At a Glance | September 19, 2019 How Prepared Are Families to Pay for Expenses When Losing Their Main Income Source? DC PLANS AND READINESS Families Whose Heads Participate in a Defined Contribution (DC) Plan Are More Likely to Have Sufficient Emergency Savings Only 1 in 5 families with working heads under age 65 have Percentage of Families With at Least Three Months of Emergency Savings DC Plan Status enough emergency savings — three months of family 20.1% 24.7% Participating All 1 income in liquid savings. 13.4% Eligible, Not Participating Age Families whose heads 16.7% 20.9% participate in a defined < 35 yrs contribution (DC) plan are 14.9% more likely to have sufficient 17.1% 23.7% 35–44 emergency savings. 8.0% 18.2% 24.0% 45–54 9.4% 29.4% 30.9% 55–64 27.3% HOW MUCH SAVINGS? A Majority of Families Have Less Than One Month of Emergency Savings Looking at the distribution of savings, a majority of families Emergency Savings Percentile Weeks of Emergency Savings Available Amount have less than one month of their income. The families with 2 Least 1.2 Weeks $1,040 the most savings have at least just under two and a half months. Given the low percentage of Median 3.3 Weeks $4,500 workers with enough savings, emergency savings programs provided by employers could directly benefit their workers 3 Most and indirectly benefit them 9.2 Weeks $16,300 through higher employee satisfaction. SOURCE: Craig Copeland, “Emergency Savings: The Reality of Workers’ Liquid Savings — Evidence From the Survey of Consumer Finances,” EBRI Issue Brief, no. 490 (Employee Benefit Research Institute, August 29, 2019). 1. Liquid savings include checking accounts, savings accounts, money market funds, call accounts, and prepaid accounts. 2. Least represents the 25th percentile, which is the maximum value of the families with the lowest 25 percent of available emergency savings. 3. Most represents the 75th percentile, which is the minimum value of the families with the highest 25 percent of available emergency savings. © 2019 EBRI This report is copyrighted by the Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI). You may copy, print, or download this report solely for personal and noncommercial use, provided that all hard copies retain any and all copyright and other applicable notices contained therein, and you may cite or quote small portions of the report provided that you do so verbatim and with proper citation. Any use beyond the scope of the foregoing requires EBRI’s prior express permission. For permissions, please contact EBRI at permissions@ebri.org.