Workers Looking to Congress and Employers for Help with Retirement Security

New survey results show that workers are highly concerned about their financial security, particularly in retirement, and they are counting on both Congress and their employers to provide solutions.

Conducted on behalf of Prudential by Morning Consult, the sixth “American Workers Survey” finds that nearly 7 in 10 respondents say they are concerned they will not have enough money to live comfortably in retirement and a nearly identical amount say they’ve felt stressed about their finances in the past year.

Not surprisingly, respondents cite low income, a lack of savings for retirement and a lack of emergency savings as the biggest challenges they face when it comes to feeling financially secure. What’s more, only 39% of small business workers say their company provides the benefits they need to feel financially secure, compared to 63% of workers at large businesses and 60% of workers at mid-sized businesses.

Action Oriented  

In light of this, workers overwhelmingly want Congress to pursue policies that make it easier to save for retirement. Nearly 8 in 10 respondents say Congress should do more to expand access to retirement plans. Additionally, 68% believe policymakers should support retirement solutions that convert savings into a stream of lifetime income payments.

When asked if they would use a lifetime income option, 61% of respondents said they would turn part of their retirement plan balance into a stream of income payments to last through their retirement if offered the opportunity. This percentage is up 5% since the question was first asked in 2018, Prudential notes. 

Interestingly, encouraging retirement savings came out ahead of increased school funding and infrastructure spending when asked which of the following policies they most want Congress to enact: 

• Encourage retirement savings ease and access (29%)
• Increase school funding/job training (23%)
• Increase infrastructure funding (14%)
• Encourage small business financing (11%)
• Create/enhance emergency savings (9%)

Workers also say they’re looking to their employers to provide tools that support their financial wellness, particularly saving for retirement. Among employer-provided programs, workers rank retirement plans (74%) and life insurance (56%) as the most valuable in supporting their financial well-being. And more than half of workers (53%) say they would not work for a company that does not provide a retirement plan.

“The challenge of saving for retirement, and the concern and stress that it imposes on workers, is a recurring theme in our surveys on barriers to workers’ financial security,” explains Ann Kappler, Prudential’s deputy general counsel and head of external affairs. “This survey in particular highlights the increasing urgency for Congress to address retirement security.”

The online survey was conducted from Feb. 8-19, 2019, among a national sample of 2,217 self-identified part-time and full-time employed adults. The survey defined small businesses as companies with fewer than 100 employees, mid-sized businesses as companies with 100-999 employees, and large businesses as companies with more than 1,000 employees.