U.S. households are on track to retire with 57 percent of their pre-retirement income, according to a survey released yesterday -- leaving them well short of what it would take to live in the manner to which they are accustomed.

		The New Retirement Reality One in an occasional series

Unless workers start saving significantly more, they will have to get by on about 40 percent less income when they retire, noted officials at the Boston-based investment firm Fidelity Investments, which conducted the survey.

"That's a very stiff pay cut to adjust to," Fidelity Chief Operating Officer Robert L. Reynolds said.

The good news, he and others noted, is that retirement readiness improved slightly the last six months, despite rising energy prices and interest rates. When the biannual survey was released last fall, it found households were on track to retire with 56 percent of their pre-retirement income.

Fidelity's Retirement Index is based on a survey of 2,000 working Americans 25 and older who are earning at least $20,000 a year. The 57 percent figure is the median retirement savings Fidelity estimates they will accumulate by the time they retire, meaning that half of those surveyed will have saved more and half will have saved less.

Social Security and pension benefits account for about two-thirds of a household's estimated retirement income, with 401(k) plans, IRA accounts and other savings making up the rest, Fidelity said.

The median baby boomers, ages 42 to 60, will have saved about 60 percent of pre-retirement income by the time they retire, Fidelity said.

Mr. Reynolds said a comfortable retirement will require about 85 percent of preretirement income. To meet that goal, the average worker would have to boost their savings rate from the current 3.3 percent to about 13 percent, he said.

The median household saves $167 monthly toward retirement, including employer matching contributions to retirement accounts, Fidelity said. About 15 percent aren't saving anything.

Fidelity arrived at the same grim conclusion other pollsters have.

Their version of Americans not saving enough for retirement comes as more companies are dropping their traditional pension plans and replacing them with 401(k) plans, which put the onus for retirement saving on workers. Only 37 percent of Fortune 100 companies offer pension plans, vs. 42 percent in 2004 and nearly 90 percent in 1985, according to Watson Wyatt, a human resources and management consulting firm.

Mr. Reynolds said 83 percent of those surveyed admitted they are not saving enough, up from 78 percent last June. He was encouraged that 52 percent took some action over the last six months to improve their retirement savings, whether it was increasing contributions, readjusting their portfolios or seeking professional advice.

Fidelity said 76 percent of those surveyed said higher energy prices had affected their ability to save for retirement. Of those, 45 percent decreased the amount they save and 24 percent delayed plans to start saving.