RESEARCH
Expanding EITC Will Benefit 1.5 Million Low-Income Older Workers
Brief— SCEPA's research finds nearly 1.5 million low-income older workers would benefit from an expansion of the popular Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) program. The report—released by our Retirement Equity Lab (ReLab)—finds without expanding the EITC, the program actually lowers wages among non-educated workers, especially those over 55.
Working Paper—Lack of meaningful action to mitigate climate change will disproportionally impact the vulnerable, including children who are being sent into the labor force to make ends meet for poor households hit by climate shocks.
Working paper— Social Security benefits are progressive and reduce the unequal distribution of retirement wealth generated by a broken employer-based retirement system. This study identifies what is driving the loss of bargaining power suppressing older workers' wages.
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. This article has been accepted for publication in a revised form in the journal of Pension Economics and Finance. Our corresponding policy note, "Extreme Inequality is Persistent, Even Among Those With Similar Earnings," discusses policies to address the inequalities baked into our system.
The rates of elder poverty among widows and single women are higher than among couples and men.
ReLab's new report, "Disparities & Erosion in New York’s Workplace Retirement Coverage," documents two trends in retirement plan coverage: 1) retirement plan coverage is declining for all New Yorkers, and 2) disparities in coverage continue to exist based on race, education and income.
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.
Rather than being "self-financing," New York's Hudson Yards project cost the city $2.2 billion in costs, largely due to tax breaks provided by the city to incentivize development and standard development risks and costs.
Guaranteed Retirement Accounts (GRAs), proposed in the 2018 book Rescuing Retirement, are universal individual accounts funded throughout a worker’s career by employer and employee contributions and a refundable tax credit. If GRAs were implemented in 2018,1.5 million seniors would be saved from poverty or near poverty by 2025. This increases to 3.6 million seniors by 2035 and 8.1 million seniors by 2045.
- 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.
- If the GRA were implemented in 2018, 8.1 million seniors would be saved from old-age poverty or near poverty by the year 2045.
Author: Teresa Ghilarducci, Michael Papadopoulos, and Anthony Webb
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