Immigrant–native differences in employment-based retirement plan participation

This paper examines differences between immigrant and native employees in retirement plan participation using SIPP data. We find that the participation rate among natives is 60 percent, while the native-immigrant participation gap ranges from 10.9 percentage points for naturalized citizens to 35.4 percentage points for non-permanent residents. Controlling for demographic and job characteristics can explain up to half of the gap. Decomposing the overall immigrant-native difference into differences in employer offers, plan eligibility, and plan take-up shows that the likelihood of working for an employer that offers a plan is the primary driver of the overall gap.