RELAB POLICY NOTE | A brief analysis of the 2022 round of the Survey of Consumer Finance indicates that the middle 70% of households by income that are aged 50-65 have a median retirement account savings of $86,000, while also having a median debt of $89,700. 

RELAB POLICY NOTE | How are older debtors and their retirement savings impacted by student loans? Our analysis of the data shows that millions of older workers in the U.S. have significant student debt that may hinder their ability to retire comfortably.

RELAB POLICY NOTE | Official U.S. poverty rates significantly undercount America’s elderly poor. According to internationally-recognized relative poverty measures, more than 12 million older Americans are poor.

RELAB POLICY NOTE | What do surveys say about how Americans feel about their ability to retire? Our analysis shows Americans hold a wide range of anxiety about their retirement futures

RELAB WORKING PAPER | This essay surveys global pension developments and intellectual basis for pension reform in the last 40 years.

RELAB POLICY NOTE | America’s eldercare system relies on families to provide care to aging adults, leaving those without family or wealth particularly vulnerable to having their care needs go unmet.

RELAB WORKING PAPER | Since 1992 wealth for the bottom 90% of households nearing retirement has fallen. Using SCF and HRS data over 20 years, we find the bulk of working-class wealth is government social insurance.

RELAB POLICY NOTE | In the United States, high overall rates of home ownership among households aged 55–64 obscure a vital reality. Many low-income older households risk financial fragility because they are renters and high rent burdens inhibit their ability to save for emergencies.

RELAB POLICY NOTE | Unpaid care work — the vast majority of such work in the United States — is primarily shouldered by economically vulnerable people.

RELAB POLICY NOTE | Social Security is the most essential and well-functioning part of the U.S. retirement system. Any reforms to federal retirement policy—while necessary and long overdue—must be built on the foundation of a protected and strengthened Social Security system.

RELAB POLICY NOTE | Up to 40 percent of middle-income workers are at risk of downward mobility into poverty or near-poverty in retirement because of an inefficient retirement system that disproportionately benefits those with high incomes.

RELAB POLICY NOTE | Contrary to the hope that technology and machines have made work easier for most, more than 25 percent of older white workers and over 40 percent of older Black and Hispanic workers toil in physically demanding jobs.

RELAB POLICY NOTE | During the pandemic, many older workers did not leave their jobs voluntarily but got pushed out of the labor force. Since March 2020, the size of the retired population between ages 55 and 74 expanded beyond its normal trend by an additional 1.1 million people.

RELAB REPORT | SCEPA's research finds that a significant part of the retirement boom consists of those we would otherwise expect to be working, given their employment a year earlier.

RELAB WORKING PAPER | This paper explores how Covid-19 affected the employment and retirement patterns of older workers, with special attention to the distribution of pandemic impacts on those 55 and older.

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.

POLICY NOTE | Since March 2020, the size of the retired population in the U.S. expanded beyond its normal trend by an additional 1.7 million people.¹

RELAB POLICY NOTE | After a partial recovery between May and August, older workers’ labor force participation rate fell continuously, reaching its lowest point of the recession in January.

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 POLICY NOTE | COVID-19 and the resulting recession has made older workers — especially older people of color and low-income seniors — even more vulnerable to the systemic flaws of our failed retirement system.