Whereas concern about stability is comprehensible, fear about prices relies on severe misperceptions.
At any given time, solely about half of personal sector employees in america are coated by an employer-sponsored retirement plan, and few employees save with out one. Quite a few research have proven that providing a retirement plan is intently associated to agency dimension; corporations with fewer than 100 workers are a lot much less prone to provide a plan than bigger corporations (see Determine 1).
Consequently, observers are likely to dismiss small corporations as a supply for future progress in protection. In actual fact, although, many small companies do provide retirement plans. The query is what’s stopping different small corporations from taking the leap?
Whereas latest surveys have touched on small companies and retirement plans, the final complete survey was greater than 20 years in the past. Traditionally, small corporations have persistently cited the identical three main boundaries: unsure revenues that make it exhausting to decide to a plan; worker preferences for wages and different advantages; and the prices related to establishing and administering a plan.
To find out whether or not perceived boundaries have modified over time, we labored with EBRI and Greenwald Analysis to duplicate their 1998 survey. Interviews had been carried out between February and April 2023 with 703 corporations with 100 or fewer workers.
Determine 2 compares the responses of small companies in 1998 and 2023. The highest two boundaries that stop small corporations from providing a retirement plan – income considerations/enterprise dimension and prices or administrative burden – have remained vital. As we speak, nonetheless, employers are far much less prone to cite “worker prefers wages” as a serious purpose for not providing a plan.
The primary concern – income stability/enterprise dimension – appears compelling. Certainly, many small corporations are new, and corporations might must grow to be established earlier than organising a office retirement plan is seen as a viable possibility.
The second barrier, value or administrative burden, nonetheless, appears to be pushed by misperceptions. A fast Google search yielded a number of 401(ok) choices the place annual employer prices would solely be about $2,500 for a agency with 10 workers and $5,000 for a agency with 50 workers. However, over half of small corporations imagine offering a retirement plan would value greater than $10,000 per 12 months; and practically 30 % assume it will value greater than $20,000 per 12 months.
Not solely do small corporations overestimate the price of providing a plan, the overwhelming majority – significantly these with fewer than 50 employees – usually are not conscious that they will declare a tax credit score of as much as $5,000, for 3 years, to assist offset the prices of beginning a plan. Curiously, about 80 % of employers say that such a credit score would make providing a plan extra enticing.
These outcomes recommend that many corporations overestimate the monetary and time prices required to supply a plan and that higher consciousness of lower-cost plan choices for employers and tax credit might assist transfer the needle on the protection hole.
