Trump Explores Australian Retirement Model as Potential Reform for US System
President Trump has directed Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick to study Australia's retirement system as a potential model for reforming the US retirement savings framework. The Australian system, which Trump discussed with BlackRock CEO Larry Fink, features mandatory employer contributions of 12% of salaries into superannuation funds, voluntary contributions, and a means-tested age pension. The US retirement system currently receives a C+ rating from the Mercer CFA Institute Global Pension Index, ranking 29th out of 48 systems, with nearly half of private-sector workers lacking access to employer-sponsored plans. While Trump has shown interest in adopting elements of the Australian model, experts like labor economist Teresa Ghilarducci caution that only the universal pre-funded account aspect would be suitable for the US. In May 2026, Trump signed an executive order creating tax-advantaged accounts for workers without employer-sponsored retirement plans.
Editorial responsibility
- No named human review is recorded for this page.
- Reports are grouped by semantic similarity and deterministic rules. Language models may assist titles, summaries, translation and cross-source analysis; the page itself is projected from evidence records.
- Current automated evidence projection