Introduction The question is how the COVID-19 pandemic affected the finances of the vulnerable households, as well as those with more resources. On one hand, the shutdown of the economy resulted in salary cuts and job losses. On the other hand, many households received substantial government relief – through stimulus payments and unemployment benefits –…
At any given time, only about half of U.S. private sector workers are covered by an employer-sponsored retirement plan, and few workers save without one. The coverage gap, which undermines the retirement security of the nation’s workers, is driven by a lack of coverage among small employers…
A common refrain among retirement researchers is that longer careers are the best way to ensure an adequate retirement. This refrain is often directed at the workers themselves – “you need to work longer!” And that message seems to have been getting through. Since the 1990s, the labor force participation rates of older individuals hav…
FEATURED
CLOSING THE COVERAGE GAP
By Andrew G. Biggs, Alicia H. Munnell and Anqi Chen
The brief’s key findings are: 401(k)s/IRAs have the potential to provide significant wealth. But a typical 60-year-old with a 401(k) in 2016 had less than $100,000 compared to a potential $360,000 in combined 401(k)/IRA assets. Four factors could explain this gap: the immaturity of the 401(k) system, the lack of universal coverage, leakages, and fees…
Associate Director of State & Local Research
Associate Director of State & Local Research Jean-Pierre Aubry is the Associate Director of State and Local Research at the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College (CRR). He oversees and conducts research and data collection, develops new analytic techniques for evaluating retirement benefits, and secures funding support. Aubry, who is recognized as a leading…
By Kim Blanton
With so many Americans in the dark about how to prepare for retirement, educating them about why it’s critical to save seems an obvious way to tackle this problem. But very few solid studies prove that financial education actually works. This field research should be counted as a positive result for a modest, low-cost financia…
The next Retirement and Disability Research Consortium Meeting will be held virtually on August 3-4, 2023. This free and public event showcases the latest in retirement and disability research from the nation’s top scholars.
CRR IN THE NEWS
USA TODAY
Eight states have automatically enrolled hundreds of thousands of workers in retirement savings accounts, all but compelling them to deduct money from their paychecks to spend in their golden years.