More than 56 million American workers have no workplace retirement plan. The president just signed an order to change that — but the math only works if Congress follows through.
President Donald Trump signed an executive order on April 30, 2026, directing the Treasury Department to launch a new online marketplace for retirement savings — TrumpIRA.gov — where workers who do not have access to an employer-sponsored retirement plan can research, compare, and enroll in private-sector individual retirement accounts. For qualifying low- and moderate-income workers, those accounts would be eligible for a federal matching contribution of up to $1,000 per year.
The order targets one of the most persistent structural failures in American personal finance. Roughly 56 million Americans lack access to an employer-sponsored retirement plan at work, according to 2025 research from the Pew Charitable Trusts. These are not primarily high-income workers with other options. They are disproportionately employees of small businesses, part-time workers, independent contractors, and self-employed individuals — people who have neither a company 401(k) nor an easy, subsidized pathway to build long-term savings.
“You’ll then be able to access the same type of retirement accounts that federal employees enjoy through the Thrift Savings Plans, which are incredible, as part of the federal Saver’s Match program,” Trump said at a White House press conference on Thursday. “Low-income Americans will be eligible to receive up to $1,000 per year in matching funds deposited directly into their accounts.”
What TrumpIRA.gov Actually Does
The executive order directs the Treasury Department to launch TrumpIRA.gov next year. The platform will function as a marketplace where workers without employer-provided retirement plans can select their own IRA and enroll directly. It is designed to maximize public awareness of the federal Saver’s Match — a matching contribution program Congress passed during the Biden administration that takes effect next year.
The Saver’s Match will be available to low- and moderate-income workers who make less than $35,500 as an individual — or $71,000 as a married couple — if they save up to $2,000 a year in a qualified retirement plan; the federal match is worth up to $1,000 for individuals and $2,000 for couples.
The order also directs the White House to work with Congress to expand eligibility for the match beyond current income limits and to codify the program into law — making it a permanent Congressional action rather than a presidential directive that a future administration could reverse.
The administration will also welcome philanthropic partners — nonprofits and charitable organizations — to contribute supplemental matching funds to the program through Treasury guidance on qualifying charitable giving, potentially deepening the resources available to workers who enroll.
The Bipartisan Case
The retirement coverage gap is one of the few domestic policy areas where Democratic and Republican economists have long agreed there is a serious problem. The mechanism for solving it — automatic enrollment, government matching, portable accounts — has been discussed across multiple administrations without a comprehensive solution reaching the finish line.
Last year, 87% of people without access to a retirement plan at work indicated they would be more likely to save if they could get the government match, according to the Pew Charitable Trusts. That number reflects not a lack of desire to save, but a lack of accessible infrastructure to do it through.
The order has drawn supportive statements from policy organizations across the political spectrum. The Bipartisan Policy Center called it “a step in the right direction.” The Society for Human Resource Management said it “reflects an opportunity to begin conversations to address these barriers” and encouraged Congress to build on the effort. Teresa Ghilarducci, a professor at The New School who co-authored research on providing low-income workers with retirement savings similar to the Thrift Savings Plan, said the initiative was “definitely needed.”
The Variable That Determines Everything
The executive order’s potential to change American retirement outcomes at scale hinges on a single variable that the president cannot control: whether Congress acts to make enrollment automatic rather than voluntary.
Researchers at Morningstar estimated that if paired with Congressional action for automatic enrollment, retirement wealth in the U.S. could increase by as much as 77%, with 32.3 million new savers entering the system; under a base case scenario including auto-enrollment at a 3% savings rate, Morningstar estimates 32.3 million new savers would enter the system.
The gap between those two outcomes is enormous. Spencer Look, associate director of retirement studies at Morningstar and a co-author of the analysis, explained the key variable directly: “If it’s a voluntary enrollment kind of structure, we would not expect a lot of take up.” The research is unambiguous — automatic enrollment, where workers are placed into a retirement plan by default and must actively opt out rather than actively opt in, is the mechanism that moves participation rates at scale.
Over half of low-income federal employees already successfully utilize the federal retirement-savings program, and over 50% more participate when there is a matching contribution from their employer — evidence that the combination of access, matching funds, and automatic enrollment produces measurable results when deployed together.
The Retirement Gap in Numbers
The scale of the problem the order is trying to address is worth understanding. Americans’ so-called magic number to retire comfortably in 2026 climbed to $1.46 million — a $200,000 jump from last year, according to Northwestern Mutual; nearly half of Americans (46%) don’t expect to be financially prepared for retirement, and nearly half (48%) believe it is somewhat or very likely they will outlive their savings.
The workers most likely to face that outcome are precisely the ones TrumpIRA.gov is designed to reach. Small business employees, gig workers, and part-time workers are the Americans least likely to have a 401(k) and most likely to arrive at retirement age with inadequate savings — not because they failed to plan, but because the infrastructure for workplace savings was never made available to them.
The White House Fact Sheet frames the order as part of a broader wealth-building agenda that includes the administration’s tax legislation, Trump Accounts for newborns, and the elimination of taxes on tips and overtime for qualifying workers. Together, the administration argues, these measures represent a structural effort to put more money in the hands of working Americans and create pathways to wealth that have historically been available primarily to salaried employees at large employers.
What Comes Next
The executive order directs Treasury to launch TrumpIRA.gov next year. Between now and that launch, the administration has committed to working with Congress to expand the program’s eligibility and codify it into law.
The political window for that legislative action is narrow. The 2026 midterm elections are six months away, and the congressional calendar is already crowded with budget negotiations, Iran war oversight, and a Supreme Court term that is generating significant legislative pressure across multiple issue areas. Whether retirement savings reform rises to the top of that agenda in the next several months will determine whether TrumpIRA.gov becomes a modest awareness tool or a genuinely transformative intervention in American household finance.
The order is signed. The website is coming. The difference between 77% more retirement wealth and a marginal uptick is a bill that has not yet been written.
Disclaimer: This article is based on the White House official fact sheet, the executive order text, and publicly available reporting by CNBC and CNN. It does not constitute financial or retirement planning advice. Individual eligibility for the Saver’s Match and other programs described depends on income, filing status, and other factors. Readers are encouraged to consult a licensed financial advisor or qualified retirement planning professional before making savings or investment decisions.
