Senate bill aims to encourage workers to save for retirement

U.S. Sens. Pat Roberts (R-KA) and Ben Cardin (D-MD) have introduced legislation on Thursday to encourage people to save for retirement by spurring the creation of S-corporations owned by Employee Stock Ownership Plans.

“The legislation will encourage employees to save for future needs, including retirement,” Roberts said. “The more we do to help people save, the more resources are freed to make critical investments, particularly in investments that grow jobs and help the economy.”

The Promotion and Expansion of Private Employee Ownership Act would remove barriers that businesses and their owners currently face when trying to establish a new S-corporation ESOP (S-ESOP) or increasing the employee-ownership stake in an S-corporation, by making changes to the tax code and encouraging educational outreach to companies.

“Americans deserve the opportunity to build secure retirement savings. S-ESOPs have proven resilient, even in tough times, while providing an effective means of retirement savings for their workers,” Cardin said. “We need to preserve and expand this structure to enable more businesses to grow and to allow their employees to accrue these valuable benefits.”

Original co-sponsors of the bill include Sens. John Thune (R-SD), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), Mike Crapo (R-ID), Roy Blunt (R-MO), Al Franken (D-MN), Debbie Stabenow (D-MI), Heidi Heitkamp (D-ND), Pat Leahy (D-VT) and James Risch (R-ID).