Weight-loss drugs are becoming a popular employee perk, with almost a third of workers saying they’d switch jobs to get GLP-1 coverage. Now, Bank of America is spending $250 million or more yearly on the drugs for its staffers—and CEO Brian Moynihan says the upsides are well-worth the eye-watering cost.
“What we see is a great impact on the employees,” Moynihan recently said in an interview with CNBC. “We’ve always been about mental wellness, physical wellness.”
It’s part of a wider $2 billion a year wellness packaged for employee healthcare at the $436 billion bank. Staffers may have to cover the premium or copay for their GLP-1s, but the Wall Street titan is picking up the rest of the bill, amounting to nearly a quarter of a million dollars annually. And Moynihan says the health investment is worth it to support a healthier workforce.
“It’s lowering near-term incidents of heart issues for people taking, even if they don’t have all the attributes,” the CEO continued. “That’s the payback.”
The chief executive even acknowledged that Bank of America may not fully realize all the long-term benefits. He noted that some Bank of America staffers on GLP-1s may not see the health upsides until later in life, years after they’ve left the company, but he still believes in the investment.
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