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More Retirement Security Resources
Social Security: Vital to Retirement Security for 35 Million Women and Men
03.01.2010 | Institute for Women's Policy Reserach | Social Security is the largest source of income on average for both women and men over age 65, and nearly universal for this age group. Its importance in the income packages of retirees cannot be overemphasized. Social Security benefits must be continued as a secure, inflation-proof income source. And because Social Security is the only nearly universal source of income for the older population, consideration should be given to increasing the size of the benefit.
Economic Crisis Fuels Support for Social Security
08.13.2009 | National Academy of Social Insurance | On the eve of the 74th anniversary of Social Security, nearly nine in ten (88%) Americans say Social Security is more important than ever as a result of today's economic crisis, and three-quarters of Americans say it is critical to preserve Social Security even if it means that working Americans have to pay higher taxes to do so.
Closing the Retirement Gap: Voluntary Retirement Accounts Offer Solution for Small Investors
03.15.2009 | West Virginia Center on Budget and Policy | Recent research by the West Virginia Center on Budget and Policy examined a promising approach for reducing the retirement gap among workers in the Mountain State. To address the lack of retirement savings and job-based pensions, the state could sponsor a program of Voluntary Retirement Accounts. The goal of the program would be to assure that all private-sector workers have a low-cost and simple way to save. The primary market for these accounts would be small businesses and their employees, selfemployed persons, and other workers who don’t have access to retirement plans where they work.
A Better Bang for the Buck: The Economic Efficiencies of Defined Benefit Pension Plans
08.01.2008 | National Institute on Retirement Security | A new report by the National Institute on Retirement Security (attached) shows how traditional defined benefit pensions are more cost-efficient, delivering the same retirement benefits at 46% lower cost to taxpayers than 401(k)-style defined contribution accounts. Full report »
Retirement Saving For All
06.19.2008 | Mark Paul, New America Foundation - San Francisco Chronicle | In modern America the struggle between debt and saving is a rigged contest. It's never been easier to borrow -- credit cards, subprime home mortgages, home equity loans, payday loans. But when it comes to saving, about half of American workers, including more than 8 million Californians, are denied the opportunity to save the way people save best: on the job, through payroll deduction to a retirement plan. That is a critical problem. To tilt the balance back toward saving, the Assembly recently approved, and the state Senate will soon consider, legislation to create Golden Dream Accounts -- voluntary, portable, retirement accounts available to every worker not covered by a retirement savings plan on the job.
Universal Voluntary Accounts: A Step Towards Fixing the Retirement System
12.15.2006 | Dean Baker, Center for Economic and Policy Research | Most older workers are ill-prepared for retirement, with few financial assets to rely upon other than their Social Security. The main reason is the collapse of the system of defined-benefit (DB) pensions. Less than 20 percent of the private sector workforce is currently covered by a DB plan, and this number is declining rapidly. Defined-contribution (DC) plans, such as 401(k) accounts, have not come close to filling the gap. Nearly half of all workers don’t even have access to a pension at their workplace (DB or DC). This paper outlines a proposal for a system of universal voluntary accounts (UVAs). UVAs would be state sponsored, but privately managed, defined-contribution accounts. The accounts would be open to every worker in a state.
Colorado Voluntary Pension Accounts
12.13.2006 | Bell Policy Center | Most Colorado families will have to supplement their Social Security benefits if they want to maintain a reasonable standard of living in retirement. Many will rely on personal savings and benefits earned through employer-sponsored retirement plans. However, 1.4 million Colorado workers, almost three out of five, are not covered by retirement plans at work. Colorado can make it easier for workers to save for retirement, for businesses to offer retirement plans and for financial services firms to create and market retirement savings products to small businesses.
Growing Private Pensions: A Supporting Role for the States
12.01.2006 | Mark Iwry | States could play an important but carefully limited role in helping to expand coverage, especially for small business and moderate- and lower-income workers. States could help small business employees and owners and the self-employed achieve economies of scale and reduce transaction costs by assisting them in pooling their efforts in the market for retirement plans and investments. To that end, states might leverage their experience, bargaining power, and possibly the systems and the financial and administrative economies of scale associated with state sponsorship of retirement plans holding billions of dollars for millions of state and local government employees.
Rewarding Hard Work: Give Pennsylvania Families A Shot at Middle Class Retirement Benefits
10.04.2006 | Center for American Progress | Today, half of Pennsylvania’s private sector employees get no retirement savings through their employers. And now, in the public sector, calls have been made to follow private sector trends and to replace the pension plans that public sector workers have been counting on with substantially weaker retirement plans. Such a move by the state would deny these critical public servants the middle class retirement they’ve been planning for. Instead of engaging in this race to the bottom alongside the private sector, state policy makers should be working with the private sector to bolster its citizens’ pension plans. Pennsylvania’s policymakers should step up to the plate and offer some retirement income security to public and private sector workers.
Create Colorado Voluntary Pension Accounts
08.15.2006 | Bell Policy Center | Employer sponsored pension plans play an important role in replacing earnings when people retire. However, 1.4 million Colorado workers — almost three out of five workers — are not covered by a pension plan at work. Whether workers have access to pension plans at work usually depends on the size of their employer’s business. The smaller the business, the less likely they are to have access to a pension plan. The legislature could expand coverage by creating the basic infrastructure workers and small businesses could use to provide pensions. Colorado could build on current systems for offering 401(k)-type defined contribution plans to state employees.
Stake-K: A new strategy for using state-assisted saving to expand private pension coverage
08.15.2006 | Mark Iwry | This paper proposes as new strategy for increasing retirement security and savings through the expansion of private pension coverage. The core concept is simple: the private market has not succeeded in sufficiently meeting our nation's public policy goals of dramatically increasing retirement security and saving. State governments could play an important but carefully limited role in promoting expansion of the private pension system.
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