Most small business owners know their employees aren’t on pace to retire comfortably, but for one reason or another, the vast majority feel powerless to help.

More than half of employers who don’t offer retirement plans say the packages are simply unaffordable. (Rich Schultz - AP) The number of workers financially unprepared for retirement has hit crisis levels, according to three out of four small business owners who responded to a Nationwide Financial survey released Monday. However, fewer than one out of five of them offers a 401(k) or other self-funded retirement plan and only 11 percent are likely to add a plan in the next two years.

Why not? Sixty-nine percent say their business is too small and more than half say retirement plans are simply too expensive. More importantly, what’s the solution? Most business owners said they would gravitate to retirement plans that allow them to match or not match employee contributions, as well as those that allow them to pool their resources with other businesses to reduce administrative costs.

Referencing those responses, Nationwide Financial Senior Vice President Anne Arvia urged Congress to pass the Small Businesses Add Value for Employees (SAVE) Act — a proposal that would adjust the Internal Revenue Code to make retirement plans more affordable for business owners.

“There’s a retirement crisis looming and we need to work together to improve access to retirement plans for all Americans,” Arvia said in a statement, adding that “the SAVE Act is an important step toward improving the lives of American workers who don’t have access to an employer-based retirement plan.”

Introduced in April, the legislative proposal would establish multiple small employer retirement plans that the group says would be much less expensive than single-employer plans. If passed, the SAVE Act would also let employers easily transition to a traditional 401(k) plan as their businesses mature.

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