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Saving - A Woe for the Future of the American Worker
TUCSON, Ariz., Feb. 17, 2006-- How does the saying go -- a penny saved is a penny earned?
As the percentage of employers in America that offer retirement benefits to their employees decreases, many Americans are going to have to learn how to turn a penny into a buck on their own.
The availability of employer-provided defined benefit plans is on the decline in the US. The percentage of full-time employees in mid-size and large private sector companies who are covered by defined benefit plans has fallen nearly 44 percent in the last two decades.
Only 42 percent of the 151.1 million workers in the U.S. have access to any employer-based retirement plan according to the Employee Benefit Research Institute (1). And when they do offer benefits the trend is shifting for employers to offer defined contribution plans such as a 401(k) rather than defined benefit plans that are primarily employer paid.
"IRAs and 401(k)s have been dominant in the workplace for more than a decade and the time is now for American's to realize they are going to have to save for their retirement or they are going to live in poverty in their old age," says Sarah Hightower Hill, chief executive officer at Chandler Hill Partners, a national career advancement and job search firm.
More American workers today must plan and strategize their career paths to enable them to succeed in the workplace and to earn what it will take to live the lifestyle they want now and to put away for their future.
"It is a mandate for the professional today to know how to negotiate a higher salary and to learn how to earn more so that they can save more in their highest-earnings years," says Hightower Hill. "We cannot bury our heads in the sand and hope the government is going to pull us out."
Many Americans don't want to face the fact that their retirement is coming. As 77 million baby boomers reach their retirement they are at risk of retiring with a smaller proportion of their retirement income being guaranteed to last their lifetimes than their parents'. The situation is even grimmer for minorities and women because about 75 percent of minorities rely on Social Security for at least half of their retirement income and women have a significantly longer life expectancy (2).
Notes:
1. Employee Benefit Research Institute estimates from the 2004 March Current Population Survey.
2. Americans for Secure Retirement Press Release, February 1, 2005. |
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