THE COLOR OF RETIREMENT SECURITY:

UNPACKING THE ROLE OF RACIAL DISPARITIES IN

INCOME, WEALTH, AND HEALTH
Dr. Maya Rockeymoore | June 8, 2015
National Press Foundation Presentation

MISSION
The Center for Global Policy
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policy work for people and
their environments by
advancing innovative and
effective solutions to our
worlds most critical
challenges.

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VISION
The Center for Global Policy
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in which everyone has the
opportunity to achieve health,
wealth, educational, and civic
success in safe and
sustainable environments.

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U.S. Retirement Crisis

Currently, 38 million working age households (45% of the US workforce)

do not have retirement account savings of any kind (Rhee, 2013).
Fifty seven percent of private sector workers do not have access to a tax
preferred, employer-sponsored retirement savings plan of any kind
(Rhee, 2013).
Of private sector workers who do have access and participate in a
retirement plan, a substantial majority (69%) had only a defined
contribution, or 401k-style, plan while a diminishing few (7%) had access
to only a defined benefit, or traditional pension, plan (Employee Benefit
Research Institute, 2011).
The biggest reason for this gap is that access to employer-sponsored
retirement accounts varies by industry sector, occupation, size of
employer, and whether the job has union coverage (Hiltonsmith, 2010).
Already economically disadvantaged groupssuch as people of color
and low- income workersare the least likely to have any other form of
retirement savings outside of Social Security (Hiltonsmith, 2010).

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Median Net Worth by Race/Ethnicity

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Source: Economic Policy Institute

http://stateofworkingamerica.org/charts/homeownership-rates-by-race-1975-2009/

Private Sector Participants in an

Employment Based Retirement Plan by Plan
Type, 1979-2011 (among those with a plan)
Source: EBRI, 2014

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Life Expectancy At Birth By Race and Ethnicity

(Source: National Vital Statistics May 2011 and U.S. Census Projections)

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RECOMMENDATIONS

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RECOMMENDATIONS

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RECOMMENDATIONS

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RECOMMENDATIONS

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Principles for Strengthening Social Security

www.ModernizeSocialSecurity.org

Strengthen and Modernize Social Security

Maintain What Works
Increase Access
Improve Economic Security for Vulnerable
Populations
Achieve Intergenerational Equity
Ensure Long Term Solvency and Adequacy

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Why Not Raise the Retirement

Age?
Raising the retirement age to 69
would result in about a 14-percent
reduction in monthly Social Security
benefits, on average.
Life expectancy is increasing for
people in the upper half of the
income distribution while it has
stalled for the bottom half.
Increasing the retirement age
represents a transfer of Social

Making policy work for people and their environments.

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