Millions of working Americans have no access to retirement plans at work. No 401(k). No employer match. No automatic payroll deductions nudging them toward the future. Just their own willpower — and for most people, willpower alone doesn’t build a retirement fund.
President Donald Trump has signed an executive order aimed squarely at fixing that.
Here are five things you need to know.
1. The scale of this problem is staggering
About 54 million Americans have no access to any kind of employer-sponsored retirement plan, according to data from the Economic Innovation Group. That figure, while startling, doesn’t capture how concentrated the pain actually is.
Research from AARP shows about 80% of workers without a workplace retirement plan earn under $53,000 a year. Small-business employees are hit especially hard — nearly 78% of companies with nine or fewer workers don’t offer a retirement benefit at all.
Minority workers bear a disproportionate share of this burden. About 63% of Hispanic workers, 52% of Black workers, and 44% of Asian American workers have no access to a workplace savings plan, according to AARP.
The consequences compound over decades. As we explored in “The Retirement Crisis: 6 Uncomfortable Truths for Aging Americans,” workers without automatic payroll deductions and employer matches don’t just save less — they often save nothing.
2. Here’s what the order actually does
The executive order directs the Treasury Department to launch a new website — TrumpIRA.gov — by January 2027. That’s timed to coincide with the launch of the Saver’s Match (more on that in a moment).
The site will function as a marketplace. Workers without employer-sponsored plans can browse vetted, private-sector IRAs and filter options by cost, minimum contribution, and minimum balance.
The Treasury will vet the plans that appear on the site — but unlike Trump Accounts for children, the administration won’t be formally partnering with specific financial institutions, according to Semafor.
The order also directs the Treasury to issue guidance for private-sector donors who want to contribute directly to workers’ IRAs — an angle that’s already generating significant interest, White House officials told Semafor.
3. There’s a $1,000 government match on the table
This is where it gets genuinely interesting.
A provision in the Secure 2.0 Act of 2022 — called the Saver’s Match — takes effect in January 2027. It directs the federal government to match up to 50% of retirement contributions on a maximum of $2,000 per year, for single workers earning under $35,000.
Run the numbers: Contribute $2,000 and collect $1,000 from Uncle Sam. That’s a guaranteed 50% return before a single dollar touches the market.
Here’s the catch. You need a qualifying retirement account to collect it. About 27 million workers who earn below that threshold currently have no such plan. Today’s executive order is specifically designed to close that gap before the match kicks in next year.
If you’re not already familiar with the related Saver’s Credit — the current tax break this program evolves from — we’ve broken it down here. The incoming Saver’s Match goes further by depositing matching funds directly into your retirement account, rather than simply trimming your tax bill.
4. It’s smarter than what came before
This isn’t the first time a president has tried to close the retirement coverage gap. Obama’s myRA program, introduced in 2014, channeled workers’ savings exclusively into U.S. Treasury bonds — safe on paper, but historically low-returning compared to a diversified stock portfolio over decades.
The current approach avoids that trap. By directing workers toward vetted private-sector IRAs instead of a government-run account, the order gives them access to the kind of diversified investment options that federal workers already enjoy through the Thrift Savings Plan.
For a 30-year-old without a retirement plan, that distinction — Treasury bonds versus a diversified portfolio — could easily translate into hundreds of thousands of dollars by the time they retire.
5. What comes next — and what you should do right now
The order also directs the Treasury and the National Economic Council to draft legislative recommendations that could expand the program further — potentially including automatic enrollment and broader income eligibility for the match. Those changes would require congressional action, according to Semafor.
If you live in one of the 17 states that have already established auto-IRA programs — California, Oregon, Illinois, Colorado, Connecticut, Maryland, and Virginia among them — the new order isn’t expected to override those programs. It’s designed to complement them.
As for what to do today: Don’t wait for TrumpIRA.gov.
If you’re among the 54 million workers without a workplace retirement plan, you can open an IRA right now at any major brokerage. If your income qualifies, you’re already eligible for the current Saver’s Credit. And when the Saver’s Match launches in 2027, you’ll want a qualifying account in place to collect it.
Once you open that account, “Here’s Where to Put Your Next Retirement Dollar for Maximum Growth” walks you through exactly how to prioritize it.
Teresa Ghilarducci, a labor economist at The New School who has spent decades studying the retirement savings gap, called the proposal a meaningful step toward wider coverage — while also noting it doesn’t change the voluntary structure that has historically allowed those gaps to persist.
That’s a fair point. This isn’t a complete solution. But for 54 million workers who’ve had no plan at all, getting one is exactly where you start.
Read the full article here
