7 Things to Know About the State of Workplace Mental Health

EDITOR’S NOTE — This story includes discussion of suicide. If you or someone you know needs help, the national suicide and crisis lifeline in the U.S. is available by calling or texting 988. There is also an online chat at 988lifeline.org

Unquestionably, mental health has been a big workplace topic over the past decade. But rather than diminishing, the focus on employees’ emotional well-being seems to be growing with each passing year.

This increased emphasis is understandable, given a number of statistics that are hard for workplace leaders to ignore. For instance, a 2024 survey from LIMRA, a Windsor, Conn.-based insurance and financial firm, found that 75% of U.S. workers say they have experienced at least one mental health challenge, such as anxiety, depression, grief, or thoughts of suicide, either “sometimes” or “often” in the past year, with 37% dealing with mental health issues “often.”

In honor of Mental Health Awareness Month in May, here’s an overview of what to know about the topic — from which workers are struggling to the state of benefits and support and where employers need to do more.

Jobs are impacting workers’ mental health. Nearly 1 in 3 U.S. workers (31%) say their job makes them stressed “always or often,” according to a February 2025 pulse survey of 1,193 U.S.-based workers by SHRM. The same survey found that nearly 1 in 4 U.S. workers (22%) said their job made them anxious “always or often.” Among those who said their job made them feel stressed at least sometimes, most U.S. workers said workload most contributed to their stress (37%), followed by pay/compensation (33%), understaffing (31%), and poor leadership (29%). Other stressors include co-workers, lack of recognition, job insecurity, toxic workplace culture, commuting, and inflexible schedules.

On the flip side, 54% of employees said their job made them feel fulfilled, compared with 40% in 2024. Research indicates that those who feel more fulfilled by their job and cared for by their employer have better mental health.

SHRM Toolkit: Creating a Mental-Health-Friendly Workplace

Women are struggling in particular. Several statistics point to women experiencing a mental health crisis. According to ComPsych data, women have driven a stunning surge in mental-health-related leaves of absence: In the first quarter of 2024, 11% of all leaves of absence were due to mental health, a 22% increase in mental health leaves versus those taken in the first quarter of 2023. That’s a trend driven by female workers, who accounted for 69% of all mental health leaves of absence in 2023, and 71% of all mental health leaves in the first quarter of 2024. Separate data from ComPsych, a mental health provider that works with employers, shows that women have accounted for 60% of U.S. depression cases over the past two years.

Additionally, the Aflac WorkForces Report found that while 57% of workers reported experiencing at least moderate levels of burnout, women are more vulnerable to this particular issue, with 75% reporting burnout at work compared to 58% of men. 

“This is absolutely a significant problem for women in the workforce,” said Jennifer Birdsall, clinical psychologist and clinical director at ComPsych. “It’s something that’s been accelerating for the past few years going back to the pandemic.”

COVID-19 shone a light on workplace mental health. Worker mental health has been a growing workplace concern for years. But the pandemic “firmly cemented” the awareness of both mental health issues and mental health benefits — an awareness “that I don’t think will ever go away,” said Julie Stich, vice president of content at the International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans, a nonprofit organization with 31,000 employer members. 

Indeed, in the early days of the pandemic, scores of companies and HR leaders enhanced mental health offerings, touted help, and reiterated the importance of stress management and mental well-being prioritization.

“We made great strides getting rid of the stigma surrounding mental illness — that you don’t have to be afraid to talk about that, and that there’s nothing wrong with seeking help for a mental challenge,” Stich said. “It’s one of the best things that came out of the pandemic.”

Mental health benefits are becoming table stakes. In response to soaring stress and growing rates of conditions such as anxiety and depression, scores of employers have ramped up mental health support offerings, adding or enhancing benefits such as employee assistance programs (EAPs), telemedicine, and mental health apps. The vast majority of employers (90%) offered mental health coverage in 2024, up from 84% in 2019, according to the 2024 SHRM Employee Benefits Survey.  

“Although mental health coverage was already very high, hovering around 85%, the fact that it jumped up to over 90% in 2022 and has basically stayed around 90% since that time really is indicative of more employers recognizing its importance,” said Daniel Stunes, manager of data monetization at SHRM. “When a benefit already has a prevalence rate that high, it’s uncommon for there to be such a sudden, large, and sustained increase.”

Employers are looking at other benefits to support mental health. It’s not only mental health care benefits in focus: Employers are targeting other benefits that aim to reduce areas of stress for employees. For example, financial stress, child care demands, caregiving responsibilities, and menopause symptoms are known triggers for employees. As a result, a growing number of organizations are offering support for those circumstances — benefits that can also relieve employees’ mental health concerns.

Employees are unaware of their mental health benefits. Although employers are offering mental health benefits, organizations have a problem: Many employees are either unaware of the benefits available or don’t know how to access them. A quarter of employees (26%) say they do not know whether their employer offers mental health benefits — such as an EAP, flexible work arrangement, or paid time off for mental health — and only a little over half (53%) know how to access their mental health care benefits, according to a poll of more than 2,000 U.S. adults conducted by the National Alliance on Mental Illness in cooperation with Ipsos.

Those gaps “need to be addressed, not just for the benefit of the employees, but for these organizations as a whole,” said NAMI CEO Daniel H. Gillison Jr.  

The survey findings show the need for employers to bolster communications about mental health offerings — regularly reminding employees what mental health offerings are available, how to use them, and encouraging them to use these benefits.

Mental health help is good for business. Supporting workers’ mental health is not only good for employees; it’s good for employers as well. Workplaces see rates of retention and productivity rise when employees feel that their employer cares about their well-being. Of the 48% of employees who say their employers don’t care about their mental health, 60% said they are at least somewhat likely to look for a new job in the next 12 months, according to the Aflac research.

“Investing in employee mental health upfront pays dividends with happier, healthier teams and reduced absenteeism,” Birdsall said.