401(k) Specialist Issue 2 - 2023 - 8

401(k) NEWS YOU CAN USE
Women are Stressed in Balancing
Caregiving and Work
AS WORKPLACE CULTURES in the U.S. settle for more hybrid and
remote work options, WIPN finds women in the retirement services
industry are still facing trouble balancing caregiving roles and work.
In a new survey, WIPN found that seven in 10 women who work and
have a caregiving role report having autonomy over their time at work
and options for remote work and flexible schedules.
Yet, three in 10 women said their caregiving role had negatively
impacted career opportunities, with 18% stating that caregiving has
limited their career path. Additionally, only 4% of women surveyed said
caregiving positively affected their career.
As more workers move into caregiving roles, WIPN found disparities
within employees who act as caregivers versus those who don't. Fourteen
percent of caregiving respondents said they received less recognition
than their colleagues who are not caregivers, 12% wished for longer
caregiving leave, and 16% stated their compensation is not enough to
cover the cost of caregiving.
Additionally, women surveyed said they were also likelier to face high
pressure in their home and work life. Among employed U.S. parents,
67% of women said they felt a great deal of pressure to focus on their
responsibilities at home compared to 45% of men. When asked whether
they faced pressures to support their family financially, 57% of men and
62% of women said yes, while 38% of men and 41% of women said they
felt pressured to be successful in their job or career.
" Women's lot as caregivers may be improved but changes to workplace
benefits-when they are not matched by changes in cultural
norms-may be inadvertently amping up the pace on a treadmill of
unsustainable expectations, " WIPN wrote in its report.
Retirement Savings See Slight Boost in 2023
March of $820, a 24% bump from $660 in March 2022, found Bank
of America.
More participants increased their plan contribution rates (14.2%)
than decreased (3.2%) across all generations, especially among Gen
Z (23% vs. 2.4%) and Millennial (15.7% vs. 3.6%) participants.
When it came to loans, the percentage of participants borrowing
from their plan declined to 1.9% in Q1, from 2.1% in Q4 2022.
However, the average loan per participant increased to $8,550, up
14% from Q4 2022 and down 4% from Q1 2022, reported Bank of
America.
In Q1, 14.3% of participants had a loan in default, a considerable
DESPITE THE REPORTED DIP in retirement confidence, Bank of
America's latest 401(k) Participant Pulse study found average participant
savings rate are up so far in 2023.
According to the findings, while participants ended the quarter
with lower balances year-over-year at $78,800 and down from
$86,000 in March 2022, the average savings rate went up slightly
to 6.5% for Q1. This resulted in an average contribution amount in
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ISSUE 2 2023 | 401kSpecialist.com
drop from 15.2% in Q4 2022, with loans totaling to $460 million by
the end of the quarter. Across all age groups, Gen X and Millennials
had the highest percentage of outstanding loans, at 22.4% and
13.8%, respectively.
Bank of America also reported a rise in participants taking
hardship distributions at 0.46%, up from 0.4% in Q1 2022, and the
number of participants increased 15% from Q4 2022, up 33% from
Q1 2022. The average hardship distribution amount was
$5,100, an increase of 8.5% compared to Q4 2022 and
down from $6,000 in Q1 2022.
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401(k) Specialist Issue 2 - 2023

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