In March 2025, about 74% of all U.S. workers had access to employer-sponsored pensions, and 56% of U.S. workers participated in employer-sponsored pensions. These data points are from the National Compensation Survey (NCS) conducted by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) and are shown in Table 1. In the NCS, workers have access to a pension if a plan is available for their use, even if they decline to participate. Workers participate in a plan if they meet the eligibility requirements and make contributions to the plan, if required. Access and participation rates vary with various worker attributes.
|
Either Defined Benefit or Defined Contribution |
Defined Benefit |
Defined Contribution |
|||||
|
Access |
Participation |
Access |
Participation |
Access |
Participation |
||
|
Civilian Workersa |
All workers |
75% |
56% |
24% |
18% |
65% |
45% |
|
Full-time |
84% |
66% |
28% |
21% |
73% |
53% |
|
|
Part-time |
46% |
24% |
10% |
7% |
41% |
19% |
|
|
Private Sector Workersb |
All private sector workers |
72% |
53% |
14% |
9% |
70% |
50% |
|
Full-time |
81% |
62% |
16% |
11% |
78% |
59% |
|
|
Part-time |
47% |
23% |
7% |
5% |
43% |
20% |
|
|
Union |
91% |
80% |
64% |
55% |
65% |
53% |
|
|
Nonunion |
71% |
50% |
9% |
5% |
70% |
49% |
|
|
Average wage of occupation |
|||||||
|
Lowest 25% |
49% |
23% |
4% |
2% |
48% |
21% |
|
|
Second 25% |
71% |
47% |
9% |
5% |
68% |
44% |
|
|
Third 25% |
83% |
66% |
17% |
12% |
81% |
76% |
|
|
Highest 25% |
91% |
80% |
28% |
19% |
87% |
81% |
|
|
Number of employees at place of employment |
|||||||
|
1-49 |
55% |
38% |
5% |
4% |
54% |
37% |
|
|
50-99 |
71% |
45% |
8% |
6% |
69% |
42% |
|
|
100-499 |
86% |
60% |
13% |
9% |
83% |
57% |
|
|
500 or more |
90% |
76% |
36% |
23% |
87% |
71% |
|
|
State and Local Government Workersc |
State and local |
92% |
81% |
86% |
74% |
38% |
19% |
|
State |
96% |
83% |
90% |
73% |
53% |
28% |
|
|
Local |
90% |
80% |
85% |
75% |
33% |
16% |
|
Source: March 2025 National Compensation Survey (NCS), https://www.bls.gov/ebs/publications/employee-benefits-in-the-united-states-march-2025.htm.
Notes: Definitions are from the NCS's Glossary of Employee Benefit Terms, available at https://www.bls.gov/ebs/publications/national-compensation-survey-glossary-of-employee-benefit-terms.htm, and the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) Information Glossary at https://www.bls.gov/bls/glossary.htm.
a. Defined by BLS as all private industry and state and local government workers, excluding federal government, military, and agricultural workers.
b. Defined in the NCS as private industry workers, excluding workers in private households, self-employed, workers who set their own pay (e.g., proprietors, owners, major stockholders, and partners in unincorporated firms), and family members paid token wages.
c. Referred to in the NCS as public sector workers, excluding federal workers.
A pension or retirement plan is a benefit offered by some employers in which employees and employers defer a portion of current wages to receive as income in retirement. The two types of retirement plans that employers offer are defined benefit (DB) plans or defined contribution (DC) plans. Some employers offer both.
In DB pension plans, participants receive monthly payments in retirement based on a formula that typically uses either (1) a combination of length of service, accrual rate, and average of final years' salary or (2) a flat dollar amount times the number of months or years the employee worked in the plan.
In DC plans—which include 401(k), 403(b) and 457(b) plans, and the federal government's Thrift Savings Plan (TSP)—workers and/or employers make contributions to individual accounts established by the employers. In the most common plans, workers determine individually how much to contribute and how their account contributions are invested from the options provided by the plan sponsor. The accounts may accrue investment returns and can then be used as a source of income in retirement. Traditionally, workers in many DC plans had to make an active choice to participate in the plans offered by their employers. However, in recent years, and increasing number of DC plans automatically enroll new workers, and employees have the option to not participate in the plan.
The survey estimates in Table 1 are classified by a variety of attributes that highlight differences in pension plan access and participation rates among groups of workers in March 2025. Some highlights in the data include the following:
Among all civilian workers, 75% had access to employer-sponsored pension plans. A greater percentage (65%) had access to DC plans than had access to DB plans (24%).
A greater percentage of state and local public sector workers (92%) had access to pension plans compared to private sector workers (72%). State and local government workers were more likely to have access to DB pension plans (86%, compared with 14% for private sector workers), whereas private sector workers were more likely to have access to DC pension plans (70%, compared with 38% of state and local government workers).
Among private sector workers, 72% had access to employer-sponsored retirement plans at work in March 2025. More workers had access to DC plans (70%) than to DB plans (14%). Over the past 40 years, DC pension plans have become more common than DB pension plans among private sector workers. Some of the disparities among private sector workers include the following:
Some categories of employees are not included in the NCS. These excluded categories include volunteers, unpaid workers, individuals receiving long-term disability compensation, overseas workers, the self-employed, military service members, and federal employees. Most federal employees have access to DB and DC plans.
A number of states and cities have enacted programs that require employers that do not offer employer-sponsored retirement plans to enroll employees in state-affiliated retirement programs. While the details of the programs vary, as of January 31, 2026, 12 states with state auto-Individual Retirement Account (IRA) programs had 1.2 million funded accounts, with $2.9 billion of total assets.