The initiative examines federal and state policy efforts to increase retirement plan coverage; studies the feasibility of policies or market practices to help improve retirees’ financial choices and decisions; and works to identify large segments of the contingent workforce that are most likely to want and need an effective retirement savings program.
The project strives to foster policy debate and action on how best to ensure that everyone can save a sufficient amount for retirement.
In 2017, Oregon introduced the first automated savings program, also known as an “auto-IRA”—a program designed to allow workers whose employers do not offer retirement benefits to automatically set aside money in retirement accounts. By the end of 2025, 14 states had active auto-IRA programs, and more than 1 million workers had saved upward of $2.5 billion. Three other states had passed enabling legislation and were in the process of implementing programs.
Among the American workers who struggle most to save for retirement are those in nontraditional jobs, such as the self-employed, sole proprietors, gig workers, and contract workers. Several people with these jobs and a range of policy, business, and financial experts recently took part in a Nontraditional Workers and Retirement Policy Summit to better understand the problems and talk about potential steps to address them.
Nearly 57 million American workers—almost half of the private sector workforce—don’t receive retirement benefits at their workplaces. That lack of access affects their ability to save and plan for their financial future, including retirement.
WASHINGTON—The Pew Charitable Trusts commends the City Council for passage of legislation to create PhillySaves, a new automated retirement savings program in Philadelphia. PhillySaves would provide a retirement savings option for the city’s estimated 208,000 private sector workers whose employers do not offer retirement benefits.
Millions of Americans are behind on their retirement savings goals, and nearly 70% of those already retired wish they had started saving earlier. But Gen Z, the latest generation to enter the workforce, is an outlier, with the data showing that they are saving more than millennials and putting new emphasis on planning for the future. What gives?
