Retirement

How plan design tweaks can boost saving rates

July 24, 2023

Automatic enrollment boosts savings
Aggregate employee and employer contribution rates by plan design

Vanguard defined contribution plans permitting employee-elective deferrals

A table shows that plans offering automatic enrollment boast higher contribution rates than plans offering voluntary enrollment. That’s true in aggregate but also when broken out by income, age, gender, and job tenure.
Automatic enrollment adoption

Vanguard defined contribution plans with employee-elective contributions

A bar graph shows automatic enrollment adoption in Vanguard DC plans with employee-elective contributions from 2006 to 2022. The percentage of plans with automatic enrollment increased every year, from 10 percent in 2006 to 58 percent in 2022.
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John James
Vanguard Information and Insights

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