The results are in! A recent survey by the Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI)1 found that two thirds of American workers feel confident in their ability to retire comfortably, which is up from 60% in 2017. However, confidence in the ability to retire is strongly correlated to participation in a retirement plan by themselves or by their spouse. The confidence was generally the same whether the plan was a defined contribution (DC) plan, defined benefit (DB) plan, or individual retirement account (IRA). Generally, 74% of workers that were in a retirement plan thought they would have enough money to live comfortably in retirement whereas only 39% of workers without a plan felt the same.
Worker confidence in their retirement and the security that it provides can result in a wide range of benefits, including increased moral, employee retention, lower stress in the workplace and higher productivity. The survey results show that there is a significant divide between how workers feel about retirement and how positive they feel in their ability to save if their company sponsors a retirement plan.
1 The Retirement Confidence Survey (RCS) measures worker and retiree confidence about retirement and is conducted by the Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI) and independent research firm Greenwald & Associates. If you are interested in reading the survey summary it can be found here.
