News flash: At some point health will preclude working for a living, and/or you’ll no longer be able to count on finding someone willing to employ you (or be a paying client if you’re self-employed). This is a problem. As 36% of women surveyed aged 55 to 64 have saved nothing at all, and 22% of men.
Sadly, workplace pensions are a distant sixth place for sources of future retirement income. First are the Canada Pension Plan and the Quebec Pension Plan (53%, I’m not sure why that’s not higher!); second is Old Age Security (49%), third is registered retirement savings plans (RRSPs) (45%), fourth is tax-free savings accounts (TFSAs) (37%), and fifth is earnings from continued work (26%), slightly ahead of workplace pensions (24%). The Guaranteed Income Supplement (GIS) to OAS is seventh at 19%. Among the others hoped-for income sources that most shocked me was the 11% who cited cryptocurrency (Bitcoin, Ethereum, etc.). Really?!
Almost as hard to believe is the finding that 48% of those lacking workplace pensions have under $5,000 in savings, which drops to 29% for those with employer-provided pensions. Among unretired Canadians with workplace pensions, a healthy 59% feel somewhat or well prepared for retirement, versus only 34% of those without such pensions. However, 49% of unretired women with such pensions feel prepared for retirement, compared to just 29% without a pension. For unretired men, this increases to 66% with a pension and 40% without.
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Working Canadians willing to pay for employer pensions
The beauty of workplace pensions is that they automate retirement saving for Canadian employees: the money comes off every paycheque just like income tax, CPP and other deductions. HOOPP confirms most Canadians are willing to pay for such pensions; 70% would prefer a slightly lower salary and a pension (or a better pension) over a slightly higher salary and no (or a worse) pension (30%). And 73% believe there is an emerging retirement income crisis (up four points since the 2023 survey).
In the good ol’ days, classic defined-benefit (DB) employer pensions were common but they are increasingly scarce outside the public sector and some industries well represented by unions. In the private sector, if you have a workplace pension at all, it’s more likely to be a market-dependent defined contribution (DC) plan that lacks the guaranteed lifetime income of DB pensions (often inflation-adjusted in the public sector).
The rising cost of Canadian housing continues to be a major worry. Among those who do not own their own home, 85% worry about rising rents. Meanwhile, those who own their homes, or have equity in them, plan to tap their home equity in retirement, a fact that augurs well for Bloom. (That’s one reason I write in my book Findependence Day that “the foundation of financial independence is a paid-for home.”) Also, 42% t of homeowners surveyed plan to tap that equity in retirement. In the cohort aged 55 to 64, 40% plan to do so.
What near-retirees can do about all this
TriDelta’s Ardrey says the retirement landscape has changed dramatically between his grandfather’s time and today. “After the War, he worked his whole life with the Toronto Transit Commission and on his 65the birthday, retired with a DB pension plan. That, along with government pensions and a little bit of savings, that was enough for he and my grandmother to afford their retirement. They didn’t even own their home, but rising rents were not the risk they are today.”
Now in 2025, few Canadians have the luxury of a DB pension plan and the real estate market puts home ownership out of reach for many, Ardrey says. “This is creating an environment where it is very difficult for someone to achieve the certainty they need to exit the workforce. And the question that sits on the back of everyone’s mind is ‘Will I have enough?’”