Report: Many Workers Struggle to Save for Retirement on Their Own

A new report is shedding light on the challenges many workers continue to face when saving for retirement.

According to the National Institute on Retirement Security (NIRS), nearly half of working-age Americans don’t participate in any employer-sponsored retirement plan and struggle to reach recommended levels of savings. In fact, many have little to no savings at all, NIRS found.

Despite decades of policy changes and other efforts to bolster retirement security, it’s clear that many workers—especially those in the private sector—are still unable to save for retirement on their own.

The state of workers’ retirement readiness

For its report titled, “Retirement in America: An Analysis of Retirement Preparedness Among Working-Age Americans,” NIRS researchers used data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s Survey of Income and Program Participation. That data is as of December 2022.

Unsurprisingly, NIRS found that employees who have access to a retirement plan through work are much more likely to save money for retirement than those who don’t. Regardless of plan access, however, the analysis found most workers still aren’t saving enough.

Among all working-age adults (defined here as workers between the ages of 21 and 64), the median balance of defined contribution (DC) retirement accounts like 401(k)s was just $955 in 2022. Examining only accounts that had a positive balance and eliminating those with no savings at all, the median was $40,000. According to NIRS, workers with positive DC account balances had reached a median of just 18% of their recommended savings based on age.

There are many reasons why people might not save as much money as experts recommend, including competing financial priorities such as living expenses and debt.

Taking on debt to attend college, for example, can simultaneously improve a person’s access to employment and benefits while also making it more difficult to achieve savings goals. NIRS found that while adults who carry student loan debt are more likely to have and participate in a retirement plan through their employer, they also tend to have lower account balances and lower net worth.

Public pensions and retirement security

Access to and participation in a retirement plan is much higher in the public sector, where many employees have access to a defined benefit (DB) plan, also known as a pension. For example, NIRS found that 88% of public administration workers and 74% of educational service workers participate in a retirement plan while overall participation is around 50%. As of the end of 2022, just 17 percent of all American workers were participating in a DB plan.

A DB plan has the benefit of making saving for retirement easy—for most Colorado PERA members, enrollment in the PERA DB Plan is automatic and their contributions to the plan are set in statute. That means employees don’t have to opt in or decide how much to save. And when they retire, PERA members can count on receiving reliable and predictable monthly income they can’t outlive.

Colorado PERA also offers all members access to the voluntary PERAPlus 401(k) and some employers offer the PERAPlus 457 Plan, providing members with additional tools to ensure they have the savings they need to meet their retirement goals.

While saving for retirement continues to be a challenge for many American workers, PERA remains committed to providing a secure retirement to the hardworking Coloradans who serve our state.

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