New research from the Employee Benefit Research Institute reveals that the retirement savings gap between high-income and low-income workers has widened to its largest point in two decades. Workers in the bottom quartile have a median retirement balance of just $18,000.
The study found that access to employer-sponsored retirement plans remains the single biggest factor in determining savings outcomes. Only 40 percent of workers at companies with fewer than 50 employees have access to a workplace retirement plan.
