新法律旨在帮助没有退休计划的美国人。有用吗?

新法律旨在帮助没有退休计划的美国人。有用吗?

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.

近几十年来，让人们为退休储蓄的最有效方式是通过工作提供的福利。但是很多人——大约一半的美国劳动力——并没有从他们的雇主那里得到这些。

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

美国退休人员协会的法律顾问大卫·塞特纳说：“现在有超过5000万工人根本无法获得任何退休计划。”

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.

他说，小雇主是缺乏保险的最大群体。他说，这是因为许多小企业缺乏时间和资金来建立这样的项目。

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.

这项名为《安全法案》的新法律旨在帮助实现这一目标，其部分方法是允许规模较小的雇主联合起来分担行政负担，使提供退休福利变得更便宜、更容易。有多少人会这样做，并扩大他们的退休福利还远远不清楚，因为该计划是可选的。

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，塞特纳说，这项法律不适用于许多其他没有被归类为雇员的员工。承包商或零工工人没有资格享受这些福利。

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》还赋予人们更大的灵活性，让他们可以储蓄更长的时间，推迟取款。它允许雇主提供养老金等其他投资选择。

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.

波士顿学院退休研究中心主任艾丽西亚·芒内尔表示，上个月该法案以压倒性的两党支持通过，这一事实意义重大。但她表示，这些变化是微小的。

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，政府曾试图鼓励更多的小企业通过类似财政部现已失效的迈拉项目提供退休福利，但在很大程度上以失败告终。

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

她预测这项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.

芒内尔说:“我真的不认为他们真的会改变很多。”

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.

新法律要求雇主必须为包括在职至少三年的兼职员工提供退休福利。芒内尔说，这可以帮助大约400万工人。

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.

专家们说，在州一级，退休法已经发生了更大的变化。包括俄勒冈州、加利福尼亚州和伊利诺伊州在内的10个州最近开始要求私营雇主如果不提供自己的福利，就必须将他们的员工登记到个人退休账户中。这些国家项目预计将把退休储蓄增加到1500万人。