Administration, Kantrowitz said.
Borrowers may qualify for a TPD discharge if they suffer from a mental or physical disability that is severe, permanent and prevents them from working. Proof of the disability can come from a doctor, the Social Security Administration or The Department of Veterans Affairs.

Borrower defense

Another 1.3 million borrowers have walked away from their debt over the past few years thanks to the Borrower Defense Loan Discharge. These people received $22.5 billion in relief.
Borrowers can be eligible for the discharge if their schools suddenly closed or they were cheated by their colleges.
The Biden administration has more swiftly processed these applications and has started considering cases in a group rather than requiring each attendee of a school to prove they were misled.

“Borrowers who were affected by similar circumstances should have their loans discharged as a group,” Kantrowitz said.
Those who think they might qualify can apply with the Education Department.
Consumer advocates praise the president for his actions but are pressuring him to do more. On the campaign trail, Biden vowed to cancel at least $10,000 of student debt per person.
“Student debt cancellation tipped the balance in Democrats’ favor in the midterms,” said Astra Taylor, co-founder of the Debt Collective, a union for debtors. “Failing to deliver will demoralize and demobilize young people whose votes they cannot afford to lose.” More

The Netflix logo is seen on a TV remote controller in this illustration taken Jan. 20, 2022.
Dado Ruvic | Reuters

As the earnings season rolls on, investors are getting a glimpse into how companies are handling an array of macro pressures.
Analysts can pick apart these quarterly reports and help investors identify companies that can withstand near-term challenges and deliver attractive returns in the long term.

To that end, here are five stocks favored by Wall Street’s top analysts, according to TipRanks, a platform that ranks analysts based on their past performance.

Netflix

Streaming giant Netflix (NFLX) recently delivered a beat on third-quarter earnings per share, with its crackdown on password sharing helping to add more subscribers to its platform.
Evercore analyst Mark Mahaney said that there were several key positives in the company’s third-quarter print, including 8.76 million subscriber additions, stronger-than-anticipated Q4 2023 subscriber addition guidance, and share buybacks of $2.5 billion. He also noted an increase in the 2023 free cash flow outlook to about $6.5 billion, from the previous guidance of at least $5 billion and a price hike for the basic and premium plans.
“We continue to believe that NFLX’s ad-supported offering and password-sharing initiatives constitute major Growth Curve Initiatives [GCI] – catalysts that will drive a material reacceleration in revenue and EPS growth,” said Mahaney.    
The analyst thinks that the company is pursuing these GCI catalysts from a position of strength, given that it is a global streaming leader based on several metrics, including revenue, subscriber base and viewing hours.

Mahaney reiterated a buy rating on NFLX stock with a price target of $500. Interestingly, Mahaney ranks No. 48 among more than 8,500 analysts tracked by TipRanks. His ratings have been profitable 55% of the time, with each delivering a return of 25.4%, on average. (See Netflix Technical Analysis on TipRanks)

Nvidia

Next up is semiconductor giant Nvidia (NVDA). The stock has witnessed a stellar run this year, thanks to demand for NVDA’s chips in building generative artificial intelligence (AI) models and applications.
In a recently updated investor presentation, the company revealed roadmaps for its data center graphics processing units, central processing units and networking chipsets.
JPMorgan analyst Harlan Sur, who holds the 88th position out of more than 8,500 analysts on TipRanks, noted that NVDA’s product roadmaps indicate two major shifts. First, Nvidia has accelerated its product launch timing from a 2-year cycle to a 1-year cycle, which is expected to help the company keep pace with the growing complexity of large language compute workloads.
Regarding the second major shift, Sur said that the roadmaps indicated “more market segmentation (cloud/hyperscale/enterprise) by expanding the number of product SKUs [stock keeping units] that are optimized for a broad spectrum of AI workloads (training/inference).”
The analyst thinks that with these notable developments, the company is taking a multi-pronged approach to strengthen its data center market and technology. He reaffirmed a buy rating on the stock with a price target of $600, noting the growing demand for NVDA’s accelerated compute and networking silicon platforms and software solutions in the development of generative AI and large language models.
Sur’s ratings have been successful 64% of the time, with each rating delivering an average return of 18.2%. (See Nvidia Insider Trading Activity on TipRanks).

Instacart

Grocery delivery platform Instacart (CART) made its much-awaited stock market debut in September. Baird analyst Colin Sebastian recently initiated a buy rating on CART stock with a price target of $31.
Explaining his bullish stance, Sebastian said, “Despite a range of well-financed online and legacy retail competitors, Instacart enjoys an enviable combination of scale, retail integrations, vertical expertise, and proprietary technology.”
The analyst highlighted that the essence of Instacart’s business model is an asset-light partnership strategy. He also thinks that Instacart’s data and technology sophistication are its key competitive advantages. He believes that most food retailers might not be able to build similar internal e-commerce capabilities.
Most importantly, Sebastian views Instacart’s advertising business as one of the most successful launches of retail media, second only to e-commerce behemoth Amazon (AMZN). He pointed out that consumer packaged goods advertisers are promoting their products by leveraging Instacart’s performance ad formats that help in reaching target customers with relevant product ideas.   
Sebastian holds the 340th position among more than 8,500 analysts on TipRanks. His ratings have been successful 52% of the time, with each rating delivering an average return of 10.7%. (See Instacart Options Activity on TipRanks).

SLB

Oilfield services company SLB (SLB), formerly Schlumberger, recently reported better-than-expected third-quarter adjusted earnings. SLB stated that the oil and gas industry continues to gain from a multi-year growth cycle that has shifted to international and offshore markets, where the company claims to enjoy a dominant position.       
Goldman Sachs analyst Neil Mehta contends that while there are no clear near-term catalysts for SLB stock, the long-term growth story remains intact due to resilient customer spending. The analyst highlighted that Saudi Aramco is expected to spend about $245 billion through 2030, reflecting about 5% to 6% annual growth. Further, additional spending (at a modest growth rate) is anticipated from the United Arab Emirates’ ADNOC, Qatar and other players in the region.
Given that 80% of SLB’s revenue is from international and offshore markets, Mehta is confident that the company is well-positioned to leverage the long-term momentum in the Middle East. 
“SLB remains the preferred way to gain exposure to the international and offshore theme, with additional growth drivers in the expansion of its digital footprint with customers, which is margin accretive at ~40-45%, in our view,” said Mehta. 
Calling SLB a structural winner, particularly during pullbacks, Mehta reiterated a buy rating on the stock with a price target of $65. He ranks No. 155 among more than 8,500 analysts tracked by TipRanks. His ratings have been profitable 65% of the time, with each delivering an average return of 12.5%. (See SLB’s Stock Charts on TipRanks) 

Tesla

Our final name this week is electric vehicle maker Tesla (TSLA). The company missed earnings and revenue guidance for the third quarter, with macro pressures, a highly competitive EV market and aggressive price cuts affecting its performance.
Mizuho analyst Vijay Rakesh noted that despite the sequential decline in the company’s Q3 gross and operating margin due to lower pricing and Cybertruck R&D expenses, they remain at the high end of the margins of legacy automakers and way above rival EV makers’ margins.
The analyst lowered his price target for TSLA stock to $310 from $330 to reflect near-term headwinds like margin pressure, macro weakness and Cybertruck ramp challenges. Nevertheless, he reiterated a buy rating, noting that the stock still trades at a discount to disruptors such as Nvidia, while also generating profitability at scale.
“We believe TSLA is prioritizing market share, technology, and cost leadership and is better positioned than peers to weather any turbulence to the broader Auto market,” said Rakesh.
Rakesh ranks No. 82 among more than 8,500 analysts tracked by TipRanks. His ratings have been profitable 57% of the time, with each delivering a return of 18.6%, on average. (See Tesla Financial Statements on TipRanks) More

Luis Alvarez | Digitalvision | Getty Images

Company: Concentrix (CNXC)

Business: Concentrix provides technology-infused customer experience (CX) solutions and runs customer service for 2,000 customers globally. They are the second largest outsourced CX company globally and provide CX process optimization, technology innovation, front- and back-office automation, analytics and business transformation services. It also offers customer lifecycle management, customer experience/user experience strategy and design, as well as analytics and actionable insights.
Stock Market Value: $4.8B ($72.59 per share)

Activist: Impactive Capital

Percentage Ownership:  5.11%
Average Cost: $106.48
Activist Commentary: Impactive Capital is an activist hedge fund founded in 2018 by Lauren Taylor Wolfe and Christian Alejandro Asmar. Impactive Capital is an active ESG (AESG) investor that launched with a $250 million investment from CalSTRS and now has almost $3 billion. In just five years, the firm has made quite a name for itself as an AESG investor. Wolfe and Asmar realized that there was an opportunity to use tools, notably on the social and environmental side, to drive returns. Impactive focuses on positive systemic change to help build more competitive, sustainable businesses for the long run. Impactive will use all the traditional operational, financial and strategic tools that activists use, but will also implement ESG change that the firm believes is material to the business and drives profitability of the company and shareholder value. Impactive looks for high quality businesses that are usually complex and mispriced, where it can underwrite a minimum of a high-teens or low-20% internal rate of return over a three- to five-year holding period. The firm also seeks active engagement with management to set up multiple ways to win.

What’s happening

Impactive Capital has reported a 5.11% interest in CNXC for investment purposes.   

Behind the scenes

Concentrix, the second-largest outsourced CX company globally, is a high-quality business. It has a 96% retention rate, average client tenure of 15 years and high switching costs, with tailwinds via shift to outsourcing. Once clients choose an outsourced provider, they are extremely loyal, largely due to the complexity of implementation, which can take up to 12 months. This sticky and profitable growth has led the company to grow operating margins nearly 600 basis points from 8.3% in 2016 to 14% in 2022.  Additionally, Concentrix has very low cyclicality, showing resilience across various economic conditions, including Covid. The company’s scale benefits have created a competitive advantage, positioning it to take share and drive more than 30% IRR. Concentrix has grown both organically and via acquisition over the past 15 years to get to its leading position in the sector. Just last month it acquired Webhelp, creating a diversified global CX leader. Combined, Concentrix and Webhelp could generate double-digit profit and free cash flow growth.

However, Concentrix trades at the lowest multiple in its history – a mid-teens free cash flow yield and less than 7 times earnings, while peers trade at 18 times earnings. This dislocation is largely driven by generative AI fears despite Concentrix being a stable business that is capital light and growing. But technological innovation is not a new factor in this industry. Since 1994, the CX industry has seen the creation of the internet, text-based chat bots, email and an initial wave of artificial intelligence-based chat bots five years ago. The net effect of this innovation has been that the major players have grown their business fifty-fold. Impactive thinks that AI will be no different, that these AI risks are overblown and that it has the potential to be transformative in how it allows companies to be productive and grow their top line. Customer service and human interaction will always be an important factor to a growing enterprise, and AI has the potential to drive demand as we have seen in both the health insurance and airline industries.
Historically, Impactive has utilized an activist toolbox focused on strategic initiatives, operational improvements, capital structure and ESG. The firm sees significant strategic and capital allocation opportunities here: Concentrix is poised to generate 80% of its current market capitalization in capital available to deploy over the next three years, generating $2.5 billion in free cash (50% of the current market cap), and it will have $1.5 billion of debt capacity to deploy into accretive acquisitions and share repurchases, which could drive substantial earnings growth. Impactive is often a value-added stockholder and can be very helpful in helping the company analyze how to use this cash, whether for share repurchases, investing in organic growth or consolidating mergers and acquisitions.
On the ESG front, there is tremendous opportunity to improve employee retention. CX industry turnover can range from 20% to 60% per year and replacing one employee can cost about 20% to 30% of a worker’s yearly wage. Impactive is currently working with the company to implement creative solutions to do so, including building breakrooms in Asia, offering free feminine hygiene products in the Caribbean, and implementing flexible schedules for working parents in the United States.
Impactive believes that there is a significant return opportunity here with a base case IRR of 24% to 45% and an upside case IRR of 78%, assuming normalized growth over the next three years and execution of synergies following the Webhelp combination.
Ken Squire is the founder and president of 13D Monitor, an institutional research service on shareholder activism, and the founder and portfolio manager of the 13D Activist Fund, a mutual fund that invests in a portfolio of activist 13D investments.  More

Year-end Planning

If you inherited an individual retirement account, the IRS waived penalties for some missed mandatory withdrawals this year.
But certain heirs now have a shortened timeline due to changed “required minimum distribution,” or RMD, rules.
Even without RMDs for 2023, it still may make sense to start taking them as part of a long-term tax planning strategy, experts say.

Elenaval | Room | Getty Images

If you inherited an individual retirement account, the IRS waived penalties for some missed mandatory withdrawals this year. But there could be reasons to start taking them anyway, experts say.
Prior to the Secure Act of 2019, heirs could “stretch” IRA withdrawals over their lifetime, which minimized year-to-year tax liability. However, certain heirs now have a shortened timeline due to changed “required minimum distribution,” or RMD, rules.

Now there’s a 10-year withdrawal rule for certain heirs, which means they must empty the inherited account by the 10th year after the original account owner’s death.

More from Year-End Planning

Here’s a look at more coverage on what to do finance-wise as the end of the year approaches:

But if beneficiaries put off withdrawals or take only that minimum early on, they could wind up with a “giant RMD” at year 10, warned IRA expert and certified public accountant Ed Slott. “And they’ll get buried in taxes.”
“Even though some beneficiaries are not subject to RMDs this year, maybe they should take them anyway,” he added.
By starting RMDs sooner, heirs can smooth out taxes over a number of years and possibly reduce the overall bill with proper planning, Slott said.

Leverage ‘pretty attractive’ tax rates now

Another reason to take RMDs sooner may be to leverage the current federal income tax rates, which could be changing in a couple of years.

“The reality is we’re in a pretty attractive and low income tax rate environment,” said certified financial planner Ben Smith, founder of Cove Financial Planning in Milwaukee, who also urges heirs to start taking RMDs. “I think it’s important for folks to remember that the tax brackets can and do change.”

Former President Donald Trump’s tax overhaul temporarily reduced the individual federal income tax brackets. Before 2018, the individual rates were 10%, 15%, 25%, 28%, 33%, 35% and 39.6%.
Currently, five of these brackets are lower, at 10%, 12%, 22%, 24%, 32%, 35% and 37%. Without changes from Congress, those lower brackets are slated to sunset after 2025.

To that end, “ripping the band-aid off later may be less beneficial for folks that are in a higher bracket,” Smith said.
Plus, higher inflation over the past couple of years has expanded the income thresholds for each rate, meaning it takes more income to reach each tier, Slott explained. “Everybody says inflation is bad and things cost more,” he said. “But it’s great when it comes to taxes.”Don’t miss these CNBC PRO stories: More

The Federal Reserve is expected to announce no rate hike at the end of its two-day meeting next week.
Consumers will still feel the effects of higher rates and persistent inflation.
Here’s a breakdown of how the Fed’s moves have affected your mortgage rate, credit card bill, auto loan and student debt.

Chris Wattie | Reuters

Credit card rates top 20%

Most credit cards come with a variable rate, which has a direct connection to the Fed’s benchmark rate.
After the previous rate hikes, the average credit card rate is now more than 20% — an all-time high. Further, with most people feeling strained by higher prices, balances are higher and more cardholders are carrying debt from month to month.
Even without a rate hike, APRs may continue to rise, according to according to Matt Schulz, chief credit analyst at LendingTree. “The truth is that today’s credit card rates are the highest they’ve been in decades, and they’re almost certainly going to keep creeping higher in the next few months.”

Mortgage rates are at 8%

Although 15-year and 30-year mortgage rates are fixed, and tied to Treasury yields and the economy, anyone shopping for a new home has lost considerable purchasing power, partly because of inflation and the Fed’s policy moves.
The average rate for a 30-year, fixed-rate mortgage is up to 8%, the highest in 23 years, according to Bankrate.

“Rates have risen two full percentage points in 2023 alone,” said Sam Khater, Freddie Mac’s chief economist. “Purchase activity has slowed to a virtual standstill, affordability remains a significant hurdle for many and the only way to address it is lower rates and greater inventory.”
Adjustable-rate mortgages, or ARMs, and home equity lines of credit, or HELOCs, are pegged to the prime rate. As the federal funds rate rose, the prime rate did too, and these rates followed suit.
Now, the average rate for a HELOC is near 9%, the highest in over 20 years, according to Bankrate.

Auto loan rates top 7%

Federal student loans are now at 5.5%

Federal student loan rates are also fixed, so most borrowers aren’t immediately affected by the Fed’s moves. But undergraduate students who take out new direct federal student loans are now paying 5.50% — up from 4.99% in the 2022-23 academic year and 3.73% in 2021-22.
For those with existing debt, interest is now accruing again, putting an end to the pandemic-era pause on the bills that had been in effect since March 2020.
So far, the transition back to payments is proving painful for many borrowers.

Private student loans tend to have a variable rate tied to the prime, Treasury bill or another rate index, which means those borrowers are already paying more in interest. How much more, however, varies with the benchmark.

Deposit rates at some banks are up to 5%

“Borrowers are being squeezed but the flipside is that savers are benefiting,” said Greg McBride, chief financial analyst at Bankrate.com.
While the Fed has no direct influence on deposit rates, the yields tend to be correlated to changes in the target federal funds rate. The savings account rates at some of the largest retail banks, which were near rock bottom during most of the Covid pandemic, are currently up to 0.46%, on average, according to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.
However, top-yielding online savings account rates are now paying over 5%, according to Bankrate, which is the most savers have been able to earn in nearly two decades.
“Moving your money to a high-yield savings account is the easiest money you are ever going to make,” McBride said.
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The United Auto Workers strikes have brought new attention to a popular idea: a four-day workweek.
While surveys show most employees want shorter weeks, employers have yet to broadly embrace these schedules.
Experts say there are still ways to get more flexibility at work.

No-mad | Istock | Getty Images

The United Auto Workers union has brought new attention to the idea of a 32-hour workweek as part of its strike demands.
Turns out, most workers would embrace a shorter workweek.

A recent Bankrate survey found 81% of full-time workers want a four-day workweek. That goes particularly for younger workers ages 18 to 42, with 83% embracing that work schedule, the personal finance website found.
The enthusiasm for a four-day workweek comes as the Covid-19 pandemic prompted many workers to question the so-called “hustle culture” that has defined traditional full-time in-office work. Many people now want a better work-life balance, prompting workers to want to continue to work from home rather than returning to the office.
“When you look at these younger generations, they might be more shaped by some of the changes that we felt from the pandemic,” said Sarah Foster, economic analyst at Bankrate.

To get a four-day workweek, 48% of Gen Z and millennial workers said they would be willing to work longer hours; 35% said they would change jobs or companies; 33% said they would work fully in person; 20% said they would take fewer vacation days; 13% said they would accept a pay cut; and 12% said they would take a step back in their careers.
Yet it remains to be seen whether the idea will be widely adopted by employers.

“It’s still nontraditional,” Foster said. “Because so many Americans want it, it’s probably going to mean competing for those relatively few jobs that offer the perk.”

Employers are emphasizing well-being

In the meantime, Gen Z and millennial workers still say their top priority is higher pay, with 32%, according to Bankrate’s research. But better work-life balance came in a close second, with 31%. That includes flexible working hours, more time off and the ability to work from home.
“Employees want their organizations to share in their sense of well-being,” said Julie Schweber, senior knowledge advisor at the Society for Human Resource Management, or SHRM.
Employers, in turn, are making efforts to show they care about workers’ well-being.
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That includes expanded mental health resources and benefits, and more options for paid or unpaid leave for family and child care, Schweber said. Employers are also expanding their wellness offerings in areas such as handling stress and financial planning, as well as enhanced insurance subsidies, on-site flu and Covid shots and health screenings.
The availability of a formal four-day workweek is still limited, Schweber said. The perks workers might find more widely available instead include unlimited vacation time, flexible hours or “Summer Fridays” where employees can either leave early or not work at all on Fridays during the summer, she said.

How to ask for flexibility

While negotiating more flexibility may be possible, experts say it’s important to be strategic.
“It may be tough to ask right out of the gate, when an employee really hasn’t demonstrated their superstar status yet,” Schweber said.
You may want to pick your timing for after you’ve established a strong reputation on the job, she said.
If you want a four-day workweek, start by talking to your boss, Monster career expert Vicki Salemi suggested. While a companywide policy may not provide that schedule, sometimes there is flexibility in individual departments, she said.

Alternatively, there may be other flexibility arrangements you can negotiate that would better suit your needs.
For example, by emphasizing what you have been contributing through longer hours, you may be able to negotiate for reimbursement of your time spent commuting or working overtime, she suggested. If instead you need flexibility with regard to child care, you may want to make that your focus.
“The benefit of negotiating directly with your boss is determining ahead of time what you need most, and that’s what you would prioritize,” Salemi said.
Often, employers will try to work with those requests rather than risk losing good employees, she said.
Don’t miss these CNBC PRO stories: More

Nearly 13% of U.S. households were food-insecure in 2022, a new USDA report finds.
These rates are “significantly higher” than the year before.
Families are contending with the expiration of expanded nutrition benefits during the pandemic.

People wait in line for a meal served by Queens Together, local restaurants and The First Baptist Church with help of Northwell Health and Ponce Bank in New York on May 6, 2023.
Selcuk Acar | Anadolu Agency | Getty Images

The share of U.S. households facing hunger is rising at an alarming pace.
Nearly 13% of American households were food-insecure in 2022. That means some 17 million families, or 1 in 8 U.S. households, struggled to meet their nutritional needs at some point in the year, according to a new report by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

The prevalence was “significantly higher” in 2022 than in 2021, when 13.5 million households were food insecure, according to the USDA.
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“The results are unacceptable,” USDA Deputy Under Secretary Stacy Dean said.
Food insecurity is even more of a challenge for certain groups.
More than 22% of Black-led families reported food insecurity in 2022, and more than 33% of single mother-led households did.

The department’s findings come from an annual survey of nearly 32,000 households conducted by the U.S. Department of Commerce.
“There is no excuse for anyone going hungry in America,” said Luis Guardia, president of the Food Research & Action Center. “Congress must act now to make substantial investments in anti-hunger and anti-poverty programs.”

Consequences of expired pandemic-era aid

Pandemic-era aid programs, including the emergency expansion of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, rental assistance and direct stimulus payments, led to a record decline in poverty, experts say. At the same time, food insecurity rates fell, too.
“It speaks to the importance of a strong safety net,” Dean said.
However, most of these relief measures wound down or expired in 2022, with many states reducing their emergency SNAP allotments.

“The unwinding of critical Covid-19 pandemic interventions has made it more difficult for millions of families to afford to put food on the table,” Guardia said.
Those facing food insecurity are at more than double the risk of experiencing anxiety and depression, one study found. Food insecurity is also associated with a much higher likelihood of developing multiple chronic health conditions, such as diabetes and heart disease.
Last year, the American College of Physicians said food insecurity had become a threat to public health in the U.S. More