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.

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 REPORT | New research shows regardless of the data source, retirement plan participation is low and stagnating.

RELAB REPORT | New research shows that even before the COVID-19 recession, only 36% of workers ages 25-64 were participating in a retirement plan at work, a five percentage point decrease from five years prior.

RELAB POLICY NOTE | 2.9 million older workers left the labor force since March. These workers are at risk of having to retire involuntarily due to increased health risks coupled with decreased job prospects.

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 | An additional 3.1 million older workers will fall into lifelong poverty in retirement. Overall, the 67 million older workers and their spouses in the U.S. will suffer a decrease of 7 percentage points in their retirement replacement rate.

RELAB ARTICLE | A retirement crisis looms as the labor market becomes less friendly to older workers when they are most numerous and least able to retire.

WORKING PAPER | 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 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 new report, "Disparities & Erosion in New York’s Workplace Retirement Coverage," documents two trends in retirement plan coverage.

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 | 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.

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.

WORKING PAPER | Do policies to keep older people working cause wage stagnation?