Employers add personalized savings tools

To educate employees about retirement needs, percentage of employers who offer personalized online retirement planning tools: 80

Percentage of organizations that expect their employees to find this information on their own: 34

Percentage of American workers who ranked an overwhelming unease about large future expenses, such as retirement and children’s education, as their primary concern, according to the SnagAJob.com Labor Happiness Survey and Zogby International: 44

Taxing issues

Percentage of all U.S. adults who think that taxes should be increased to reduce the budget deficit, according to the results of a nationwide Harris Poll: 15

When asked if taxes “had to be raised,” percentage of U.S. adults who oppose raising the estate tax: 64

Percentage who oppose raising gas taxes: 82

Percentage who oppose raising income taxes: 81

Given a list of 12 federal government programs and asked to choose which should be cut, if spending had to be cut, percentage who chose the space program: 51

Percentage of Americans who think the tax system is skewed to benefit the rich, according to the results of a Bankrate poll: 60

Percentage of Americans who disclosed that they feel clueless about tax preparation and planning: 28

Retirement savings

Percentage of couples with higher household income ($75,000 or above) who are in agreement about retirement savings, according to a study conducted by Harris Interactive for The Wall Street Journal Online: 67

Percentage of couples with incomes of less than $35,000 who are in agreement about retirement savings: 30

Percentage of U.S. consumers who say their money will go before they do when they retire, according to a survey conducted by BIGresearch: 64

Percentage who say they’ll go before their money: 36

Tech dollars

Estimated increase from last year in total compensation that CEOs at U.S. venture-backed technology companies are receiving, according to the results of the semi-annual executive compensation survey from Dow Jones CompensationPro: $30,000

Median salary earned by technology CEOs: $289,000

Median bonus that technology CEOs received this year: $63,000

Footing tuition bills

Percentage of parents who say that paying for their child’s college education is at least somewhat important to them, according to a survey conducted for Futuretrust: 91

Percentage of parents who say they have actually saved as much for college as they had planned: 9

Percentage of parents who say that they are absolutely certain they will save enough for their child’s college education in the next 10 years: 13

Need for number crunchers

Percentage of employers who reported difficulty finding skilled accounting and finance professionals, according to the Robert Half International Global Financial Employment Monitor: 56

Percentage who expressed concern about losing top performers to other job opportunities: 43

Keeping up with the Joneses

Number of U.S. households that are now considered affluent, according to “The Affluent Market in the U.S.” by Packaged Facts: 21 million

Estimated percentage of U.S. household income that is controlled by these affluent households: 50

Credit criteria

Percentage of Americans who know that it is legal for employers to refuse to hire job applicants with low credit scores, according to a survey released by Visa USA: 20

Percentage of Americans who mistakenly believe it is illegal for prospective employers to use credit scores as a hiring criteria: 52

Idle thought

“The real measure of our wealth is how much we’d be worth if we lost all our money.”

—John Henry Jowett, preacher

John MacIntyre is an author and former city magazine editor. His Figuratively Speaking column, launched in 1989, is published in more than 40 newspapers and magazines.