Retirement Security

As teachers across the country mobilize for education funding and fair pay, pensions are high on their list of priorities. What they know from experience, and research confirms, is that pensions are a win-win for teachers and schools, delivering superior retirement security and retaining teachers for decades. Conversely, abandoning pensions in favor of 401(k) or cash balance plans would come at great cost to teacher livelihoods and erode education quality.

The persistent concentration of financial assets among the wealthiest families, combined with anemic retirement savings among most households, poses a significant economic threat to the retirement security of many working Americans.

A new research brief finds that financial asset inequality among Americans continues to increase, and the inequality is consistent across generations. This wealth inequality, combined with dangerously low retirement savings among most households, poses a significant threat to retirement for working Americans.

In this data brief, we highlight the lack of retirement assets among private sector employees and working-age families in California based on the Census Bureau’s Current Population Survey and 2014 Survey on Income and Program Participation. It turns out that California private sector workers are not merely behind on saving for retirement; half do not own retirement assets and most are currently not saving for retirement at all.

Over half of California private sector employees age 25-64 aren’t enrolled in a retirement savings plan or pension, according to a new data brief by Nari Rhee, director of the Retirement Security Program at UC Berkeley Labor Center. The brief provides a first-ever look at retirement assets—and the lack thereof—among private sector employees and working-age families in the state.