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Retirement plans for workers in private industry and state and local government in 2022

February 01, 2023

Sixty-nine percent of private industry workers had access to employer-provided retirement plans in March 2022. Fifty-two percent of private industry workers chose to participate in a retirement plan, for a take-up rate of 75 percent. (The take-up rate is the percent of workers with access to a plan who participate in the plan.) Among state and local government workers, 92 percent had access to a retirement plan and 82 percent chose to participate, for a take-up rate of 90 percent.

Retirement benefits access, participation, and take-up rates, March 2022
Sector Percent of workers with access Percent of workers participating Take-up rate

Private industry

69% 52% 75%

State and local government

92 82 90

Retirement plans are typically divided into two types: defined benefit plans and defined contribution plans. Defined benefit plans provide employees with guaranteed retirement benefits based on a formula. A participant's retirement age, length of service, and earnings before retirement may affect the benefits received. Defined benefit plans were more prevalent for state and local government workers in 2022. Only 15 percent of private industry workers had access to a defined benefit plan, compared with 86 percent of state and local government workers.

Defined contribution plans specify employer contributions and place them into an individual employee account. These plans determine the value of individual accounts based on the amount of money contributed and the rate of return on the money invested. Defined contribution plans were more prevalent for private industry workers. Sixty-six percent of private industry workers had access to a defined contribution plan. Of those workers, 48 percent participated, resulting in a take-up rate of 73 percent. Thirty-nine percent of state and local government workers had access to a defined contribution plan and 19 percent participated, resulting in a take-up rate of 49 percent.

Percent of private industry and state and local government workers with access to and participating in employer-provided retirement plans by type of plan, March 2022
Sector Defined benefit plans, access rate Defined benefit plans, participation rate Defined contribution plans, access rate Defined contribution plans, participation rate

Private industry

15% 11% 66% 48%

State and local government

86 75 39 19

For workers with access to retirement plans, 12 percent of private industry workers and 34 percent of state and local government workers had access to both defined benefit and defined contribution plans.

These data are from the National Compensation Survey — Benefits program. To learn more, see “How do retirement plans for private industry and state and local government workers compare?” in Beyond the Numbers. For more information, see "Employee Benefits in the United States — March 2022" and our detailed data about benefits. We also have more charts on employee benefits.

SUGGESTED CITATION

Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, The Economics Daily, Retirement plans for workers in private industry and state and local government in 2022 at https://www.bls.gov/opub/ted/2023/retirement-plans-for-workers-in-private-industry-and-state-and-local-government-in-2022.htm (visited March 29, 2024).

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