Retirement-Social Security

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Growing fiscal pressures and increasing life expectancy have prompted calls to raise retirement ages. Some fear this change might harm long-career, lower-wage workers. Tying retirement benefit eligibility to years of service might protect low-wage workers who start their careers early. But higher disability rates and greater employment volatility could offset lower-wage workers' early labor force starts. Using survey data matched to administrative records, we describe how work histories vary by gender, education, and other characteristics. We find that years of… more

A great way to assess how well adults have accumulated wealth is to look at their finances in the years shortly before they retire. We show wealth among households with an adult age 57–61 in 2004, using the Health and Retirement Study. This wealth snapshot highlights the extraordinary importance of Social Security, traditional pensions, and owner-occupied housing for typical near-retiree households today, which together comprise nearly four-fifths of wealth for middle quintile households on the verge of retirement.

People think of retirement security as balancing on a three-legged stool, with income from assets, private pensions, and Social Security as the legs. However, despite growing awareness about the importance of saving for retirement, many elderly people cannot rely on their financial assets. According to data from the 2004 Health and Retirement Study, lower-income adults age 65 and older rely less on income from assets and traditional defined-benefit pensions than their higher-income counterparts. Instead, older adults with lower income rely… more

Income tax provisions affect the buildup of retirement assets during workers’ careers and aftertax income following retirement. This paper uses the Urban Institute’s DYNASIM model to simulate how potential changes in the tax treatment of retirement saving, Social Security benefits, and income from assets outside retirement accounts may affect boomers’ retirement incomes. Changes in the income thresholds for taxing Social Security benefits have the largest impact on middle-income boomers, while changes in contribution limits for retirement saving plans and tax… more

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In addition to the Asset Building program, New America also hosts a retirement security program, headed up by Michael Calabrese and Maya MacGuineas. New America?s Retirement Security program studies, designs, and advocates reforms to expand pension coverage, particularly for lower-income workers, with the goal of creating a universal and completely portable system of saving accounts that benefits employees and employers alike. The program also researches and proposes new ways to update Social Security through reforms designed to increase retirement flexibility,… more

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