More employers are enrolling workers in 401(k) plans without asking them first

The L.A.Times reports:

Shannon Scrivens discovered a surprise in her paycheck earlier this year: It went down.

But the mother of four was happy with the modest pay cut, because the money she missed was going into a retirement savings plan.


"I noticed that the 401(k) appeared one day in my pay stub and I was thrilled with it," said Scrivens, 35, as she took a break from her loading-dock job at a sprawling Costco warehouse near Washington Dulles International Airport.

The savings, she said, "is our only nest egg for retirement."

Scrivens is among a growing number of workers whose employers have steered them into retirement savings plans without waiting for them to sign up. The practice, known as automatic enrollment — or, to some workers, "forced saving" — is a tradition-breaking effort to push people into putting money away for the future.

Under a pension overhaul bill that the House approved Friday and the Senate is due to take up this week, companies would be granted explicit legal assurance that they could unilaterally shift some of a worker's pay into a retirement savings plan, such as a 401(k) program, unless the employee specifically opted out.

Forced.