New research from the Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI) shows that being eligible to participate in a defined contribution retirement plan is a key factor in whether employees will have enough money to afford basic expenses and health care in retirement.

The EBRI research finds that the "at-risk" level declines the longer workers are eligible to participate in a work-based defined contribution (DC) retirement plan.

For example, consider Gen X households in the second-to-lowest income bracket: 58 percent of these households eligible for defined contribution plan participation less than one-quarter of future working years would be at risk at least 50 percent of the time, compared with only 21 percent for those eligible for DC plans in least three-quarters of future working years.