Americans are at times lampooned for their independent attitude, thus, one might expect the average Joe Sixpack to balk at a plan to automatically take money from his paycheck for a retirement account.

As it turns out, most U.S. workers are open to automatic enrollment in and contributions to an “auto-IRA,” a state-sponsored or non-employer-oriented individual retirement account, according to a recent survey by the Pew Charitable Trusts.

In a survey of more than 2,900 U.S. workers, 73 percent supported both automatic enrollment and automatic escalation of contributions in an IRA not associated with their place of employment. Approximately two-thirds of the respondents supported the establishment and contribution to state-sponsored accounts.

Automatic enrollment, which automatically opens an account and begins contributions, and automatic escalation, which gradually increases the rate of contributions over time, have both become common options in workplace retirement plans after behavioral research found both to be effective in boosting plan participant savings rates and retirement readiness, but to date have not been formally applied to IRAs.

Survey participants seemed most comfortable with a 6 percent starting contribution rate. While a quarter of the respondents said they were unsure if they would take part, only 13 percent of the respondents said that they would opt-out of an auto-IRA.

Though previous research has shown that access to employer-sponsored retirement plans varies widely by age, race and employment status, Pew found similar support for the concept of auto-IRAs across all demographic groups.

According to Pew, fewer than 15 percent of households currently contribute to an IRA.

Many states are considering the establishment of their own government-sponsored IRAs, according to Pew, and at least five already have laws on the books to do so: California, Connecticut, Illinois, Maryland and Oregon. These plans would automatically enroll workers who cannot access a pension, 401(k), 403(b) or other retirement plan through their employer.

Pew asked workers about their opinions on automatic state-sponsored IRAs both before explaining what they were and afterward, finding little result in the largely positive response.

For its research, Pew surveyed 2,918 U.S. workers at small- and mid-sized businesses who do not currently have access to a retirement plan and conducted focus groups for additional qualitative content.