Fewer Oregonians put money into a employer-managed retirement savings account in 2012 than 2007, and that’s prompting one national group to call on the state government to take action before it is too late.

“We need to make sure people save,” said Nari Rhee, research manager with the National Institute on Retirement Security. “It’s absolutely necessary.”

According to the institute’s 2014 Financial Security Scorecard, only 44.8 percent of Oregon residents between the ages of 21 and 64 contributed money toward an employer-sponsored retirement plan in 2012.

This was the 14th-lowest plan-participation rate in the country that year, according to the scorecard.

Oregon had a 50.9 percent participation rate in 2007 — which was the country’s 30th-lowest rate that year, according to the scorecard — and was one of 12 states to see its participation rate drop by more than 10 percent from 2007 to 2012.

Rhee said she wasn’t exactly sure what contributed to this decline in the state’s participation rate. But after a quick review of the state’s economic data, she said it might have something to do with the fact Oregon has an above-average percentage of part-time employees in its workforce.

According to one report from the Oregon Employment Department, 24.4 percent of the state’s workers had a part-time job working 35 hours or less each week in 2012. The national average for that year was 19.4 percent.

Rhee said this creates a long-term problem for the state’s workforce because part-time jobs typically do not come with benefits such as employer-managed retirement savings plans.

“If people don’t have access to a pension or a 401(k) at work, then they aren’t going to save,” she said.

While people can set up personal retirement savings plans outside of their places of work, Rhee said people who have access to an employer-managed retirement plan typically are better savers.

That’s because they can set up an immediate payroll deduction and do not have to think about making their contributions every time they get paid.

When someone signs up for one of these plans, his or her employer or a company hired by that employer also takes responsibility for the administrative paperwork associated with the plan and managing its investments for the best long-term growth.

Rhee said people who manage their own plans can make mistakes when it comes to these two tasks, which can cost them in the long run.

Rhee testified before the Oregon Legislature last year when it was considering legislation that would create a task force to examine Oregon’s retirement savings problem and ways it could be made better.

That task force, which is chaired by State Treasurer Ted Wheeler, held its first meeting on March 18 and is due to present its findings to the Legislature this September.

Several other states have been considering ways they can improve their residents’ ability to save for retirement, Rhee said.

She said California is the furthest along in this process and has created a special Secure Choice Retirement Savings Investment Board that will manage a retirement savings plan for the 6.3 million state residents who do not have access to one through their employers.

— Reporter: 541-617-7816, mmclean@bendbulletin.com