New NCEO Research Analysis Renders Retirement Crisis in Stark Detail

The NCEO research team, looking at available data from the last few years, recently completed a detailed analysis of the breadth and depth of the retirement crisis facing the US workforce. The analysis, which you can read here, shows not only what many American workers are lacking in retirement savings but also the potential impact of ESOPs in filling that gap.

The stark reality is that more than 4 out of 10 Americans have no retirement savings. The median savings balance for Americans is just $4,000. A 2023 study for the Pew Charitable Trusts reported that America’s retirement savings crisis could cost federal and state governments an estimated $1.3 trillion by 2040. This is the backdrop to talking about the benefits of ESOPs for workers and communities.

Meanwhile, ESOPs tend to create wealth for a broader set of employees than 401(k) plans because they generally do not require employee contributions to the plans, allowing more people to participate, especially those unable to afford deferrals from their paychecks.

Drawing upon data from nearly 250,000 ESOP participants, we show the very real and positive impact compared to national data across age and wage categories.    

You can see this recent analysis by the NCEO research team on our new page: The Retirement Savings Crisis and the Role of ESOPs. It is designed to provide the employee ownership community with a resource describing the whole retirement savings picture and to provide our members with easy-to-use data to communicate how their employee-owners fit in the context of the current economic landscape.