TORONTO-a Significant number of employees admit that their workplace productivity has been undermined by the stress of their personal financial situation, according to a report by the Canadian wage Association.

Association President Peter Tzanetakis said the annual survey focused on how much time canadian employees are distracted by their personal financial situation.

Nearly a quarter of the nearly 4,285 working people surveyed said they agreed or strongly agreed that personal Finance stress affects their work, with about 70 percent of them indicating that such issues take up to 30 minutes of a typical workday.

And about 43 percent of respondents agreed that ” stress related to personal finances has had an impact on working in my workplace.”

Rising cost of living and overwhelming debt were among the biggest sources of stress identified by an online survey conducted by Ramnow partners between April 24 and June 18.

“The key message has always been that … more than 40 percent of Canadians live paycheque to paycheque, ” Tzanetakis said in an interview before Wednesday’s release.

“But as the survey has evolved over the years, we have gone a little deeper to understand some of the sources of financial stress – and some decisions as well.”

The 2019 survey found, among other things, that 40 percent of respondents felt “overwhelmed” by their debts to some degree, including nine percent who “strongly agreed” with what they believed to be the case.

Tzanetakis said, in addition to the amount of debt, there are concerns about the nature of the debt – with one in three saying they carry credit card debt, which can charge a higher interest rate than mortgages, lines of credit or transport loans.

“And four in 10 (with credit card debt) say it will take more than a year to pay it off. I think that’s what leads to this feeling of being overwhelmed by debt .”

The survey also found that 43 per cent would have problems if their pay was delayed by a week, with 13 per cent indicating it would be “very” difficult.

About a quarter of respondents said they spend their entire net salary from each period, and nearly two-thirds of respondents said they spend less than their net salary in a typical pay period.

A poll cannot be assigned a margin of error because online polls are not considered random samples.

Tzanetakis said about 55 percent of canadian businesses offer to automatically move part of an employee’s salary to a separate account to encourage savings, but only about one in three canadian employees participate.

“So there is still a lot of room for improvement. We encourage employers to really look at it and use the expertise in their payroll departments to create such a plan and manage it for them, ” he said.

“It does contribute to alleviating some financial stresses if you’re not worrying about saving as much.”

The study also found about three-quarters of respondents would be interested in General financial education programs in the workplace, including 27 percent who said they would be “very” interested.

“Of course, there is a role for the government and the education system. … We’re just trying to raise awareness of all stakeholders at this point in time.”