State-sponsored Retirement Savings Plans

Our chapter evaluates models and features used in emerging state-sponsored retirement saving plans such as Auto IRAs, open multiple employer plans, and marketplaces. These, we show, have enormous potential to raise the number of Americans with access to payroll-deduction retirement saving plans. Plans that can most enhance coverage rates will feature two characteristics: required provision of retirement saving plans by firms, and automatic enrollment of eligible workers. Yet under current legal and regulatory conditions, the Secure Choice option is the only model that enables states to require that employers provide a plan.