More than half of U.S. workers (54%) say they would accept a lower salary in exchange for greater job security, according to Monster’s 2026 Job Security Report. As many organizations continue to watch layoffs, hiring freezes and restructuring across multiple sectors, this snapshot gives HR leaders perspective on how employees view the balance between compensation and job stability.
Job security: What gives?
The report, based on a Pollfish survey of 1,020 currently employed U.S. workers conducted July 17, found a strong willingness to trade pay for security. Twenty-eight percent of respondents said they’d accept a salary reduction of at least 5%, and 11% said they’d take a cut of more than 10%.
Among workers willing to make a trade-off:
- 26% would give up bonuses or incentives
- 26% would sacrifice workplace perks or benefits
- 23% would give up flexibility including remote work options
- 17% would accept higher health insurance costs
In total, 61% of respondents said they’d sacrifice at least one of these for more stability. Thirty-nine percent said they would not give up anything.
Read more: Employers see benefits of hybrid work as workers accept tradeoffs for greater flexibility
Compensation planning
Many employers have had to rethink total rewards packages amid budget pressure. The report’s authors point to communication as the lever employers have the most control over. Organizations that communicate clearly about business performance, invest in employee retention and provide a strong overall employee experience may be better positioned to attract and retain talent, according to the report.
Workers who are informed about where the business stands and where it’s headed may value that transparency enough to accept less on the pay side. The report suggests that investment in clear, consistent communication about company performance could do double duty to reduce anxiety-driven attrition while creating room to be conservative about payroll costs.
And, don’t forget about AI
Monster’s report doesn’t ask workers why they’re prioritizing stability, but a separate survey offers one possible explanation. Resume Now’s 2026 AI Value & Vulnerability Report, based on a Pollfish survey of 1,012 employed U.S. adults conducted in December 2025, found that 41% of workers say AI is already “replacing, devaluing or overlapping with parts of their job.” Nearly a third said AI could effectively complete at least half of their daily work tasks.
The two surveys weren’t conducted among the same respondents and shouldn’t be read as directly linked. But together they point to a workforce that is increasingly aware of how replaceable parts of their role might be, and increasingly willing to accept less pay to hold onto the role anyway.
Monster and Resume Now are both owned by the same organization, BOLD Limited.
What to watch
The report doesn’t specify which industries or company sizes show the strongest appetite for trading pay for security, though the survey sample spanned orgs from under 50 employees to more than 10,000. Sixty percent of respondents work fully in office, 22% hybrid and 18% fully remote, which is worth noting given that flexibility itself showed up as one of the trade-offs workers are willing to make.
However, the 39% of workers unwilling to give up anything suggests there is a ceiling on how far employers can lean on the promise of stability before they need to compete on compensation and benefits after all.
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