72% of Consumers Back Brands That Provide Employees Extra Pay Amid COVID

Businesses offering workers extra pay and other perks during COVID-19 reportedly gained new revenue and loyalty from consumers for those deeds.

A fresh survey by Invisibly suggests that brands providing values to make today’s world more for employees tend to win the trust of buyers more so than those who don’t.

The data analytics firm teamed with Vrity using Invisibly Realtime Research to ask nearly 1,110 consumers to see if they are more likely to shop with brands that treated employees better during the pandemic.

Among the report’s top findings were some 72% of respondents are more likely to shop at a store that gave their employees extra pay during COVID-19. Employee pay matters as 71% of those surveyed reported they are apt to shop at a store that pays a $16 minimum wage versus a $12 minimum wage. Men were usually more likely than women to support brands doing good.

The report disclosed price will likely remain as the top factor fueling consumer buying habits, particularly in a trounced economy still rebounding from the pandemic’s blow. Yet a growing number of shoppers are lining up their dollars with brands helping to make the world more amicable and cheerful. That has been largely true with Gen Z and millennials.

“Being an altruistic brand is no longer just the morally responsible thing to do, it’s also the financially responsible thing to do,” Vrity’s co-founder and CEO Jesse Wolfersberger stated. He added a surprising report finding is the results persisted across age groups, rather than over-indexing in younger generations. “You can’t simply write this phenomenon off as a Gen Z trend,” he says. “We are seeing consumers in every age and demographic category voting with their wallet for values-driven brands. We’re in the values economy now.”

Another report showed shoppers are more bullish on companies focused on supporting employees amid COVID. That sentiment comes as many companies are applying layoffs, employee pay cuts, and other actions to soften the pandemic’s severity. A top finding from the Morning Consult report was about 50% of people questioned said they consider whether or not companies take care of their employees as one of their top five purchasing considerations.

Victoria Sakal, managing director of Brand Intelligence at Morning Consult and the report’s author, reflected on the firm’s website how consumers are becoming more cognizant of factors like employee health, especially considering COVID. “Companies exist in some way to serve consumers, but consumers are now increasingly taking a 360-degree view of things,” Sakal stated. “And drivers of choice are increasingly going to be related to other factors outside of what a company is offering.”