Believe it or not, Congress just made it easier for younger workers and future generations to prepare for retirement.

While most of the media coverage of the recently passed Pension Protection Act has focused on how it will shore up corporate defined-benefit pension plans, like the one for pilots at Northwest or Delta Airlines, it also contained a few vitally important reforms to 401(k) plans. These reforms are especially important for younger and future workers; as defined-benefit plans dry up, 401(k) plans are becoming the norm.

More than recent generations, we'll have to rely on our own savings to get us through our golden years because younger workers can't depend on Social Security and Medicare for retirement. The two programs are promising our parents much more than they can afford. And even though we'll pay in our whole lives, there will most certainly be benefit cuts before we start collecting — the money runs short about the time we'll be retiring.

We could kick around all kinds of statistics about the spending, saving and investment habits of younger workers. But they're all the same. And they're all bad: The personal savings rate is in the gutter. And the younger we are the less we're saving.

Consider this: A fifth or more of workers with access to an employer-sponsored retirement plan, like a 401(k), don't take advantage. The number is much worse for younger workers: Only two-thirds of Generation Xers participate and only a third of millennials contribute.

Part of that makes sense. Younger workers are more likely to be earning lower wages, paying big student loan bills and paying off credit cards. Plus, the further from retirement you are, the more time you have to start saving and therefore the less urgent saving seems.

But how long can you afford to wait? It turns out that it pays to start saving early. If you want to save $100,000 for retirement, you could invest $1,178 a year for 30 years at 6.4 percent interest. But if you only have 10 years, you'll have to sock away $7,445 a year to reach the same goal.

By far, the most important aspect of the pension reform bill is the part that encourages companies to automatically enroll their employees in their retirement plan. Most 401(k) plans currently require employees to opt-in, meaning workers must ask their human resources department for an application, dig through the techno-jargon and take the time to sign up. Automatic enrollment does just the opposite: new employees are automatically part of the plan and must opt out if they don't want to participate.

Basically, it makes it easier for workers to do what they should be doing: investing for their retirement. According to the Retirement Security Project, a public education initiative, automatic enrollment can raise 401(k) participation rates from 75 percent to as high as 95 percent.

Of course, the tons of new workers investing in 401(k)s will be better off. But, they won't be maximizing their potential if they're not investing properly. Fortunately, the law also encourages employers to offer at least three different investment options — other than employer stock — that are diversified and have different levels of risk.

The new rules take effect beginning in 2008. They don't force companies — or employees — to do anything. Rather, they provide protection from complex "nondiscrimination rules" for companies with 401(k) plans that include automatic enrollment and a couple other special features.

Congress has done its part. Now it is time for employers to do theirs. Currently, only one in five companies automatically enroll their employees in their 401(k) plans, according to a recent Hewitt Associates survey. Companies like Costco, Nordstrom, Hewlett Packard and IBM are leading the way. Now that Congress has provided the legal protection, it is time for the rest of American business to follow suit.

Matt Moore is senior policy analyst with the National Center for Policy Analysis, (www.ncpa.com), a conservative, free-market think tank.