2019 Employee Benefits in the United States — 2019-09-19

Retirement benefits were available to 91 percent of state and local government workers in March 2019, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Retirement benefits include defined benefit and defined contribution plans. Sixty-nine percent of state and local government workers in the lowest 10th percent wage category and 95 percent of workers in the highest 10th percent wage category had access to retirement benefits.(See table 1.) Seventy-seven percent of private industry workers had access to and participated in employer-provided retirement benefits, referred to as the take-up rate. Retirement benefits were available to 31 percent of workers in the lowest 10th percent wage category and 88 percent of workers in the highest 10th percent wage category. (See table 1.) Civilian workers * The access rate to medical care benefits for full-time workers was 87 percent and the take-up rate was 74 percent.