Retirement Plan Guide

Retirement Plan Coverage by State: What DOL Data Shows

Retirement plan coverage is not distributed evenly across the US. DOL Form 5500 data reveals which states lead in plan availability, which lag, and what structural factors explain the differences.

Key Takeaway

State-level retirement plan data reflects economic structure more than policy. States with large employer bases and financial services concentrations lead in both plan count and total assets. State-mandated retirement programs are beginning to change coverage in states dominated by small businesses, but their impact is still emerging.

Why State-Level Data Matters for Retirement Planning

Most retirement planning guidance treats the US as a monolith. But the reality is that retirement plan availability, generosity, and type vary significantly by state. A worker in Connecticut is far more likely to have access to a well-funded defined benefit pension than a worker in Nevada. A worker in California benefits from CalSavers even if their employer offers no retirement plan. These state-level differences shape retirement outcomes for millions of workers.

Form 5500 data on PlainRetire's state pages makes these differences visible. Each state page shows total plan count, aggregate assets under management, total participants, and the largest plans headquartered in the state. This data enables meaningful comparison of the retirement plan landscape across states.

Understanding your state's landscape helps contextualize your own plan. If your state has many plans with $100M+ in assets but your employer's plan holds $5M, you know there are larger, potentially lower-cost options in your labor market. If you are considering relocating, the retirement plan density in a potential destination is one indicator of employer quality.

Plan Count vs. Plan Quality

What it tells you: States with more plans generally have more employers offering retirement benefits. California leads with the most Form 5500 filings, followed by New York, Texas, Florida, and Illinois. These numbers track closely with total employment, bigger states have more plans.

What it does not tell you: Plan count does not measure plan quality. A state with 10,000 plans averaging $500K each has a very different retirement landscape than a state with 5,000 plans averaging $50M each. Average assets per participant, employer match rates, and plan type mix are all more informative than raw plan count.

How to use it: Compare plans within your state by type and size on PlainRetire. The rankings pages sort plans by assets, participants, and other metrics, making it easy to see where your plan falls within the state distribution.

The Defined Benefit vs. Defined Contribution Shift

What it tells you: Form 5500 data captures the decades-long shift from defined benefit pensions (guaranteed income) to defined contribution plans (401(k)s where investment risk falls on the employee). Some states, particularly in the Northeast and Midwest with legacy manufacturing and financial services industries, still have significant defined benefit plan assets. Southern and Western states tilt more heavily toward 401(k) plans.

What it does not tell you: The shift from DB to DC is irreversible for most private employers. The DB plans that remain tend to be frozen (no new participants) or in run-off mode (paying existing retirees but not accruing new benefits). Seeing a large DB plan in Form 5500 data does not mean new employees have access to it.

How to use it: Filter plans by type on PlainRetire to see the DB/DC mix in your state or industry. Workers evaluating job offers at companies with active DB plans should understand that these benefits are increasingly rare and valuable.

What This Means for You

Step 1, Explore your state. Visit your state page on PlainRetire to see the overall retirement plan landscape, total plans, assets, and the largest sponsors.

Step 2, Compare your plan to state peers. Look at plans of similar size and type in your state. Is your plan's asset level, participant count, or fee structure typical or an outlier?

Step 3, Check your industry. Visit the industry pages to see how retirement plan offerings compare across sectors. Technology and financial services typically offer the most generous plans.

Step 4, Know your state's mandatory program. If your employer does not offer a retirement plan, check whether your state has a mandatory auto-IRA program (CalSavers, OregonSaves, Illinois Secure Choice, etc.) that provides a default savings option.

Frequently Asked Questions

Which states have the most retirement plans?

California, New York, Texas, Florida, and Illinois lead in total filings. Per capita, smaller states with strong financial sectors (Connecticut, Massachusetts) show higher plan density per worker.

Do state laws affect retirement plan availability?

Yes. States like California, Oregon, and Illinois have mandatory auto-IRA programs for employers without plans. These increase coverage but do not appear in Form 5500 data as they are state-administered IRA programs.

Why do some states have much higher average plan assets?

States with large employer and financial services concentrations (New York, Connecticut) have higher averages because a few very large plans skew the mean. Median assets are more representative of the typical employer's plan.

How can I see retirement plans in my state?

Visit PlainRetire's state pages for total plan counts, aggregate assets, participant numbers, and the largest plans in each state. You can also search for specific employers.

Sources: DOL EBSA, Form 5500 Datasets.

Last updated: April 2026

Worked example: state program impact on coverage

Independent studies from the Pew Center on the States and the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College document measurable coverage shifts following state auto-IRA adoption. California's CalSavers, launched in 2019, had enrolled approximately 760,000 workers by mid-2024 with roughly $700 million in cumulative contributions. Oregon's OregonSaves, the longest-running program, has roughly 130,000 active accounts and $250 million in assets. Comparable per-capita penetration would imply national rollout could add 8 to 12 million workers to retirement saving who were previously uncovered, about a 9% increase in total private-sector covered workers. The federal SECURE 2.0 Act creates an additional small-employer tax credit of up to $5,000/year for three years to offset plan startup costs, which IRS guidance estimates could shift another 1% to 2% of the small-employer landscape toward voluntary plan adoption.

State program adoption phases

Program phaseTypical adoption patternCoverage lift
Pre-mandate (large employers only)Voluntary plan adoption ~55%Baseline
Phase 1 (100+ employees)+15 percentage points coverage15%
Phase 2 (50-99 employees)+8 percentage points coverage8%
Phase 3 (5-49 employees)+12 percentage points coverage12%
Full mandate (all sizes)Coverage approaches 80-85% statewide20% to 30% from baseline

State-facilitated auto-IRA programs are the single most consequential retirement-policy experiment of the past decade, and they are doing in three years what voluntary federal policy could not do in thirty.

Comparing state programs feature by feature

State programs share a basic architecture, default Roth IRA enrollment at a 5%-of-pay contribution rate with automatic escalation to 8% or 10% - but differ on several execution dimensions. Default investment selection varies: some default to a target-date fund, others to a balanced money-market fund for the first 90 days followed by a target-date fund. Employer roles differ: in most programs the employer remits payroll deductions only and bears no fiduciary responsibility, while in some the employer must distribute educational materials. Fee structures differ: program-administrator fees typically range from 0.65% to 0.95% of assets, modestly higher than mega-plan 401(k)s but well below micro-plan 401(k) expense ratios. Investment menus are intentionally narrow, usually three to seven options, to simplify default behavior. Anyone evaluating whether the state program meets their needs should read the participant disclosure document published by their state's program administrator, which is the most official source.