WASHINGTON – U.S. Sen. Mark R. Warner (D-VA) today applauded the U.S. Department of Labor’s (DOL) announcement of $100,000 in grant funding to encourage nonprofit organizations to develop workable models for portable retirement savings benefits. Sen. Warner, a former technology executive, has been a strong advocate of a new system of portable employee benefits to address the challenges of a changing workforce that is not attached to traditional full-time work.

The DOL grants will be made available to nonprofits through the newly created Portable Retirement Benefits Planning grant program. Funding will be awarded to nonprofit and other organizations to identify the existing challenges in the current retirement system for workers—particularly women, and those in lower-income occupations—and to expand and develop new portable retirement savings models.

“As the nature of work continues to change, we must encourage even more investment in this type of innovation that adapts to the changing needs of a 21^st  century workforce,” said Sen. Warner. “I applaud the Labor Department’s new grant program, and strongly encourage others, including forward-leaning mayors and governors, to actively explore ways they can experiment with new models that provide a safety net to protect workers in nontraditional work arrangements.”

For more information of DOL’s Portable Benefits grants program, click here.

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