Even though an automatic salary deferral rate of 3 percent into an employee's 401(k) is not enough to get them where they need to be in retirement, most companies are not poised to raise their initial default rate above that figure.

David Wray, president of the Plan Sponsor Council of America, says that the "3 percent initial default rate for automatic enrollment seems to be pretty steady. They've been doing this a long time. Companies that were defaulting at less than 3 percent are now coming up to 3 percent."

He added that, "we don't see the trend of people moving from 3 percent forward. What they are doing is escalation instead. You could automatically enroll people at 6 percent. That's exceptional, but I don't see it trending in that direction."