AARP has released the results of a survey showing that both Baby Boomers and people from Generation X face some major problems saving for retirement.
Statewide, 52 percent of all private sector workers surveyed said they did not have access to any kind of retirement savings plan through their employer.
Beth Finkel, state director of AARP in New York, said her organization is proposing a state-facilitated payroll-deduction retirement savings option that could work much like a 529 college savings plan.
She said the cost for employers would be nominal.
“For small businesses, most of the costs are in the automatic payroll deduction and if they’re already using a payroll company to do their payroll, it’s a negligible amount that would be added to that,” she said.
President Obama has asked the U.S. Labor Department to develop guidelines that can be used by states to set up their own workplace retirement savings plans.
Finkel points to research showing that Americans are generally 15 times more likely to save for retirement when hat savings is automatically deducted from their pay.
