RELAB WORKING PAPER | Social Security “Catch-Up” contributions would allow workers to contribute an additional 3.1 percent of salary, starting at age 50, in return for enhanced benefits. The program would modestly reduce defacto elderly poverty and reduce the Social Security shortfall in the short run and be approximately actuarially neutral over 75 years.

WORKING PAPER | Since the early 1990s, disparities in Social Security claim ages has grown, with high earners increasingly likely to delay claiming. A SCEPA working paper explores the returns and effects of claiming Social Security earlier versus delaying claiming these benefits.

RELAB POLICY NOTE | Working longer is often proposed as the solution to the retirement crisis caused by older workers’ lack of retirement assets, but new research from SCEPA's ReLab shows this assumption doesn't match older workers' real experiences in the labor market.

RELAB WORKING PAPER | Contrary to the predictions of theoretical models, working longer does not significantly increase the share of older workers who are financially prepared for retirement.

RELAB POLICY NOTE | Workers at all earnings levels would benefit from expanding Social Security. SCEPA proposes defaulting workers into “Catch-Up” contributions, where— starting at age 50— they would contribute an additional 3.1% of their salary.

RELAB POLICY NOTE | Social Security benefits are progressive and reduce the unequal distribution of retirement wealth generated by a broken employer-based retirement systemSocial Security benefits are progressive and reduce the unequal distribution of retirement wealth generated by a broken employer-based retirement system.

RELAB WORKING PAPER | This study evaluates a Social Security "Catch-Up" contribution program, a proposal which would help mid-career workers narrow the gap between what they need in retirement and their projected retirement wealth. 

RELAB WORKING PAPER | ReLab's study of retirement wealth inequality between 1992 and 2010 finds that the retirement system is failing everyone, with those at the bottom suffering the most.

RELAB POLICY NOTE | The rates of elder poverty among widows and single women are higher than among couples and men.

RELAB WORKING PAPER | Using data from the Survey for Income and Program Participation (SIPP), this study investigates the relationship between withdrawals from 401(k) and IRA accounts and household level economic shocks such as job-loss, job change, divorce, and the onset of poor health.

RELAB POLICY NOTE | If we do nothing to reform the current retirement system, the number of poor or near-poor people over the age of 62 will increase by 25% between 2018 and 2045, from 17.5 million to 21.8 million.

RELAB POLICY NOTE | Raising Social Security’s Full Retirement Age leaves all workers with two bad choices: working longer or living on reduced monthly benefits.

RELAB POLICY NOTE | This report documents the growth in older workers’ unstable and low-wage jobs from 2005 to 2015. By 2015, nearly 25% of older workers were in bad jobs.

RELAB REPORT | This report demonstrates how low and decreasing retirement plan coverage rates and the shift from traditional defined benefit pension plans to 401(k)-type plans are threatening New Yorkers’ financial readiness for retirement.

RELAB POLICY NOTE | Older workers have not been able to save adequately for retirement.

RELAB POLICY NOTE | Inadequate retirement accounts will cause 8.5 million middle-class older workers and their spouses to be downwardly mobile, falling into poverty or near poverty in their old age.

RELAB POLICY NOTE | One-third of older workers have neither retirement savings through a 401(k) or IRA, nor a defined benefit (DB) pension.

PRESENTATION | This presentation shows how Washington's residents will face increasing downward mobility in retirement.

RELAB WORKING PAPER | About a quarter of people with long-term care insurance let their policies lapse before they die.

POLICY NOTE | The reduction in wages resulting from the increase in older workers provides a cautionary note to those advocating delayed retirement as a solution to the retirement savings crisis.