Squared Away Blog

The vast majority of workers are in traditional jobs, receiving a regular paycheck from an employer or their own business. But a small and growing number are filling nontraditional jobs, working not as employees but as contractors for all types of businesses or online services such as Uber and Care.com.  In just four years, the share of nontraditional workers increased by a full percentage point, to nearly 5 percent of the U.S. labor force, according to a new study based on U.S. Census data. Because these workers are still only a fraction of workers, little has been known about them. RAND researchers have uncovered new information about who they are. Putting various clues in the data together, they concluded that…

The maiden voyage next January of the 250,800-ton cruise ship, Icon of the Seas, with 20 decks of candy-colored amenities, has sold out. The Cruise Lines International Association predicts the industry’s 2023 passenger volume should exceed 2019 levels. Cruises, after going over a financial cliff during COVID, are back! And so is the credit card debt that pays for cruises. Travel in the form of hotels, airline tickets and cruises, and retail sales of everything from household appliances and glassware to restaurants – these are just some of the ways Americans are continuing a post-COVID spending spree fueled by more than a year of rock-bottom unemployment. Consumers racked up $45 billion more credit card debt in the second quarter, pushing…

U.S. workers’ enthusiasm for saving money for retirement is lukewarm. But that doesn’t go very far in explaining why only three out of every 10 Latino workers are participating in an employer retirement plan, typically a 401(k). The major reason is that most of them do not have a retirement plan because they are employed in low-wage blue-collar or service industries – roofing, dishwashing, food preparation, landscaping, hotels, maid and janitorial services. These types of jobs are often filled by recent or undocumented immigrants and do not include any employee benefits.  The Economic Policy Institute estimates that only four out of 10 Latino workers have a retirement plan in their current jobs. In that light, the bulk of the individuals…

German legislation that increased the federal pension credits given to mothers has influenced their decisions about working in middle age, years after their children were born but long before retirement age. This finding from a recent study adds to what is currently understood about how changes made to future pensions can affect how much workers choose to work now or when to retire. Previous research tended to gauge the impact of pension reforms on individuals who are closing in on their retirement years. This study focuses squarely on the behavior of mothers who are mostly in their early 50s, when workers are just starting to get serious about their retirement plans. The retirement benefits paid to German workers by t…

Too many retirees of color are in the financially precarious state between outright poverty and barely getting by. Far larger shares of the nation’s Latino, Black, Asian, and Native American retirees are financially insecure than Whites, according to a new report confirming the now-familiar racial disparities that face both workers and retirees in this country. But what also stands out in this report, produced by The Gerontology Institute at the University of Massachusetts, Boston, is the gaping disparity between retired single people and married couples. First, consider older White Americans. They are in the best position financially. Yet about two in five single White retirees are financially insecure, while only one in five couples is. Single Latino retirees are muc…

In COVID’s early months, applications to two of Social Security’s assistance programs fell sharply. The decline was nearly 30 percent in the spring and summer of 2020 for the monthly cash payments from the Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program to the families of children with disabilities. And applications for disability insurance benefits by adults with disabilities who could no longer work fell by more than 7 percent. Two recent studies reached a similar conclusion about what went on. A major reason for fewer applications was Social Security’s decision to close its field offices during COVID in March 2020, which eliminated the ability to apply in person for the benefits. Specifically, Mathematica researchers found, applications to the SSI and disability insuranc…

The formula for calculating Social Security benefits recognizes that it’s more difficult for lower-paid workers to afford retirement. Their future retirement benefits will replace a higher percentage of their earnings than, say, a corporate executive will receive. But workers in similar jobs who live in expensive coastal cities are at a disadvantage: steep housing costs. Workers’ wages aren’t keeping up with rising house prices, and that inherent disadvantage doesn’t go away when they retire. But this study looks specifically at how well Social Security’s progressive benefit formula protects older Americans in high-cost cities.  Having to pay high housing expenses will put workers who are currently in their mid-50s at only a slight disadvantage when it comes to Social Security benefits…

During COVID, some companies that instituted remote work were almost giddy about the increase in employee productivity. Workers themselves were certainly convinced of this. But that view is being undermined by some high-quality research that benefits from having more data and perspective on this pandemic-era issue. U.S. economists studying productivity in India’s high-tech sector, and specifically the employees who enter data into computer software, found that people who work at home were 18 percent less productive than in-office workers. Productivity was measured in terms of errors and the volume of data entered, taking into account each individual’s task difficulty and typing speed. One interesting aspect of this study may be a clue to the reason for sagging productivity. The least…

Society increasingly has accepted the LGBTQ community as part of the broader diversity of 21st century life. This was decidedly not the case when baby boomers were coming of age in the 1960s and 1970s. Even today, their peers and family members aren’t always accepting of them. A senior housing project for them is now under construction in Boston’s Hyde Park neighborhood. It’s the city’s first and one of perhaps a few dozen around the country: The Pryde. The project will transform a Boston middle school built in 1902 into LGBTQ-friendly housing where low- and middle-income people 62 and older know they will be supported. But on the rocky road to community acceptance, some people hostile to the project defaced…

Going back to work after relying on federal disability can be fraught with uncertainty. Some people experience a smooth transition, while others may have trouble becoming self-sufficient after their skills deteriorate and professional contacts dwindle. Researchers at Mathematica examined how people fare in the labor force after their benefits end. This can happen for one of two reasons. First, Social Security stops paying benefits if one of the agency’s periodic medical reviews determines that a health condition has improved to the point where the individual no longer medically qualifies. The second reason is that Social Security limits how much beneficiaries are permitted to earn. In order to encourage them to return to the labor force, the agency provides a set…

The stories are harrowing. In complaints to the federal government, retirees describe the costly errors in medical billing that they struggle, often unsuccessfully, to straighten out. One low-income person was told, during his cancer treatments, that they weren’t covered when in fact the hospital wasn’t processing his Medicaid coverage. Another retiree submitted letters to a specialist’s office over a two-year period explaining – with supporting insurance documents – why he didn’t owe the doctor the money he’d been billed for a test. Someone else, while being whisked to the hospital in an ambulance, provided his Medicare and supplemental insurance cards during the ride. He never got a bill – just a call from a debt collection agency. Finally, one retir…

Researchers will present studies funded by the U.S. Social Security Administration (SSA) that meet the agency’s goal of understanding and addressing the racial disparities in the economy and in federal benefit policies. The studies will be presented over Zoom by researchers from around the country. There is no charge for attending the Aug. 3 and 4 event but registration is required. The full agenda for the meeting is posted online. The gap between Black and Hispanic Americans’ wealth levels and White wealth is well documented. But one study to be presented examines a specific aspect of the racial wealth gap: differences in the use of the tax deductions workers receive for putting money into an employer 401(k). White workers, for example,…