Centro de Documentacion de Fundación MAPFRE - Default contribution rates and participation in automatic IRAs by uncovered workers

MAP20170026877

Default contribution rates and participation in automatic IRAs by uncovered workers / Anek Belbase, Geoffrey T. Sanzenbacher

13 p.

Sumario: About half of workers are not covered by a retirement plan at work and these workers are unlikely to save for retirement. For this reason, a number of states have passed legislation that will require employers to automatically enroll their employees into an IRA sponsored by the state (an "auto-IRA") and administered by a third party. An extensive literature suggests that automatic enrollment will lead to high rates of participation in auto-IRAs. But this literature is based on auto-enrolled 401 (k) participants who are likely different from uncovered workers in observable and unobservable ways. This paper instead conducts a national survey of uncovered workers to determine how likely they are to participate in a state-sponsored IRA. The results are encouraging and suggest than uncovered workers are likely to participate at rates similar to those in 401 (k) plans at default contribution rates of up to 6 per cent. However, regression analysis suggests that auto-escalation of the default above 6 per cent may result in increased opt-out

En: Geneva papers on risk and insurance : issues and practice. - Geneva : The Geneva Association, 1976- = ISSN 1018-5895. - 03/07/2017 Volumen 42 Número 3 - julio 2017 , p. 376-388

1. Automatización . 2. Trabajadores . 3. Planes de jubilación . I. Sanzenbacher, Geoffrey T. . II. Título.