Meeting California’s Retirement Security Challenge

Nari Rhee

Press Coverage

Executive Summary

This edited volume brings together rigorous academic and policy research to outline California workers’ retirement prospects in the context of threats to Social Security, the decline of secure workplace pensions, and the shift to risky individual investment accounts like 401(k)s. In California, less than one–half of private sector workers have access to an employer sponsored retirement plan, and nearly half of all workers are likely to have retirement incomes that place them in or near poverty. There is also marked racial and socioeconomic inequality in life expectancy among California residents that persists at retirement age. Fortunately, state level policies can make it easier for employers and employees to participate in cost–efficient and secure retirement plans for workers who do not have an adequate pension.

Individual Chapters

1. Introduction: The Coming Age of Retirement Insecurity, by Jacob Hacker

2. California Workers’ Retirement Prospects, by Sylvia A. Allegretto, Nari Rhee, Joelle Saad-Lessler and Lauren Schmitz

3. Life Expectancy in California’s Diverse Population: Recent Estimates by Race/Ethnicity and Neighborhood Social Class, by Christina A. Clarke and Amal Harrati

4. The Employer Case for Defined Benefit Pensions, by Beth A. Almeida and Christian E. Weller

5. Designing a More Attractive Annuitization Option: Problems and Solutions, by Anthony Webb

6. High Performance Pensions for All Californians, by Teresa Ghilarducci

Author Biographies