Senators Bill Cassidy (R-LA.) and Tim Kaine (D-VA.) have re-introduced the Helping Young Americans Save for Retirement Act. The bill was previously introduced last Congress in November 2023.

Much like last time, the bill would reduce the participation age in ERISA-governed plans, currently set at 21 years old, to 18 years old. The purpose of the bill is to expand retirement savings to younger workers. ERISA plans would still be permitted to set a minimum age that is younger than 18.

Employees aged 18-20 often have higher turnover, educational commitments, or are more likely to be transient and part-time than older workers, and so they are often ineligible for defined contribution plans. Though ERISA does not forbid them from being in plans, the minimum required age is 21.

The legislation also says that employees that are added to plans solely because of this bill will be omitted from mandatory audits for five years. This is designed to protect plans near audit thresholds from immediately being subject to new audit requirements because of their new plan enrollees, which would “otherwise increase the cost of administering retirement plans for these employees.”

According to an IRS report from 2012, 64% of plans had a minimum age of 21, 4% were 19 or 20, 13% were 18, and 20% had no minimum at all. This means that this legislation could influence many if not most plans if it were to be enacted.

The increasing prevalence of automatic features in DC plans due to SECURE 2.0 would also increase the impact of this bill. Younger workers are more likely to be automatically enrolled because of lower engagement, and if 18-20 were to qualify for plans, then those who don’t opt-in would also be automatically enrolled.

According to Empower, the average 401(k) balance as of January 2025 for 20-somethings was $91,133 and the median was $34,225.

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