The Employee Benefits Research Institute (EBRI) recently issued its 2014 Retirement Confidence Survey. The percentage of American workers who say they are not too confident or not at all confident they will have enough money to live comfortably throughout their retirement years now stands at 43%, down from 49% a year ago. While this is trending in the right direction, it is still concerning that more than four out of every 10 American workers currently put their chances of a comfortable retirement at less than 50-50.

The survey does a good job of dissecting the results to explore correlations. For example, the retirement confidence levels are vastly different between workers who have a retirement plan e.g., an IRA, a defined contribution (DC) plan, or a defined benefit (DB) plan compared to those who do not. Of those who have a retirement plan, only 28% say they are not too confident or not at all confident about a comfortable retirement. Of those who do not have a retirement plan, 69% are not too confident or not at all confident. It's likely that many of these workers have very little personal savings. Add to that everyone's concern about the path that Social Security is currently on, and it's no wonder that almost seven out of 10 American workers with no retirement plan take a dim view of their chances for a comfortable retirement.

There's an obvious solution to increasing retirement confidence in America, which is to get more workers into retirement plans. It may well be that a good portion of that 69% has 401(k) or similar retirement savings vehicles available at their employers, but they are not utilizing them. To get more workers into these plans, employers need to be continuously encouraging their employees and educating them on the power of starting early, the benefits of tax-deferred growth, and how they are leaving money on the table if there's a match. Plus, automatic enrollment is an excellent mechanism to get new employees contributing at the onset. Small employers who do not currently offer a retirement savings vehicle should consider that retirement plans can help attract and retain employees and instill the importance of saving for retirement.

One of the most common 401(k) designs is one in which the employer matches 50 cents of every dollar an employee contributes, up to 6% of pay. Translation: employee contributes 6% of his pay and employer kicks in another 3% of pay, for a total of 9%. A person age 35 making $50,000 doing this every year for 30 years would have about $500,000 at age 65 (assuming 3% pay increases and 6% return on investments). Do you think half a million dollars would boost someone's retirement confidence level?