AARP Poll Shows: Pennsylvania Small Business Owners Support 'Keystone Saves' Retirement Savings Program

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Jun 14, 2022, 13:07 ET

79 percent of business owners agree Pennsylvania should create a retirement savings program

HARRISBURG, Pa. , June 14, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- An AARP small business survey, released today, found that nearly three-quarters of Pennsylvania small business decision-makers and owners think more should be done to encourage workers to save for retirement, and four in five agree that Pennsylvania lawmakers should support a state-facilitated retirement savings program.

79% of Pennsylvania small business owners support Keystone Saves, according to AARP polling.

Introduced on February 3, 2022, Pennsylvania House Bill 2156 would create Keystone Saves, a program that will provide hard-working Pennsylvanians with an easy way to save out of their regular paycheck, helping them grow the savings they need to take control of their future.

Keystone Saves would be a privately managed, easy-to-use retirement savings option that would help small businesses - with 5 – 100 employees – provide a no-cost retirement benefit for their workers while helping to reduce the state's $14.3 billion fiscal burden from low retirement savings.

More than six in ten of these business owners (61%) say current retirement savings plans are too costly, just over a third (35%) say they are concerned about how complicated they are, and, one in four (24%) of these small business owners say retirement savings plans would be too time-consuming to operate.

Most small business owners in Pennsylvania agree:being able to offer access to a voluntary, portable retirement savings program helps local small businesses attract and retain quality employees and stay competitive, according to the survey. Among those small business owners in Pennsylvania who do offer a retirement savings plan to their employees, at least a quarter indicate that the main reason they offer it is because it is the right thing to do (30%) or it helps to attract and/or retain quality employees (26%).

"Small business owners recognize that there is a retirement savings crisis in Pennsylvania, and they want lawmakers to act," said Bill Johnston-Walsh, AARP Pennsylvania State Director. "Keystone Saves is a great opportunity for the General Assembly to empower millions of Pennsylvanians to save for a financially secure and independent retirement – while providing small businesses an effective way to attract and retain employees."

Moreover, half of Pennsylvania business owners and decision-makers (50%) expressed concern about their employees not having enough money to cover healthcare or living expenses when they retire, with one in five (19%) reporting they are very concerned. Nearly three-quarters of small business owners (73%) are also concerned that, as taxpayers, some Pennsylvania residents have not saved enough money for retirement and could end up being reliant on public assistance programs.

The Keystone Saves program proposal before the Legislature is similar to programs already in operation in Oregon, California and Illinois. As of April, the programs have enrolled more than 460,000 workers who have saved nearly $436 million. Many participants are first-time savers and the average income of savers in Oregon, which has had the program since 2017, is $29,000.

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AARP commissioned AUS/SSRI to field this 2022 Pennsylvania Small Business Owner Survey between April 25 – May 20, 2022. Interviews were conducted by cell and landline phone among 500 small business owners or decision makers about employee benefits at companies with 5-100 additional employees. The margin of error for this sample is ± 4.4 percent. Some percentage may not add up to 100 percent due to rounding. For each graph, 'not sure' is absent if it was less than 10 percent. See annotated survey for this data. The sample came from a Dun & Bradstreet, Inc. (D&B) business list and is weighted back to the current Dun & Bradstreet, Inc. business universe for Pennsylvania. D&B includes over 1.2 million business records for Pennsylvania. Census shows approx. 92,000 small businesses with 5100 employees.

About AARP

AARP is the nation's largest nonprofit, nonpartisan organization dedicated to empowering people 50 and older to choose how they live as they age. With a nationwide presence and nearly 38 million members, AARP strengthens communities and advocates for what matters most to families: health security, financial stability and personal fulfillment. AARP also produces the nation's largest circulation publications: AARP The Magazine and AARP Bulletin. To learn more, visit www.aarp.org/pa or follow @AARPPA on social media.

CONTACT: TJ Thiessen, [email protected], 202-374-8033

SOURCE AARP Pennsylvania