A recent AARP survey of nearly 4,000 U.S. workers found strong demand for state-sponsored retirement savings programs.
Most of the respondents, 84 percent, strongly agreed or agreed somewhat with the idea that their elected officials should support programs that would enable workers to save their own money for retirement.
According to AARP, seven states have approved state-sponsored retirement accounts for their residents: Illinois, Washington, Oregon, New Jersey, Connecticut, Maryland and California.
These plans were made possible by an Obama administration safe harbor that would allow the plans to operate outside of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act, or ERISA.
Now, the U.S. Senate is mulling plans to block that safe harbor, which would mean that employers, not the states, would be required to act as sponsors and fiduciaries to the plans.
When AARP segmented results by race and political affiliation, the results indicated strong interest in state-sponsored retirement accounts across all groups. For example, Latinos were the least likely to voice support for state retirement programs, at 78 percent, while Asian-Americans were the most likely to support them, at 89 percent.
Similarly, both liberals, at 89 percent, and conservatives, at 82 percent, agreed that officials should back retirement account legislation.
AARP also asked about workers’ retirement security, finding that three-quarters of respondents, 74 percent, felt at least somewhat anxious about not having enough money to live comfortably through their retirement. The anxiety prevailed at similar levels across all racial and ethnic groups, according to the organization.
AARP’s study was conducted between November 2016 and January 2017 and included 3,920 U.S. workers.