And things are likely to get better still.
Some states have started to offer individual retirement accounts to employees who don’t have access to a 401(k). The early impacts are already promising, as in Oregon, where the number of people with account balances in the state plan swelled to 21,743 last year, compared with 1,142 in 2017.
To be sure, while Americans are less behind than they were in 2014, they’re still not where they need to be.
“There’s a significant share of the population that is definitely going to be in trouble for retirement,” VanDerhei said. “But those people who are lucky enough to work for employers who sponsor retirement plans are on track to do very well.”
And that share could soon increase: House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Richard E. Neal, D-Massachusetts, is expected to introduce legislation this year that would require every U.S. employer to provide their workers with a retirement plan, VanDerhei said.
He added, “That would be a game-changer.”
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