About 68 percent of U.S. workers had access to pensions or retirement savings plans as of March 2013, with 54 percent participating, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Senior administration officials briefing reporters yesterday didn’t estimate how many people would enroll in the plans. They said they hoped the program would be particularly attractive to women, part-time workers and members of minority groups without access to retirement accounts at work.
‘Get Started’
“For those of you who don’t have a 401(k) on the job, don’t have a pension on the job, don’t have a mechanism to start saving, especially young workers, you can get started now,” Obama said yesterday at United States Steel Corp. near Pittsburgh.
For employees and employers, the so-called MyRA accounts would differ from more familiar 401(k) plans.
Workers would have only one investment option -- a basket of government bonds like that available to federal workers through their retirement plans. The bonds have maturities between four and 30 years.
The G fund in the federal Thrift Savings Program returned 1.89 percent in 2013, enough to outpace the 1.5 percent increase in the Consumer Price Index. The Pacific Investment Management Co.’s Total Return Fund fell 1.9 percent in 2013.
The guaranteed return in the government program may make a difference for potential investors who are contributing as little as $5 per paycheck, said David Certner, legislative policy director for AARP, which represents older Americans.
‘Starter Saver’
“At those kinds of levels, diversification makes less of a difference,” he said. “Having a guaranteed, safe bond return at no cost, no fee, for a starter saver may be attractive to some people.”