"That is no longer the case," she said. "We live in a 401(k) world, one that requires American workers make more financial decisions and assume more risk in deciding how much money to invest and where to invest it. Due to many challenges, many Americans have not been able to save the necessary funds for retirement. This retirement security crisis is very real."

The NIRS study examined rates of participation in defined contribution plans by age and wealth. Its findings included:

Of the 55% of private-sector workers with access to any kind of retirement savings plan, only 51% utilize it. Access has slightly increased from post-recession figures but is still down from the 62% seen in 1998.

Over 43 million people worked for an employer that didn't sponsor a plan in 2013, including 34 million full-time workers.

Half of the 40 million American households that don't own any retirement assets are between ages 45 and 65.

As would be expected, retirement assets are strongly to correlated household income. On average, families with retirement accounts have 2.4 times the annual income than do those without retirement assets.

Median income was more than $86,000 for those with accounts, compared to $35,500 for those without accounts.

Nearly 90% of earners in the highest quartile income bracket have retirement accounts, and nearly 76% of households in the second highest slot do. But in the lowest quartile of income earners, fewer than 22% hold assets in retirement accounts.

When factoring out households without retirement accounts from the equation, the average account value for all ages rose considerably, to about $50,000. For workers age 55 to 64, it was $104,000; for workers 45 to 54, it was $87,000.

Instant Insights /

Median Retirement Account Balances Drop to $2,500: Study

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