Some funny math going on in this thread lol
Seems the most useful way to compare savings rates is take total inflows less total outflows and that is what you are saving. Of course that is total saving and not just retirement saving.
In the interest of not manipulating the numbers to feel good I would argue that any employer contributions are inflows, not just savings. So you need to add them to your numerator and denominator when calculating a saving percentage.
Ok here comes lots of data points. Sorry I've been a quicken user since I was 18 y/o. (34 now)
For me. My current calculated "retirement" savings are about 17% of my gross income. I just changed jobs and if I somehow managed to vest in the separate DC plan my employer has (6 year vesting and I want to relocate before then :/) then my retirement savings rate would be currently 26%. These percentages are me calculating things out back of the napkin type of thing (haven't updated all of my quicken accounts since 12/31/10).
I also try to save quite a bit of non "retirement" savings in an effort to live below my means.
Ok time for some fun Quicken stats. I have a customized report to compare my savings per year against my TRUE gross income. Income includes gross salary, bonuses, employer contributions, dividend income, interest income, gift income, etc. it's all in there.
2010 was a funky year with a job change combined with a self chosen sabbatical. My overall savings rate was 38% of gross income with an effective tax rate of 19%
2009 my most recent full year of employment my savings rate was 34% with an effective tax rate of 28%.
6 year period of 2005-2010 my savings rate was 41% and an effective tax rate of 26%.
Sadly, 2005 was the first full year I figured out that I should start recording everything gross in quicken. For the 10 years or so before that I recorded everything net.
However, running my report for the period of time from 18 years old until 33 years old my savings rate comes out as 39%. It would obviously be quite a bit lower if I recorded my pay checks gross from 1996-2004, though the paychecks before 2001 were not all that significant
Anyhow its fun to analyze this stuff.