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 | Social Security benefits are progressive and reduce the unequal distribution of retirement wealth generated by a broken employer-based retirement systeThe Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) can cause wage declines for workers who do not receive the tax credit. 

RELAB POLICY NOTE | President Trump in his State of the Union address highlighted the country’s falling unemployment and rising wages.

BRIEF | The July unemployment rate for workers over 55 is 3.7%, an increase of 0.2 percentage points from last month.

BRIEF | The unemployment rate for older workers was 3.5% in June, increasing by 0.1 percentage points from May.

BRIEF | The unemployment rate for workers aged 55 and older increased last month for the second month in a row, from 3.7% in January to 3.8% in February.

POLICY NOTE | For typical American male workers, there has been no general rise in wages since the late 1960s, with only short periods of modest improvement.