According to the Department of Labor one in three workers in America have no retirement plan at work.
Most will be able to collect Social Security but the Social Security Trust Fund is on track to pay out only 75% of current benefits as of 2034 if changes aren't made to funding or benefits. Employers can help fill the gap by beefing up their own defined contribution retirement plans.
"Employers have many levers to pull in helping to ensure each worker has the opportunity to reach a secure retirement," according to the third annual Natixis Survey of U.S. Defined Contribution Plan Participants. Nine hundred fifty-one individuals were surveyed about ways employers can increase employee participation in employer-based retirement plans.
(Related: 30 Best Big 401(k) Plans: BrightScope)
Here are some of the survey's key findings:
Automatic and Early Enrollment. Eighty-one percent of respondents said they would save more if they could start on the first day of employment. But that option is not available to employees who are required to work a minimum amount of time, sometimes as much as a year, before enrolling in their company's 401(k) plan. The survey found that 43% of survey respondents enrolled in a plan began via automatic enrollment and 23% of respondents said they would save more if there were incentives to do so such as an automatic annual escalation of contributions.
