We’ll be poorer when we’re old

Few workers -- barely 1 in 5 -- will be able to maintain their lifestyle upon retirement, with women at a disadvantage because of their longer life spans and lower pay.

On average, employees are projected to replace just 85% of their income in retirement, compared with the 126% they would need when factoring in inflation, longer life spans and medical costs, a study by Hewitt Associates found.

The study looked at the projected retirement levels of nearly 2 million current workers of varying ages at 72 large U.S. companies and used actual employee balances.

Of those studied, more than 1.2 million employees (67%) are expected to have less than 80% of what they would need to maintain their lifestyle at retirement. The study found that 19% of workers were on track to be able to maintain their standard of living upon retirement. Although the same percentage of men and women contributed to retirement plans, women faced an 8% greater shortfall in savings.