In a new Forbes column, NIRS Executive Director Dan Doonan writes about a new Government Accountability Office (GAO) report, Older Workers: Retirement Account Disparities Have Increased by Income and Persisted by Race Over Time. The analysis finds that many Americans are losing ground when it comes to building retirement savings, despite policy efforts to improve workers’ savings.
But amid this retirement doom and gloom there is a bright spot, especially for the 57 million people (about half of the U.S. workforce) who work for an employer that does not offer a retirement plan. Nineteen states now offer—or soon will offer—retirement plans to private sector workers without a plan at their job. Just this year, three new programs were enacted in Minnesota, Missouri, and Nevada.