About two million private sector workers in Pennsylvania — more than 40% of the workforce — don’t have access to an automatic retirement savings plan from their employers. The resulting retirement shortfall is expected to cost Pennsylvania about a billion dollars in social services every year over the next 15 years.
Keystone Saves, a program now being considered by the state legislature as HB 2156, would offer a cost-free retirement savings option for workers whose employers don’t offer such plans. A variety of private organizations, including AARP, the United Way and the Pew Charitable Trusts support it. So does a broad-based, bipartisan coalition, including Republican state Treasurer Stacy Garrity, Democratic state Rep. Michael Driscoll of Philadelphia and Republican state Rep. Tracy Pennycuick of Montgomery County. A variety of Pittsburgh-area legislators from both parties have co-sponsored the bill.
According to the Keystone Saves’ supporters, workers are 15 times more likely to contribute to a retirement account if it is offered through their job, as opposed to setting up an IRA themselves. Visualizing the future is hard, and understanding how even small contributions early in life can generate big rewards later isn’t always intuitive — all the more so when you’re simply trying to make ends meet in the here and now.
— Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (TNS)
