While still a small percentage of its overall recordkeeping business — by assets, the VRPA program represents about 1.2 percent of total Vanguard record-kept assets — the brand best known for its low-cost indexed mutual funds is clearly attracting the interest of more small plans.

Vanguard released the small-business edition of its 2016 How America Saves report as a way to help small-plan sponsors measure their plans against the data in Vanguard's universe.

Here are 10 of the top data points from this year's small-business edition:

1. Employer contribution

Most sponsors in the VRPA program contribute to participants' retirement saving needs, as 44 percent provide a matching contribution, 20 percent provide a nonmatching contribution, and another 8 percent provide both.

Still, that 28 percent of plans that offer no contribution underscores the disadvantage employees in small businesses face in saving 10 percent of earnings annually. For plans outside of the VRPA program in the Vanguard universe, 95 percent of plans offer some form of employer contribution.

2. Employer contribution amounts

In 2015, the average employer contribution was 5.8 percent of salary, and the median rate was 3.5 percent. Plans in the VRPA program saw wide variance in the generosity of sponsor funding. For 1 in 5 plans, the average was less than 3 percent, and for 1 in 10 plans it was 10 percent of wages. The most common employer contribution was 4 percent. 

One in 6 plans adopted auto-enrollment in Vanguard's universe of retirement plans. (Photo: Getty)

3. Automatic enrollment and escalation

Of the plans that allow employee-elective deferrals, one in six plans in the VRPA program had adopted automatic enrollment by the end of 2015. Six in 10 of those plans auto-enroll participants at 3 percent of wages. Nearly all of the plans featuring auto-enrollment — 96 percent — default participants into a target-date fund.

More than one-third of the plans with an auto-enrollment feature also have adopted annual automatic escalation.

By comparison, in the rest of the Vanguard universe, 41 percent of sponsors have adopted automatic enrollment, with 70 percent of them also deploying an automatic escalation feature.

4. Participation rates

A plan's participation rate is the "broadest metric for gauging 401(k) plan performance," according to Vanguard's report. In 2015, the plan-weighted rate, measured by calculating the average participation rate for all plans in the VRPA program, was 72 percent.

That has held steady since the program's rollout. Notably, participation rates increased to 85 percent when plans adopt auto-enrollment.

Regarding participation rates, plans in the VRPA program compete well with large plans in Vanguard's universe, where the plan-weighted participation rate is 78 percent, and 88 percent in plans that feature automatic enrollment.

5. Participation by income

As may be expected, participation rates rise incrementally by salary and age. Of participants making less than $30,000, only 45 percent of eligible workers participate in savings plans, compared 71 percent of those making between $50,000 and $75,000, and 86 percent of those making over $100,000.

And 45 percent of eligible participants under the age of 25 are enrolled in plans, compared to 65 percent between age 35 and 44, and 71 percent between 55 and 64. 

Eligible employees saved 6.7% of their income in 2015. (Photo: Getty)

6. Employee deferrals

Eligible participating employees saved 6.7 percent of income, on average, in 2015, down from 7.4 percent in 2012.

This year's VRPA data underscores an emerging trend in plan design and savings metrics since the passage of the 2006 Pension Protection Act.

In 2015, the average deferral rate was 7.2 percent for self-enrolled participants, more than the 5.5 percent average for automatically enrolled participants. Industry experts commonly note that automatically enrolling participants at the industry average has had the unintended consequence of stifling overall savings rates, as participants are lulled into thinking their automatic deferral rate is adequate to meet ultimate retirement needs.

7. Average combined contribution rates

When factoring both employee and employer contributions, the average combined contribution rate was 9 percent in 2015, down a bit from VPRA's first year, when the average combined contribution rate was 10.4 percent.

This year's total contribution rate was about on par with larger plans in the total Vanguard universe.

8. Account balances

In 2015, the average account balance for VRPA participants was $52,206, while the median balance was $9,398.

For the rest of plans outside the VRPA program, the average account balance was $96,288 in 2015.

The most popular funds were target-date funds. (Photo: Getty)

9. Most popular funds

Target-date funds attracted 50 percent of plan contributions in 2015, up from 33 percent in 2012. Diversified equity funds attracted 36 percent of contributions, a rate roughly on par with 2012 data.

By the end of 2015, nearly all VRPA participants were in plans offering TDFs, and nearly 75 percent had all or part of their account invested in TDFs.

10. Asset flows from job changes or retirement

In 2015, about one-third of VRPA participants were eligible for a cash distributions because they had changed jobs or retired in the previous year.

But the vast majority — 87 percent — of those eligible for a cash distribution chose to leave assets in plan.