In Brief: Small Firms Lack Retirement Plans

WASHINGTON — Mathew Greenwald & Associates’ 2001 Small Employers Retirement Survey found that small businesses that offer retirement plans provide their employees with good benefits, but less than half of their workers have access to employer-sponsored retirement plans.

Eighty-five percent of small employers that offer a retirement plan say it aids recruitment and retention as well as employee attitude and performance. Yet only 46% of workers employed in these businesses are covered by an employer-sponsored plan.

Among those companies that don’t offer a plan, the reasons they most frequently cited were employee preference for wages, uncertain company revenue, and that the plan required company contributions that were too expensive to sustain.

The survey results were released May 16.

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