Now that Congress has taken care of the health insurance issue — at least for the time being — no doubt policy makers will consider themselves free to turn their attention to that other category of employer-provided social safety net: retirement savings. And, according to two reports released last week by the SBA Office of Advocacy, there is plenty of cause for concern. One of these papers, entitled Small Business Retirement Plan Availability and Worker Participation, takes a look at the issue in terms of employees of small businesses, what benefits are made available to them and the degree to which they participate in those offerings. The other paper, entitled Saving for Retirement: A Look At Small Business Owners, examines the retirement savings behavior of small business owners and self-employed individuals.

It should come as no surprise that firms with fewer than 100 employees are less likely to offer retirement savings plans for employees. Economy-wide, almost half the workforce, totaling roughly 58 million workers, do not have access to any employer-sponsored retirement plan, including 72% of workers in small companies. Another 20 million workers do not take advantage of the plan their employer does offer. Why not? Because they cannot afford it. Similarly, relatively few small business owners are saving for retirement, either. Even the most popular savings option among them, Individual Retirement Accounts, are owned by only 36% of small business owners. Microbusiness owners, sole proprietors and home-based business owners are all less likely to be saving for retirement; many plan to rely on Social Security or to simply work until they drop. Will this inspire Congress to deal with Social Security’s cash flow issues? Probably not until the crisis hits.