新法律旨在幫助沒有退休計劃的美國人。有用嗎?

新法律旨在幫助沒有退休計劃的美國人。有用嗎?

The most powerful way to get people to save for retirement in recent decades has been through benefits offered at their job. But a lot of people — about half the American workforce — don't get that from their employers.

近幾十年來，讓人們?yōu)橥诵輧π畹淖钣行Х绞绞峭ㄟ^工作提供的福利。但是很多人——大約一半的美國勞動力——并沒有從他們的雇主那里得到這些。

"Over 50 million workers right now don't have access to any retirement plan at all," says David Certner, legislative counsel for AARP.

美國退休人員協(xié)會的法律顧問大衛(wèi)·塞特納說：“現(xiàn)在有超過5000萬工人根本無法獲得任何退休計劃。”

Small employers are the biggest segment lacking coverage, he says. That's because many small businesses lack the time and money to set such programs up, he says.

他說，小雇主是缺乏保險的最大群體。他說，這是因為許多小企業(yè)缺乏時間和資金來建立這樣的項目。

The new law, called the Secure Act, aims to help with that, in part by allowing smaller employers to band together to share the administrative burden — making it cheaper and easier to offer retirement benefits. How many will do so and expand their retirement benefits is far from clear because the program is optional.

這項名為《安全法案》的新法律旨在幫助實現(xiàn)這一目標，其部分方法是允許規(guī)模較小的雇主聯(lián)合起來分擔行政負擔，使提供退休福利變得更便宜、更容易。有多少人會這樣做，并擴大他們的退休福利還遠遠不清楚，因為該計劃是可選的。

And, Certner says, the law won't apply to many other workers who aren't classified as employees. Contractors or gig workers aren't eligible for those benefits.

而且，塞特納說，這項法律不適用于許多其他沒有被歸類為雇員的員工。承包商或零工工人沒有資格享受這些福利。

The Secure Act also gives people more flexibility to save for longer periods of time and delay withdrawing funds. It allows employers to offer other investment options like annuities.

《安全法案》還賦予人們更大的靈活性，讓他們可以儲蓄更長的時間，推遲取款。它允許雇主提供養(yǎng)老金等其他投資選擇。

The fact that the measure passed with overwhelming bipartisan support last month is significant, says Alicia Munnell, director of the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College. But she says the changes are modest.

波士頓學院退休研究中心主任艾麗西亞·芒內(nèi)爾表示，上個月該法案以壓倒性的兩黨支持通過，這一事實意義重大。但她表示，這些變化是微小的。

She notes that the government has tried — and largely failed — to encourage more small businesses to offer retirement benefits through programs like the Treasury Department's now-expired myRA program.

她指出，政府曾試圖鼓勵更多的小企業(yè)通過類似財政部現(xiàn)已失效的邁拉項目提供退休福利，但在很大程度上以失敗告終。

She expects it will be the same with this latest law.

她預(yù)測這項最新的法律也是如此。

"I don't really think they're really going to move the needle much at all," Munnell says.

芒內(nèi)爾說:“我真的不認為他們真的會改變很多。”

The new law requires employers offering retirement benefits to include part-time workers who've been on the job at least three years. That could help about 4 million workers, Munnell says.

新法律要求雇主必須為包括在職至少三年的兼職員工提供退休福利。芒內(nèi)爾說，這可以幫助大約400萬工人。

Much bigger changes to retirement law have been occurring at the state level, experts say. Ten states — including Oregon, California and Illinois — recently started requiring private employers to enroll their workers in individual retirement accounts if the employers don't offer their own benefits. Those state programs are expected to expand retirement savings to 15 million more people.

專家們說，在州一級，退休法已經(jīng)發(fā)生了更大的變化。包括俄勒岡州、加利福尼亞州和伊利諾伊州在內(nèi)的10個州最近開始要求私營雇主如果不提供自己的福利，就必須將他們的員工登記到個人退休賬戶中。這些國家項目預(yù)計將把退休儲蓄增加到1500萬人。