According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, benefits accounted for 30.1% of private-industry compensation in March 2026: $14.01 of every $46.60 per hour. Nearly a third of what you spend on people goes to things other than wages.

Now, the other number. NFP’s 2025 U.S. Benefits Trend Report found that fewer than one-third of employees fully use their supplemental benefits, and 13% forget they have them altogether. Castlight Health’s 2026 Employee Benefits Report adds that when a need arises, 36% of employees pay out of pocket rather than use the benefit their employer already bought.

Put those together, and you have a line item worth almost a third of payroll, bought by the company, yet underused by the people it was bought for.

A new PYMNTS Intelligence tracker, produced with SoFi Tech Solutions, directly addresses this gap. It focuses on payment-card infrastructure for spending accounts, which is not what HealthCues does. But its central argument applies to any benefit an executive pays for: benefits don’t underperform because the design is wrong. They underperform because the experience of using them is.

The problem is friction, not intent

Nobody designs a benefit hoping it goes unused. What happens instead is ordinary. Eligibility rules are unclear. The employee can’t see what’s available when they need it. The process requires a form, a phone call, or a login they no longer remember. The benefit becomes something they have rather than something they use.

The PYMNTS research frames the fix around four areas where programs recover value. Three of them translate directly to preventive care.

1. Rules that work at the moment of use, not after

The tracker’s first finding is about compliance. Programs that check eligibility before an activity happens outperform programs that audit afterward. After-the-fact review generates rework and frustrated employees.

The preventive-care version of this principle is a program with eligibility defined up front. In the HealthCues program, claims are generated exclusively for qualified disease-prevention activities completed by employees. That is a defined set of activities, not a gray area to be sorted out at year-end. The program is a fully insured fixed-indemnity plan implemented through the employer’s Section 125 plan and operates under the rules that apply to that structure.

2. Visibility drives utilization

The tracker’s most practical finding: when employees can see what’s available to them in real time, they’re significantly more likely to use it. The 13% who forget their benefits exist aren’t disengaged. They simply haven’t been reminded at a useful moment.

A benefit that is touched once a year at open enrollment is easy to forget. One built around a small, regular action is not.

The HealthCues model asks each participating employee to complete one health activity per month, typically a few minutes, via a mobile app or online dashboard. Employees start with a short personal health assessment, receive a personalized monthly action plan, and can opt in to text reminders when it’s time for the next activity. The dashboard supports translation into multiple languages, which matters in multilingual hourly workforces, where a benefit that can’t be read won’t be used.

Through the program, employees can access preventive services such as health coaching, biometric and DNA screenings, telemedicine, and behavioral and mental health support. Keeping these services in front of employees every month turns access into use and helps keep claims off major medical, which helps keep renewal premiums down.

3. Measure it in CFO terms, with your own data

The tracker’s strongest advice is for finance. The authors urge building business cases on the organization’s own data rather than on industry averages. An industry average describes someone else’s workforce.

Their own illustration makes the point: an employer setting aside $12 to $15 million in benefit funds each year, with 15% to 25% going unused, is leaving $1.8 million to $3.75 million on the table.

For a supplemental Section 125 preventive care program, the CFO questions are specific. Eligible employees make a qualified pre-tax contribution through payroll, which can reduce the wages subject to certain payroll taxes. That changes the employee’s take-home pay and the employer’s payroll tax base. It does not change your medical premium or your renewal.

The size of those effects depends on your census, wage bands, plan tier, and fee structure. As an illustration only: at a $2,600 monthly wage assumption, net employer results across three popular plan tiers range from roughly $406 to $957 per participating employee per year, against a minimal per-enrolled-employee-per-month administrative fee. These are illustrative figures tied to stated assumptions, not a quote or a projection for your company.

Two qualifications belong in the same conversation. Employees pay a premium for the program; it is not free. Reducing reported wages lowers the earnings recorded for Social Security, which can affect future retirement, disability, and survivor benefits. The treatment of any specific arrangement is a matter for your CPA and benefits counsel, based on the actual plan documents.

One more lesson: communicate at launch, not after

The tracker’s implementation findings close with a familiar point: programs succeed when communication is paired with visibility from day one, not added after utilization disappoints.

For preventive care, the first month decides the rest. Employees who download the app, complete the health assessment, and receive their first reminder in the launch window form a habit. Employees who miss it often join the 13% who forgot they have it.

What to ask before your next renewal

Take three questions into your next benefits review:

1. What percentage of what we pay for is actually used? If nobody can answer, that is the first finding.
2. How do employees find out what’s available at the moment they need it? If the answer is “the open enrollment packet,” the gap is structural.
3. What does each program return, measured in our own numbers? Not a vendor’s average. Yours.

Benefits consume nearly a third of compensation. They deserve the same scrutiny as the other two-thirds.

Want to see how a supplemental Section 125 preventive care program would model against your own census? Contact HealthCues for an educational walkthrough, and bring your payroll, tax, and benefits advisors into the review.