More employers than ever are automatically enrolling employees in defined contribution retirement plans such as 401(k)s, according to a new survey by Alight Solutions, an HR consultancy that recently spun off from Aon Hewitt.
The cost of employer-provided health care and retirement benefits, measured as a percentage of pay, varies greatly by industry, according to research by the Willis Towers Watson consulting firm.
The Social Security Administration has announced that the taxable wage base for the Social Security portion of FICA will increase to $128,700 in 2018. The amount employees can contribute to 401(k) and 403(b) retirement accounts will increase to $18,500 for 2018.
Only about one-fifth of employers still offer traditional defined-benefit pensions. Defined-contribution retirement plans have become almost universal.
According to the U.S. Department of Labor’s Employee Benefit Security Administration, Weinhagen Tire employees’ retirement contributions took an illegal detour into the St. Paul company’s operating accounts.
The Senate was poised last week to vote to block two Obama administration rules that made it easier for state and local governments to establish voluntary retirement savings plans for employees of small businesses.
A new survey by the nonprofit Transamerica Center for Retirement Studies found widespread pessimism among women about their ability to save for retirement and about their retirement prospects in general.
A coalition of business groups is appealing a federal court’s decision to uphold the Department of Labor’s new fiduciary rule, which requires retirement fund brokers to act solely in their clients’ best interests when recommending investments.