The Current State of Retirement: The Employer's Perspective

As the economy is still recovering from the Great Recession, the U.S. retirement landscape is continuing to evolve, with increases in life expectancies, uncertainty about the sustainability of Social Security benefits, and individuals' being increasingly expected to self-fund a greater portion of their retirement income. Employers and workplace retirement benefits play an invaluable role in helping individuals successfully retire.

Employer-sponsored retirement savings plans facilitate and simplify the saving process, making such plans attractive for American workers. The benefits of saving in an employer-sponsored plan (e.g., investment education, tax-deferred savings, the potential for employer contributions, fiduciary oversight), combined with the convenience of automatic payroll deduction, make American workers more likely to save for retirement in the workplace versus contributing to an IRA outside the workplace.

The Current State of 401(k)s: The Employer’s Perspective, as part of the 16th Annual Transamerica Retirement Survey, offers an overview of employer trends, plan sponsorship rates, comparisons by company size, and worker insights. This research report provides measurements relating to employers and the extent to which they are helping their employees prepare for retirement. It is based on surveys of more than 1,000 employers and more than 4,500 workers. 

This survey report was released coincident with Catherine Collinson's testimony before the U.S. Senate Special Committee on Aging’s hearing on Closing the Gap: Innovations to Promote Americans’ Retirement Security on June 15, 2016. Catherine also submitted a written testimony on behalf of Transamerica Center for Retirement Studies.