Using Behavioral Insights to Increase Retirement Savings (Report)
Evidence | Publications

Using Behavioral Insights to Increase Retirement Savings (Report)

Trial Design and Findings
Published: Apr 30, 2017
Publisher: Princeton, NJ: Mathematica Policy Research
Human Services Employment Advisory Services
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Full Publication
Associated Project

Behavioral Interventions for Labor-Related Programs

Time frame: 2014-2017

Prepared for:

U.S. Department of Labor

Authors

Samia Amin

Greg Chojnacki

Aravind Moorthy

Irma Perez-Johnson

Matt Darling

Jaclyn Lefkowitz

Key Findings

 Key Findings:

  • Low-cost, behaviorally informed emails increased the number of U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) employees saving at least 5 percent of their salary by 7.5 percentage points.
  • Emails raised the overall contribution rate by up to 0.4 percentage points or approximately $11,500 over an employee’s lifetime.
  • Emails were not effective in causing non-contributors to start contributing a percentage of their salary to the Thrift Savings Plan.
This report provides findings from Mathematica's behavioral insights study conducted for the U.S. Department of Labor's Employee Benefits Security Administration.

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