Percentage of Private Sector Workers Participating in a Employment-based Retirement Plan, by Plan Type, 1979-2023
While the type of retirement plans offered to private sector workers has shifted toward savings-based plans over the past few decades, the share not participating in any plan remains stubbornly high.
While private sector's drift away from pensions toward offering 401(k)'s are well known, it is less well known that roughly half of workers have not participated in a workplace retirement plan from 1979-2023--which represents a major gap in our retirement infrastructure.
