Mainebiz

V O L . X X I V N O. X M AY 1 4 , 2 0 1 8 22 T he retirement outlook for many is dismal. Investment in retirement savings has plum- meted in recent years, with nearly half of American workers working for busi- nesses that don't offer retirement plans and fewer than half participating in plans that are offered. In Maine, a third of Mainers age 65-plus rely solely on an average annual Social Security income of $16,000, and typical working households have only $3,000 saved for retirement. Employees at Maine's two larg- est publicly traded companies may be bucking that trend. At IDEXX Laboratories Inc. in Westbrook, there's 95% U.S. employee participation in its 401(k) program. WEX Inc. in South Portland has 401(k) participation of nearly 80%. Automatic retirement plan enroll- ment, automatic contribution escala- tion and/or hefty employer matches are among employer strategies to improve retirement outlooks for their employees. "is is a national issue," says Giovani Twigge, chief human resources officer at IDEXX. "People do not save enough for retirement. We think that companies have a responsibility in help- ing employees prepare for that." Slow but steady growth At IDEXX, a maker of diagnostic tests for pets, poultry and livestock, Twigge credits the high participation rate to automatic enrollment and automatic escalation of contributions. WEX, which provides payment pro- cessing and information management services, takes the opt-in approach, but Melanie Tinto, chief human resources officer, attributes strong participation in part to a hefty 6% employer match, starting one year after hire, and full employee vesting after year one. Cianbro, Maine's largest construc- tion company, offers automatic enroll- ment, starting new hires at 3%. "Very few people opt out," says Rachel Porter, manager of retire- ment benefits at the Pittsfield-based company. She is seeing interest from younger workers anxious to save for retirement. "And we do auto-escala- tion. We bump them up 1% every year, capping that at 10%. We've seen good results with that as well. It pushes people closer to their retirement sav- ing target," she says. "e nice thing about the auto- matic increase," adds Cianbro Director of Human Resources Mark Hovey, "is that, generally, once they're in a plan, the team member doesn't really see that big a difference in their net take-home pay. You do a little bit $0 $50K $100K $150K $200K $250K 2014 2012 2010 2008 2006 2004 2002 2000 1998 1996 1994 1992 F I L E P H O T O / J I M N E U G E R The 401(k) is OK How employers are fighting Maine's dismal retirement outlook B y l a u R i e s C h R e i B e R W E A LT H M A N A G E M E N T / R E T I R E M E N T F O C U S A downward spiral in retirement savings M edian assets (not including pensions) for pre-retirement Americans age 47–61 are plummeting. "Despite generally increasing per capita incomes, there has been alarmingly little increase in assets among this group," writes UMaine economist Philip Trostel. The recession and subsequent bear market were contributors to the downward trend. But "the downward trend persisted even after income and stock values rose." People do not save enough for retirement. We think that companies have a responsibility in helping employees prepare for that. — Giovani Twigge IDEXX Laboratories Inc. THERE IS A DIFFERENCE Because Construction Management Design/Build General Contracting Engineering Harold Alfond Academic Center at Thomas College Sheridan Construction www.sheridancorp.com Fairfield Portland 207-453-9311 207-774-6138 Giovani Twigge, chief human resources officer at IDEXX Laboratories Inc., says the company takes seriously the responsibility of helping employees prepare for retirement. S O U R C E : University of Maine/Philip Trostel THE TREND (MEDIAN ASSETS, 2016 DOLLARS)

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