When costs rise faster than wages, employees make affordability-first choices: lower-premium plans with higher deductibles, skipping supplemental coverage or cutting dental or vision to keep medical. The savings are immediate. This is the affordability trap: optimizing for today’s paycheck at the cost of tomorrow’s crisis. Gaps are then created that employees don’t see until something goes wrong.

Our proprietary research explores six gaps, and what employers can do to close them.