Building a Secure Financial Future in Wisconsin

Most working Wisconsin registered voters are not confident they will have enough savings for retirement and wish they’d saved more, and many are likely to put off retirement as long as possible.   Nationally, just over half of adult workers ages 18 to 64 works for an employer who does not offer a retirement plan.  In Wisconsin, over four in ten (42.2%) adult workers are faced with no employer savings options. Yet when workers have a way to save through their employer, their rate of retirement savings goes up exponentially.

Key findings include:

• Over four in ten (42%) working Wisconsin registered voters age 45 and older indicate their employer does not offer a workplace savings plan to employees such as a 401k or 403b.
• Well over half (59%) of working Wisconsin registered voters age 45 and older indicate their employer does not offer the traditional pension plan.
• Sixty percent of working Wisconsin registered voters age 45 and older says they are very or somewhat likely to put off retirement as long as possible, with one-third (33%) saying they are very likely. 
• Close to two-thirds of all working Wisconsin registered voters age 45 and older agree (strongly agree: 31%; somewhat agree: 30%) that state elected officials should support a state run savings plan for those without access in the workplace.

This survey of 1,000 registered voters ages 45 and older residing in Wisconsin was fielded for AARP by Precision Opinion Research in early September 2014. For more information, contact Jennifer Sauer at jsauer@aarp.org.