President Donald Trump signed an executive order April 30 expanding access to retirement savings options for workers who lack access to a 401(k) or other employer-sponsored plans.
“Workers in small businesses, part-time workers, independent contractors, and self‑employed workers face unnecessary barriers to saving for retirement,” President Trump’s executive order read.
The executive order directs the Treasury Department to launch a website, called TrumpIRA.gov, next year so that workers can research, compare and enroll in private-sector IRA accounts through which they could collect a matching contribution from the federal government. Low-income Americans will be eligible to receive up to $1,000 per year in matching funds deposited directly into their accounts, President Trump said.
The website will “promote high-quality, low-cost individual retirement accounts (IRAs) offered by private-sector financial institutions that meet objective standards of cost, transparency, and fiduciary responsibility,” the executive order read.
“For millions of Americans who lack employer-sponsored plans, this will be really revolutionary, because they’ll be covered,” President Trump said in remarks April 30.
President Trump first mentioned his intention to expand workers’ access to retirement plans during his State of the Union Address in February, saying he would offer Americans who don’t have 401(k)s or other employer-based retirement accounts “access to the same type of retirement plan offered to every federal worker.”
President Trump was referring to the Thrift Savings Plan signed in 2022, a retirement plan for federal employees and uniformed service members.
The new executive order will be integrated with the Saver’s Match, a provision from Secure 2.0, the sweeping retirement legislation that was signed into law in 2022 by President Joe Biden. Starting in January, the provision will offer a match of up to $1,000 for workers who make less than $35,500 a year.
‘A Positive Step’
The plan is a significant step in helping workers who do not have access to employer-sponsored retirement plans prepare for their post-work years. It’s a big gap: Roughly 56 million Americans lack access to an employer-sponsored retirement plan, according to 2025 data from public policy nonprofit the Pew Charitable Trusts.
“Too often, workers are excluded from retirement savings opportunities, not because of a lack of interest, but because of barriers to access, including fragmented information, limited portability, and public policy constraints that can make participation more difficult,” SHRM said in a statement. The new executive order “reflects an opportunity to begin conversations to address these barriers,” SHRM said, adding that it “encourages Congress to build on this effort to ensure that all workers have access to retirement savings options.”
“It is definitely a positive step,” Jere El-Bakri, chief retirement officer at Vensure Employer Solutions, a Chandler, Ariz.-based professional employer organization, said about expanding access to retirement plans and savings. It also “highlights the fact that many employees do not have access to retirement funds.”
The new initiative, as well as the Saver’s Match, could have big workplace repercussions as they “should significantly increase the number of worksite plans and/or participation in IRAs,” El-Bakri said. “This would provide a ‘demand-side’ push for employers. In other words, employees would start demanding a way to make payroll-deducted contributions to a retirement account so that they could benefit from the match.”
Improving Retirement Security
In general, the state of employees’ retirement readiness is far from ideal. Employees say they need more money saved for their retirement at the same time a growing number of workers are lowering 401(k) contributions or withdrawing funds as financial anxiety jumps. Americans’ so-called magic number to retire comfortably in 2026 climbed to $1.46 million — a $200,000 jump from last year, according to figures out from Northwestern Mutual. But nearly half of Americans (46%) don’t expect to be financially prepared for retirement, and nearly half (48%) believe it is somewhat or very likely they will outlive their savings.
Many experts have said much more work needs to be done when preparing workers for their post-work years. “We have got to get employees to start early with savings and prioritizing their retirement,” Richard Reed, vice president and 401(k) expert at benefits and HR consulting firm Segal in Boston, told SHRM recently.
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