An estimated 57 million private-sector workers do not have access to a plan through their employer. These gaps are more likely to affect small businesses, as well as lower-income workers, younger workers, minorities and women.

"Universal access to retirement savings options would give all workers the opportunity to save, and evidence from other countries, from individual states and from private-sector plans suggests that many would begin to do so, especially when encouraged using default options, such as automatic enrollment," Antonelli said. "Workers would benefit from the increased savings and the additional income in retirement.

"At the same time, the economy benefits from stronger savings, investment and economic growth, and the nation benefits from a reduction in fiscal pressures to support an aging population lacking sufficient retirement income."

Several legislative proposals intended to achieve national universal access, modeled on international experience and the innovative design ideas of policy experts, have been introduced in Congress for more than a decade and as recently as 2019.

To date, these proposals have not had sufficient support to advance. In the absence of national action, some states have started to adopt innovative public-private partnership models to expand access for their workers.

A few of these new state programs have adopted and launched an Auto-IRA model, which requires employers that do not already offer their workers a retirement savings plan to automatically enroll their workers in the state program to begin to save, unless the worker opts out.

These state programs currently are providing many employers and their employees with new ways to save, and the number of new accounts and assets is now growing at a steady pace.

The experience of well-established international programs and, more recently, the experience of individual state retirement savings programs points to the need for serious consideration of national universal access to retirement savings options to expand the number of employers who offer their workers a way to save for retirement.

Such options would require certain employers to provide their employees with access to a savings option, while retaining the ability of employees to choose to opt out of saving.

Any effort to significantly improve retirement readiness must expand access to ways to save for retirement to as many workers as possible. The ability to close the access gap and boost savings will be affected by the way a program is designed.

The type of retirement savings accounts (IRA and/ or 401(k) structure), the employers required to participate and the default levels of employee contributions and any employer contributions over time are all factors that will drive access, savings, asset growth and retirement income.

"Regardless of the model selected, what is clear is that the benefits to savers, retirees and the nation's fiscal and economic well-being can be enormous," Antonelli said.

Depending on the design features, a national approach to universal access to retirement savings that would require some or all employers to offer their workers either an IRA or 401(k) could do the following:

• Increase the number of workers saving for retirement in 2040 by 28 million to 40 million, with participation from about 50 percent to 70 percent of private-sector workers who currently lack access;
• Help a young worker with a modest income who starts saving early and follows program defaults for 40 years to save enough to generate as much as $14,320 in additional annual income for retirement, increasing to $21,300 in annual income if eligible to take advantage of a refundable saver's credit;
• Increase cumulative total retirement savings by $1.4 trillion to $1.9 trillion by 2040; and
• Accelerate economic growth, increasing national GDP by $72 billion to $96 billion in 2040.

"Experiences from other countries and the early evidence from states here in the U.S. demonstrate that increases in access can be achieved in a simple, cost-effective way that supports and includes a private market of providers ready and willing to compete to provide such options for employers and their workers," Antonelli concluded.

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