Gallup released on March 19 its 14th annual World Happiness Report. Nordic countries, like Finland, Denmark, and Iceland, topped the list again, while some Western nations, including the US and Canada, fell slightly compared to previous years.

Happiness can be influenced by several factors, including social support, GDP, freedom, life expectancy, and social media, the latter of which the report considered for the first time this year. A person’s workplace could influence their happiness as well.

“Work matters tremendously to happiness,” Gretchen Rubin, author of The Happiness Project, told HR Brew at the report reveal. “You get a sense of purpose. You get a sense of belonging. This is the ideal. You get a sense of contribution.”

Various workplace factors can influence a person’s happiness, including having a true friend, according to Rubin. “Somebody who has your back; to whom you could confide an important secret.”

Multiple studies indicate that happy people are also more productive at work. As the great (fictional) Elle Woods once said, “Exercise gives you endorphins. Endorphins make you happy.” So perhaps it makes sense that happy people also “have less unhealthy behaviors, like less burnout [and] less days off,” Rubin said. “They make better team leaders and better team members.”

Turn that frown upside down and keep reading here.—KP

Starbucks will pay its employees, called “partners,” on a weekly basis beginning in August, the coffee chain recently announced.

The move from biweekly to weekly pay is part of a broader set of changes to Starbucks’s compensation program that includes merit bonuses of up to $1,200 annually, as well as additional options for customers to tip baristas. Starbucks is in the midst of a turnaround strategy that it says will prioritize improving employee experience, but has also included stores closures and layoffs.

In a memo to employees, Starbucks Chief Partner Officer Sara Kelly said the chain made the decision to pay workers on a weekly basis after hearing “that getting paid sooner would help.” From August on, “you’ll get the money you earn, faster,” she said.

Under pressure. Starbucks’s decision represents a departure from the norm, as most US employers pay workers on a biweekly basis, per Bureau of Labor Statistics data from 2023. But it speaks to a common anxiety among workers as inflation and cost-of-living rates remain high.

Keep reading here for more on how Starbucks’s pay structure pans out..—CV

HSAs, as you likely know, are a type of personal savings account established in 2003 that allows people with high-deductible health plans to save money and collect dividends and interest without paying taxes. They’re similar to a health flexible spending account, or FSA, except all the savings roll over.

The catch: Account withdrawals must be for qualifying medical expenses or they can carry a 20% penalty, per the IRS.

It’s a deal a lot of people are willing to make. As of mid-2025, HSAs contained $159 billion across 40 million accounts, up 16% year over year, per data from investment solutions and research firm Devenir.

“We have seen tremendous growth in the space and in the number of accounts opened over the past couple of years,” Karen Volo, SVP and head of health and benefit accounts at Fidelity Investments, a major HSA provider, told Healthcare Brew.

But there’s a new twist! Read more about it in Healthcare Brew.—CC