It's a good-news, bad-news situation in the ICI's most recent look at the democratic nature of retirement benefits in America: Those who have access to savings systems do tend to take part, but a healthy percentage of low-income workers are being completely left out of the picture.

"Who Gets Retirement Plans and Why, 2011″ – "gets" as in receives, not "understands," thought that too might be a valid subject for a study – discusses the not-exactly equal playing ground American workers have been left with, especially with projections that Social Security will create less of a comfortable safety net for future retired workers.

Again, the good news: Those workers who do have the ability to save, actually do save, and are usually part of an employer-sponsored retirement plan. ICI's research shows that of those who had a desire to save, three-quarters had access to a pension plan or similar retirement savings vehicle and 93 percent of those people opted to take part.