Skip NavigationAnvr | E+ | Getty Images
Workers are spending less on lunch. Rather than a sign of relief from high food prices, researchers say that over half of jobholders are responding to inflation by skipping meals.
According to ezCater’s Lunch Report, 54% of US-based, full-time employees missed out on work lunch at least once a week in 2026. Researchers surveyed 1,000 US-based workers, and the results have a margin of error of plus or minus 3%.
Robert Kaskel, vice president of people at ezCater, tells CNBC Make It that the percentage of workers skipping out on meals has increased consecutively for the past four years. In 2023, the first year ezCater conducted the survey, 48% of workers reported skipping one meal at work per week.
The majority of respondents, 81%, said that inflation caused them to change their eating habits at work and that they are responding to high food prices in a variety of ways. To cut costs, some buy out less frequently, resort to cheaper options, use discounts or loyalty programs, keep a strict budget, meal prep or forage for food at work.
Experts forecast that the consumer price index for food-away-from-home will rise by 3.5% in 2026, on par with the 20-year historical average, according to the Economic Research Service of the US Department of Agriculture. The food-at-home consumer price index is expected to grow by 2.4% in 2026, slower the 20-year historical average. While inflation is set to remain well below 2022 highs, consumers are still feeling the pressure of inflation on their wallets.
Despite inflation, employees spent less on food in 2026 than in 2025. Workers spent an average of $100.23 per week on work lunch in 2026, which includes groceries and ordered food. This figure is down 8% from 2025, according to the ezCater report. Kaskel says this is “evidence” that inflation is impacting lunch habits.
Alongside high food costs, employees also face more demanding work environments, which 31% of workers say makes it harder to step away from their desk for a proper lunch break. Others report company culture, time constraints, meetings and expectations from their managers as reasons for eating at their desk or forgoing lunch all together.
“There’s a sense that we all have to be plugged in and connected 24/7,” clinical psychologist at NYU Langone Samantha Buchman says. “I think those stressors probably really impact people’s ability to make a healthy choice in the moment.”
Younger generations feel the pressure to be available at all hours of the workday the most. Gen Z and Millennials are over twice as likely than their older colleagues to feel pressure from their manager to skip lunch.
Buchman says the low-fire, low-hire job market might add additional pressure for young workers to outperform at work.
“From working with young adults, it’s not that easy to find jobs these days,” Buchman says. “Maybe there’s more of a feeling of ‘OK, now I have a job, and I need to do everything possible to keep this job and impress my boss and perform at my absolute best.”
Still, workers value their lunch time. Kaskel says that 35% of employees would choose a protected daily lunch break over additional paid time off: “It just points to the importance that having that protected time at work to eat, preferably in a collaborative setting — how valuable that is to folks.”
The report also points to several negative side effects of employees taking fewer lunch breaks. For one, skipping lunch means fewer opportunities to socialize at the office. More than half of employees prefer to eat with others though only 36% of workers eat away from their desk every day of the work week.
“Humans are social animals, and I think that we’re not really made to eat on our own. I know that that’s kind of the standard for most of us in our modern society, but eating with others is actually our natural state,” Buchman says of anthropological eating habits.
Workers also report that hunger hurts their productivity. The majority of workers, 84%, say that on an empty stomach, their performance takes a hit.
“If we’re not eating, we’re not getting calories, we’re not getting nutrients. Our brain isn’t going to be working as well because we need calories for our brain to function well,” Buchman adds.
Researchers, including those at ezCater, say that companies should reconsider their investments, or lack thereof, in meals for their employees.
Free lunches could get more employees into the office, a major struggle for companies in the post-pandemic era, the ezCater survey found. Even as jobholders face longer commute times, nearly seven in 10 Zoomers and Millennials say they would come on site at least three times a week for a free catered lunch at the office. As for Gen X and Boomers, 45% felt the same.
“We also believe and hear from the folks in the study that a catered lunch is is a valuable benefit that that employer can provide. We feel like this is an opportunity for employers to earn the commute,” Kaskel says.
VIDEO06:53How AI is ruining job interviewsWork
