by David C. John and J. Mark Iwry

Retirement insecurity looms for millions of American workers. For most of us, Social Security will not be enough. A comfortable retirement, according to most investment professionals, requires an annual income of about 70 percent of pre-retirement earnings -- far more than Social Security provides for most workers.

Yet our nation’s personal savings rate -- saving as a percentage of income -- has dropped below zero, and traditional employer-sponsored defined benefit pensions, which have served workers so well for decades, are rapidly eroding.

Even worse, half the U.S. workforce -- more than 71 million moderate- and lower-income workers, employees of smaller businesses, and others -- work for employers that don’t offer a retirement plan at all. This continues to be the case even as lengthening life spans -- ours and our children’s -- increase the need to build pension savings and a secure retirement.

Research on saving, plus the commonsense lessons of experience, point to a simple and effective way to help this half of our working population save. We call it the “automatic IRA,” because it would enable employees who have no employer-sponsored plan to save in an IRA using the powerful automatic payroll deposit mechanism that drives many employers’ 401(k) plans. In short, the ultimate goal is to give workers access to retirement savings in every job they hold.

Under our proposal, a business that isn’t ready to adopt a 401(k) or other retirement plan would simply offer its employees the chance to contribute to an IRA every payday by direct deposit, in much the same way millions of us have our paychecks deposited directly into our bank accounts. It’s easier to save small amounts on a regular basis. And once payroll deposits begin, they continue automatically and accumulate tax-free.