Sixty-two percent of employers with defined contribution plans automatically raise employees’ contribution levels, according to a new report on DC auto-enrollment by consulting firm Aon Hewitt.

Another 22 percent of plans offer automatic contribution increases simply as option while 19 percent don’t do it at all.

The firm came up with the findings after polling 100 companies in the fourth quarter of last year.

Plans that don’t automatically raise workers’ contribution levels told Aon Hewitt that they don’t from fear that more employees would drop out of the plans entirely after seeing their paychecks shrink.

Of those companies that automatically increase the contributions, 68 percent do it above the company match, while the rest do it at the match level.

The study also found that 59 percent of firms enroll new employees below the company match threshold, while 7 percent enroll above the match and 34 percent at the match.

Seventy percent of the companies polled automatically enroll new employees in their defined contribution plans.

This is the first time Aon has done the survey.