--- title: Are You Saving as Much of Your Pay as the Average 401(k) Investor? description: Compare your 401(k) saving rate to the average employee and employer contributions at plans administered by Fidelity and Vanguard. authors: - name: Karen Damato url: https://money.com/author/karen-damato/ at_money_since: 2016 articles: 24 covers: - Retirement - Banking - Economy and Politics - Investing - Taxes social: - https://x.com/DamatoK former_staff: true published: '2017-06-06T19:10:11.000Z' modified: '2024-04-17T06:01:20.000Z' section: Retirement tags: - 401(k)s - boost retirement savings - saving for retirement - lookingforward word_count: 388 canonical: https://money.com/are-you-saving-as-much-of-your-pay-as-the-average-401k-investor/ type: Article source: structured-blocks --- > **Disclosure:** We research all brands listed and may earn a fee from our partners. Research and financial considerations may influence how brands are displayed. Not all brands are included. [Learn more](https://money.com/page/disclaimer/). ![170606-saving-as-much-as-average](https://img.money.com/2017/06/170606-saving-as-much-as-average.jpg) Workers should aim to save 15% of their paychecks in a 401(k) or other retirement account, many financial advisors say. But that’s an ambitious target for most people, even if you include matching contributions you get from your employer. How close is the average worker to hitting this target? Data from two big retirement-plan providers give some idea. At Vanguard, the average contribution rate was 6.2% of pay in 2016, according to the firm’s annual [How America Saves](https://pressroom.vanguard.com/nonindexed/How-America-Saves-2017.pdf) report, released Tuesday. When you add in employer matches, the average contribution per worker hits 10.9% of pay. At Fidelity, the average contribution rate was 8.4% as of March 31, the company said last month, or 12.9% when you factor in employer matches. That overall contribution rate is actually a record high, up from 12.7% at the end of 2016 and 12.4% at the end of 2015, according to Fidelity. Yet Americans still understand that they're missing the mark when it comes to savings. Half of Americans, for instance, aren’t sure [they’ll be able to afford retirement](https://money.com/american-prepared-retirement-survey/), a recent survey by the American Institute of CPAs found. And the average 401(k) balances reported by Vanguard and Fidelity — around $95,000 in plans administered at both firms — are certainly cause for concern. Why? Many financial pros say you should figure on withdrawing no more than [4% of your nest egg](https://money.com/safe-withdrawal-rate-retirement/) in the first year of retirement — meaning that a $100,000 retirement account would provide just $4,000 in annual spending money. [//compass.pressekompass.net/static/opinary.js](//compass.pressekompass.net/static/opinary.js) At Vanguard, the average employee deferral rate of 6.2% in 2016 was actually down from 6.9% the year before, reflecting the fact that more workers are being automatically enrolled by their plans starting at lower percentages of pay. (When companies [auto-enroll new workers,](https://money.com/401k-changes-save-better-retirement/) the plans usually start them off at a relatively low level — typically 3% or 4% of pay, and nudge employees in the right direction by ratcheting that up each year.) Not surprisingly, Vanguard reports that contribution levels are higher at higher income levels and among older workers. While employees earning less than $30,000 contribute an average 3.9% of pay, that figure jumps to 8.1% for those earning $100,000 or more. Employees between the ages of 25 and 34 save an average 5.3% of what they earn, while those in the 55-to-64 range save 7.8%. ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "@id": "https://money.com/are-you-saving-as-much-of-your-pay-as-the-average-401k-investor/#breadcrumb", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://money.com" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Retirement", "item": "https://money.com/retirement/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "401(k)", "item": "https://money.com/401k/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "Are You Saving as Much of Your Pay as the Average 401(k) Investor?" } ] }, { "@type": "WebSite", "@id": "https://money.com/#website", "url": "https://money.com", "name": "Money", "publisher": { "@id": "https://money.com/#organization" } }, { "@type": "WebPage", "@id": "https://money.com/are-you-saving-as-much-of-your-pay-as-the-average-401k-investor/#webpage", "url": "https://money.com/are-you-saving-as-much-of-your-pay-as-the-average-401k-investor/", "name": "Are You Saving as Much of Your Pay as the Average 401(k) Investor?", "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://money.com/#website" }, "datePublished": "2017-06-06T19:10:11.000Z", "mainEntity": { "@id": "https://money.com/are-you-saving-as-much-of-your-pay-as-the-average-401k-investor/" }, "inLanguage": "en-US", "breadcrumb": { "@id": "https://money.com/are-you-saving-as-much-of-your-pay-as-the-average-401k-investor/#breadcrumb" }, "dateModified": "2024-04-17T06:01:20.000Z" }, { "@type": "Article", "headline": "Are You Saving as Much of Your Pay as the Average 401(k) Investor?", "articleSection": "Retirement", "image": [ { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://img.money.com/2017/06/170606-saving-as-much-as-average.jpg", "width": 2100, "height": 1393, "caption": "170606-saving-as-much-as-average" } ], "author": [ { "@type": "Person", "name": "Karen Damato", "url": "https://money.com/author/karen-damato/", "@id": "https://money.com/author/karen-damato/#author", "image": "https://money.com/content.money.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/damato-headshot.jpg?crop=385px%2C652px%2C3226px%2C3226px&resize=640%2C640&quality=85&strip&ssl=1", "sameAs": [ "https://x.com/DamatoK" ] } ], "publisher": "https://money.com/#organization", "datePublished": "2017-06-06T19:10:11.000Z", "description": "Compare your 401(k) saving rate to the average employee and employer contributions at plans administered by Fidelity and Vanguard.", "abstract": "Compare your 401(k) saving rate to the average employee and employer contributions at plans administered by Fidelity and Vanguard.", "@id": "https://money.com/are-you-saving-as-much-of-your-pay-as-the-average-401k-investor/", "inLanguage": "en-US", "dateModified": "2024-04-17T06:01:20.000Z", "wordCount": 388, "keywords": [ "401(k)s", "boost retirement savings", "saving for retirement", "lookingforward" ], "about": [ { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Retirement", "sameAs": [ "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Retirement" ] }, { "@type": "Thing", "name": "401(k)", "sameAs": [ "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/401(k)" ] } ] } ] } ```