The number of plan sponsors not matching employee contributions to their retirement plans has significantly decreased over the past five years, according to new research.
Strategic Insight, an Asset International Company, discloses this finding in a summary of survey results obtained through its affiliate PLANSPONSOR magazine during the years 2009 through 2013. Plan design features that saw aggregate improvements include employer matching contributions, formulas, schedules and vesting.
In 2009, 26 percent of plan sponsors said they did not offer a match. By 2013, only 10 percent of plan sponsors did not offer a match, reflecting a decrease by nearly two-thirds, the survey reveals.
"Increasing percentages of employers offering matching contributions illustrate plan sponsor support in providing retirement security," says Bridget Bearden, Strategic Insight's head of defined contribution retirement research.
The survey fielded in 2012 found that 68 percent of employers offering a match made no change to their contribution during the previous five-year period. However, 13 percent of plans sponsors changed the matching formula, resulting in a higher contribution rate. Only 4 percent of plan sponsors said they had yet to reinstate a suspended or reduced match in 2012.
