Many employees of small and midsize businesses don’t pay enough attention to the fees associated with their employer-sponsored retirement plans, according to a survey released today by the Pew Charitable Trusts. This lack of familiarity, Pew indicates in an issue brief accompanying its survey results, is hindering their confidence and their ability to make the best investment choices.

While 69 percent of the survey’s 1,923 respondents with a retirement plan said they are at least somewhat familiar with their plan’s fees, roughly two-thirds had not read any fee disclosures in the previous year. Nor had 33 percent of the individuals who responded they were very familiar with their plan fees.

Even small fee differences can have a big impact, John Scott, director of Pew’s retirement savings project, said during a webinar to discuss the survey results.

According to a Pew analysis, a worker earning about $60,000 a year could retire with nearly $170,000 less in total investments after a 40-year career if invested in a high-fee fund (1 percent) instead of a low-fee fund (0.05 percent). The scenario assumes biweekly contributions of 8 percent and a 6 percent annual rate of return on each fund.

The Pew issue brief also points out, citing research from BrightScope and the Investment Company Institute, that fees tend to be higher for small plans (on average, 1.2 percent of assets per year) than for the largest plans (0.3 percent).

Among other key findings from the new survey, workers who identified as being less familiar with their plan fees tend to be younger, female, Hispanic, less educated or less affluent. Roughly four in five workers responded it would be at least somewhat useful to have more information about investment fees.

Only 24 percent of workers ages 52 to 64 said they’re very familiar with retirement plan fees, and this figure sinks for those ages 36 to 51 (15 percent) and 18 to 35 (13 percent). More women than men (37 percent versus 27 percent) said they’re not at all familiar with retirement plan fees. Neither are 40 percent of workers with a just a high school diploma or less -- a figure that drops to 25 percent for those with at least a bachelor’s degree.

While 77 percent of workers with an annual household income of $100,000 or more are at least somewhat familiar with retirement plan fees, higher-income workers who’ve read their plan’s fee disclosures were not more likely than others to say they understood the details.

Employees who are aware of plan fees are more likely to take a more appropriate level of investment risk for their age group, the survey also found.

It’s important for companies of every size to provide retirement plan information to all employees when they start a job or join the plan, said Scott. Employees should ask questions, he says, and be able to get more information from their company’s human resources department and plan service providers. Advisors can help.