(Bloomberg) -- Saving for retirement requires making sacrifices now soyour future self can afford to stop working later. Someday.Maybe.

Related: Workers want 401(k)s but aren't happy withthem

It’s not news that Americans aren’t saving enough. The typicalbaby boomer, whose generation is just starting to retire, hasa median of $147,000 in all of his retirement accounts, accordingto the Transamerica Center for Retirement Studies.

And if you think that’s depressing, try this on: 1 in 3 privatesector workers don’t even have a retirement plan through theirjob.

Related: Future of annuities in 401(k)s ishazy

But the new year brings with it some good news: Ifpeople do have a 401(k) plan through their employer, there’sdata showing them choosing to set aside more for their lateryears.

On average, workers in 2015 put 6.8 percent of theirsalaries into 401(k) and profit-sharing plans, according to arecent survey of more than 600 plans. That’s up from 6.2 percent in2010, the Plan Sponsor Council of America found.

An increase in retirement savings of 0.6 percentage points mightnot sound like much, but it represents a 10 percent rise inthe amount flowing into those plans over just five years, orbillions of dollars. About $7 trillion is already invested in401(k) and other defined contribution plans, according to theInvestment Company Institute.

If Americans keep inching up their contribution rate, theycould end up saving trillions of dollars more. Workers in theseplans are even starting to meet the savingsrecommendations of retirement experts, who suggest settingaside 10 percent to 15 percent of your salary, including anyemployer contribution, over a career.

While workers are saving more, companies haveheld their financial contributions steady—at least over thepast few years. Employers pitched in 4.7 percent of payroll in2015, the same as in 2013 and 2014. Even so, it’s still more than apoint above their contribution rates in the aftermath of theGreat Recession.

One reason workers participating in these plans are probablysaving more: They’re being signed up automatically—no extrapaperwork required. Almost 58 percent of plans surveyed make theirsign-up process automatic, requiring employees to take action onlyif they don’t want to save.

Automatic enrollment can make a big difference. Insuch plans, 89 percent of workers are making contributions,the survey finds, while 75 percent make 401(k) contributionsunder plans without auto-enrollment. Auto-enrolled employeessave more, 7.2 percent of their salaries vs. 6.3 percent for thosewho weren’t auto-enrolled.

Companies are also automatically hiking worker contributionrates over time, a feature called “auto-escalation” that’s stillfar less common than auto-enrollment. Less than a quarter of plansauto-escalate all participants, while 16 percent boostcontributions only for workers who are deemed to be not savingenough.

A key appeal of automatic 401(k) plans is that they don’trequire participating workers to be investing experts. Unlessemployees choose otherwise, their money is automatically put in arecommended investment.

And, at more and more 401(k) and profit-sharing plans, thistakes the form of a target-date fund, a diversified mix ofinvestments chosen based on a participant’s age or years untilretirement. Two-thirds of plans offer target-date funds, thesurvey found, double the number in 2006.

The share of workers’ assets in target-date funds is up fivefoldas a result.

A final piece of good news for workers is that they’re keepingmore of every dollar they earn in a 401(k) account. Fees on 401(k)plans are falling, according to a recent analysis released byBrightScope and the Investment Company Institute.

The total cost of running a 401(k) plan is down 17 percent since2009, to 0.39 percent of plan assets in 2014. The cost of themutual funds inside 401(k)s has dropped even faster, by 28 percentto an annual expense ratio of 0.53 percent in 2015.

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