BENEFITS DIGEST

Michael Doshier, who leads retirement at LPL, argues that state auto-IRA mandates give advisers a natural opening to discuss employer-sponsored plans, and he points to a Maryland assisted-living company that chose its own plan over the state program. The Boston College research he cites suggests a relationship between state mandates and private plan formation, which is not the same as proof that one causes the other. Federal startup tax credits and the coming Saver’s Match round out the pitch. No state requires an employer to adopt a 401(k).

This commentary argues that state auto-IRA mandates are expanding the private small-plan market rather than displacing it, as employers nudged into action by a mandate graduate into their own 401(k) plans. It sketches the opportunity for advisers, TPAs, pooled plans, and plan technology, and forecasts more of the same as additional states come online. The forecasts and the mandate-causation claim are the author’s projections rather than measured results.

State auto-IRA mandates keep pushing small employers to choose between the state program and a plan of their own, and recordkeeper 401GO argues the industry’s disconnected technology systems are not ready for the volume. In Colorado, new plans jumped to 18.4 percent of the state’s private-sector plans in the year SecureSavings launched, from 12.6 percent the year before, and two more deadlines arrive soon, Rhode Island’s RISavers on October 15 and Minnesota’s Secure Choice on December 31. The coverage gap the mandates target remains wide, with 59 percent of workers at businesses under 100 employees having plan access against 91 percent at employers of 500 or more.

The Economic Innovation Group's updated census-data analysis puts the coverage gap at 76.2 million workers: 61 million employed by an organization that offers them no plan, 15 million self-employed. Nearly half of private-sector workers (49.1 percent) lack access, and among part-time workers the number is 77 percent. The gap is especially wide between lower-paid and higher-paid workers. Among the lowest-paid tenth of private-sector workers, 88 percent lack access, against 14 percent of the highest-paid tenth. Only 37 percent of workers received any employer contribution in 2025, with a median of about $3,000. EIG's policy answer is the Retirement Savings for Americans Act, a House bill that would create federally administered accounts for uncovered workers.

The Economic Innovation Group's updated analysis puts numbers on the coverage gap. About 76.2 million U.S. workers lack access to an employer-sponsored retirement plan, 61 million employed by an organization and 15 million self-employed. Nearly half of private-sector workers lack access, and 77 percent of private-sector part-timers. Only 37 percent of workers received any employer contribution in 2025, with a median of about $3,000. The gap tracks income more than any demographic measure. In the bottom tenth of household income, 88 percent of private-sector employees lack access; in the top tenth, 14 percent. For employers, these are the numbers behind the steady spread of state auto-enrollment mandates, which reach businesses that don't offer a plan of their own.

About 76 million workers lack access to an employer retirement plan, according to the Economic Innovation Group. That's nearly 52 percent of working Americans ages 18 to 64. Among private-sector part-time workers, the share rises to 77 percent. Only 37 percent of all workers receive an employer retirement contribution. Among those who do, the median annual contribution is $3,000.

After House Democratic leadership built an August 31 press conference around affordability—groceries, gas, healthcare—the Insured Retirement Institute wrote to argue that retirement belongs on the list. The letter distills IRI's broader agenda to four asks: an auto-IRA mandate for employers without plans plus a triennial re-enrollment safe harbor and eligibility at 18; wider guaranteed lifetime income access, including annuities inside QDIAs and expanded QLAC eligibility; collective investment trusts for 403(b) plans; and simplified rollovers with in-service distributions to individual retirement annuities at 50.

Washington's state-facilitated retirement savings program is scheduled to open in July 2027.

As state auto-IRA programs proliferate and mature, DC plan sponsors will increasingly encounter new hires who have been in an auto-IRA for years and need help acclimating to a 401(k)-style plan.

Philadelphia voters overwhelmingly approved a ballot measure authorizing the creation of the Philadelphia Retirement Savings Board to oversee “PhillySaves,” a city-run automatic retirement savings program for workers whose employers do not sponsor retirement plans

now include the self-employed.

More than three-fourths of Philadelphia voters backed city-sponsored individual retirement accounts.

Philadelphia voters approved a city-run program, but the Alaska State Legislature failed to override the governor’s veto of its version.