A report issued by the Employee Benefit Research Institute last month found 39.7 percent of all workers contributed to their employer-sponsored retirement plans on a regular basis in 2011. The plan participation rate was 39.6 percent for 2009 and 39.8 percent for 2010.
According to the report, employees were less likely to participate in plans if they were not white or were younger, female, never married, had poor health, lacked employer-provided health care or worked part-time. It also found that people who worked in agriculture, forestry or the service industry were also less likely to contribute to their retirement plans than people who worked in other industries.
