Many Oregonians Worried about Having Enough Savings for Retirement

Oregonians are facing two big challenges to their financial future: they aren’t saving enough for retirement, and many of them don’t have access to the tools that can help them save. OregonSaves is a first-of-its-kind retirement savings option that aims to fill in these gaps. About one million Oregon workers are potentially eligible for the program because they don’t have access to a retirement savings plan from their employer. OregonSaves would give workers who don’t have access to an employer-sponsored plan the chance to put away part of their paycheck in an individual retirement account.

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Key findings include the following:

• The majority of Oregonians support the OregonSaves retirement program, with just over half (52%) showing strong support.
  
  
• Among the one in five (20%) Oregonian workers who say their employer does not offer a retirement savings plan, most (64%) say they would participate in OregonSaves.
  
  
• Working Oregonians indicate considerable worry about the future - almost two in three (63%) are anxious about having enough money to live comfortably through their retirement years.
  
  
• Nearly six in ten (58%) Oregonians say it is ‘extremely important’ that people save for retirement while still working, yet over half (55%) report less than $25,000 in savings.
  
  
• Seventy-nine percent (79%) agree that OrgonSaves could help small business in the state.

Based on the results of a DHM survey commissioned by AARP, 1,003 Oregonians ages 18 to 64 indicate OregonSaves sounds like common sense. OregonSaves is ideally positioned to give people who are eligible for the program the opportunity to save. In fact, findings suggest that Oregonians younger than age 35 may be an especially important target for the program: they report having little saved for retirement and they are unlikely to have an employer plan available to them. OregonSaves is also attractive to those who may not benefit directly but are concerned about local small business and the health of the state budget. 

DHM Research conducted a telephone survey of 1,003 Oregon residents ages 18 to 64. This survey was fielded from July 27 to August 3, 2017 and took approximately 15 minutes to complete. Respondents were contacted by a live interviewer from a list of registered voters, which included cell phones.  For more information contact Jennifer Sauer at JSauer@aarp.org.