We examine the effect of obliging employers to enrol employees automatically into a workplace pension scheme. We exploit the phased roll-out of automatic enrolment, by employer size, in the first country to do so nationwide (the UK), to estimate its effect on pension saving among private sector employees. We find substantial increases in pension participation and a rise in pension saving. Surprisingly, many newly enrolled employees received an employer contribution substantially above the (very low) minimum default level. Automatic enrolment also caused the pension participation of those employees who were not obliged to be automatically enrolled to more than double.
Authors
![Carl Emmerson](/sites/default/files/styles/square_desktop/public/2022-06/Carl_Emmerson.jpg?itok=6jM06LTY)
Deputy Director
Carl, a Deputy Director, is an editor of the IFS Green Budget, is expert on the UK pension system and sits on the Social Security Advisory Committee.
![Jonathan Cribb](/sites/default/files/styles/square_desktop/public/2023-11/Jonathan%20Cribb.jpg?itok=8LgmPwOc)
Associate Director
Jonathan is an Associate Director and Head of Retirement, Savings and Ageing sector, focusing on pensions, savings and later-life economic activity.
Journal article details
- DOI
- 10.1007/s10797-019-09565-6
- Publisher
- Springer
- Issue
- September 2019
Suggested citation
Cribb, J and Emmerson, C. (2019). 'What happens to workplace pension saving when employers are obliged to enrol employees automatically?' (2019)
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