Research
High rents increasingly becoming a driver of financial fragility for low-income older households
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. Even middle- and high-income households who own their own homes risk housing-related financial fragility due to high mortgage debt. Overall rates of financial fragility, which include non-housing debt and emergency...
Policy Note | Unpaid care work — the vast majority of such work in the United States — is primarily shouldered by economically vulnerable people. The costs associated with unpaid care work compound existing economic insecurity, leading to higher rates of poverty in old age. It is essential to support informal caregivers by recognizing caregiving as work and expanding their access to social safety net programs and providing paid family care leave.
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. Universal retirement accounts and providing workers with more equitable and better targeted tax incentives are among the best methods to supplement Social Security and prevent downward mobility in retirement.
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.
Older workers have not been able to save adequately for retirement.
Conventional economic analysis depicts the jobs market as finite, assuming immigration lowers wages and job prospects for American workers.
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.
While heralding the bipartisan effort and innovation of active states, ReLab's new report, "State Retirement Reform: Lifting Up Best Practices," seeks to broaden options for future legislation by raising up best practices from the movement's early leaders.
Financialized retirement systems, like defined contribution (DC) plans in the U.S., shift market risk away from employers and governments to individuals.
