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A recent survey has shown that there has been a big shift among younger workers in their attitude about preparing for retirement. Many are now saying they would prefer giving up salary now to get more in retirement and health benefits in the future.

This sea change in younger worker attitudes could have a significant impact on human resource departments and the types of retirement packages they help put together for employees.

The survey showed that the biggest shift in attitudes about retirement was among workers under 40.

In the survey, more than half the workers under 40 who were enrolled in some type of pension plan said that they would be agreeable to paying more from each paycheck to make sure of a guaranteed retirement amount. That is about a 10 percent increase from just two years ago.

To conduct the survey, researchers contacted about 10,000 workers in the United States in 2011.

In addition, half of those who responded said they would also be willing to give up some of their pay now to ensure that they would have healthcare coverage if they retired before becoming eligible for Medicare. That is also an increase of about 10 percent from two years ago.

Indeed, rising healthcare costs are an even bigger concern for employees, and about two-thirds said that increasing healthcare costs are the main reason they have become more concerned about having enough money for retirement.

The survey also showed that almost two-thirds of younger employees, and nearly half of all employees, believe that their retirement benefits will be reduced in the next several years. And, while retirement is a concern for many, the survey showed that even more are concerned about healthcare costs, and what their out-of-pocket expenses and co-pays will be.

The results surprised some retirement consultants, who did not think the younger workers would be willing to sacrifice more immediate gratification in the form of reduced paychecks for the sake of something many years in the future.

And, even though more have become aware of retirement planning, retirement consultants say that too many employees still are not taking retirement seriously enough, and are not doing enough to plan for it.

When looking for great temporary and direct-hire workers for your Manhattan-area company, call upon the expert recruiters at Winston Resources. We’ve been matching great people with great companies for 45 years and we look forward to doing the same for your company. Contact us today!


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