Squared Away Blog

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,…

This was 2022 in a nutshell: more people are saving for retirement but they’re not saving nearly enough. Every year, Vanguard releases its report on the state of the nation’s habits around saving for retirement. Participation among workers with access to 401(k) plans has jumped over the past five years from 72 percent to 83 percent in 2022, according to the newest report on the 401(k) plans in Vanguard’s large client base. Some credit goes to the growing popularity among employers of automatically enrolling workers in their plans. Under this corporate policy, employee participation in 401(k)-style plans is 93 percent, versus just 70 percent when they don’t get that nudge and are left on their own to decide whether to…

The chronic medical conditions and musculoskeletal problems that afflict workers of all ages have far-reaching effects on the labor market and the federal disability program that economists are trying to understand. The following three studies focus in on specific aspects of the workers who apply for disability benefits. “Workplace Injuries and Receipt of Benefits from Workers Compensation and SSDI”: In most states, Social Security disability benefits are supposed to be reduced if the benefits, when added to private workers’ compensation payments, exceed 80 percent of the injured worker’s current earnings. The researchers, by combining Social Security data with workers’ comp payments for people with permanent workplace injuries, find that the share of Social Security recipients whose monthly payments are being…

Today’s retirees typically spend about a third less on medical care than retirees did back in 2004, according to new research. Workers who are over 55 but not yet eligible for Medicare are spending somewhat less too. Two policies have reversed the trend of years of rising costs: the introduction of Medicare’s Part D prescription drug coverage and the Affordable Care Act (ACA), which expanded Medicaid to more low-income workers and made private insurance somewhat more affordable for the people who don’t have coverage through their jobs. But behind the 20-year decline in healthcare spending, adjusted for inflation, is another fact of life: healthcare costs increase as people age, and some people are luckier than others. Consider older workers and…

Seven states now require employers that don’t have retirement plans to automatically enroll their workers in an IRA, and others have passed legislation to create similar programs. The goal is to get more people to save for retirement at a time financial security in old age increasingly depends on it. Pensions are rapidly disappearing. But only about half of working people are currently saving enough to maintain their standard of living when they retire. A major culprit in the savings shortfall is that workers do not consistently have access to a retirement plan through their jobs. The share of workers with employer plans has barely budged in decades. Information about how employers might react to the state IRA mandates is…