{"id":2964,"date":"2009-09-21T13:49:21","date_gmt":"2009-09-21T13:49:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nclnet.org\/retirement_usa_seeking_to_improve_system\/"},"modified":"2020-07-07T10:59:07","modified_gmt":"2020-07-07T10:59:07","slug":"retirement_usa_seeking_to_improve_system","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nclnet.org\/retirement_usa_seeking_to_improve_system\/","title":{"rendered":"Retirement USA Seeking to Improve System &#8211; National Consumers League"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><!-- content_before_flip_start --><strong>By Sally Greenberg, NCL Executive Director<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Consumer organizations do so much great work in the financial services area \u2014 working against predatory loans, fighting outrageous fees and surcharges on credit cards, demanding truth in lending and transparency in credit scores. But often our attention is focused on the here and now. What about working to ensure that consumers have a secure and adequate retirement?<\/p>\n<p>NCL was invited to a meeting last week with leaders of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.retirement-usa.org\/about\/about-orgs\/\">Retirement USA<\/a>, a group formed by the Economic Policy Institute, the Pension Rights  Center, the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare, and the Service Employees International Union, which holds a seat on the NCL Board. Retirement USA\u2019s goal is to get widespread agreement on a series of principles that move Americans toward a far more sound retirement system than what exists today.<\/p>\n<p>The facts about Americans entering retirement are grim:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Only      half of full-time private-sector employees participate in a retirement      system. \u00a0The participation rate      drops to 45 percent if part-time employees are included.<\/li>\n<li>Only      20 percent of American private-sector workers participate in traditional      pension plans that provide guaranteed, lifetime benefits.<\/li>\n<li>30      percent of American private-sector workers rely entirely on 401(k) plans      to supplement <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ssa.gov\/\">Social Security<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li>2\/3 of      401(k) plan investments are in stocks, and stocks have lost more than half      their value since 2007.<\/li>\n<li>Half of      all workers with 401(k)-type plans had less than $25,000 in their accounts      \u2013 before the stock market meltdown \u2013 and the median 401(k) balance for      workers over the age of 55 was only $40,000.<\/li>\n<li>64      percent of older Americans depend on Social Security for more than half of      their income, and one of five receives all of their income from Social      Security.<\/li>\n<li>Social      Security benefits for the average retiree are now $13,863, just barely      more than the minimum wage.<\/li>\n<li>Half      of people age 65 and older receive income of less than $17,382 a year from      all sources.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Retirement USA has laid out a series of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.retirement-usa.org\/the-principles\/\">important principles<\/a> that would \u2013 if adopted \u2013 help to secure adequate retirement for all workers:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Universal      coverage \u2013 every worker should be covered by a retirement plan in addition      to Social Security.<\/li>\n<li>Secure      retirement \u2013 retirement shouldn\u2019t be a gamble; workers should be able to      count on a steady lifetime stream of retirement income to supplement      Social Security.<\/li>\n<li>Adequate      Income \u2013 everyone should have an adequate retirement income after a      lifetime of work.<\/li>\n<li>Shared      responsibility \u2013 employers, employees, and the government should share      this responsibility.<\/li>\n<li>Required      contributions \u2013 employees and employers should be required to contribute a      specified percent of pay; government should subsidize lower income workers.<\/li>\n<li>Contributions      to the system should be pooled and professionally managed to minimize risk.<\/li>\n<li>Payouts      should only be permitted before retirement except for permanent disability.<\/li>\n<li>Benefits      should be paid out over the lifetime of retirees and not given in a lump      sum.<\/li>\n<li>Benefits      should be portable when workers change jobs.<\/li>\n<li>Voluntary      contributions should be permitted.<\/li>\n<li>Efficient      and transparent administration of benefits by a government agency or a      private nonprofit.<\/li>\n<li>There      ought to be effective oversight of the new system by a single government      regulator dedicated solely to promoting retirement security.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/nclnet.org\">National Consumers League<\/a> supports these principles, especially in light of the dire economic reality most American workers face when they retire. The League\u2019s early leaders were strong supporters of Social Security, which is a lifeline to older Americans, but was never intended to be their sole support. Retirement USA has laid out the blueprint for reform. Now it is time for consumer groups, unions. and others to make that blueprint a reality.<!-- content_before_flip_end --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Sally Greenberg, NCL Executive Director Consumer organizations do so much great work in the financial services area \u2014 working against predatory loans, fighting outrageous fees and surcharges on credit [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"_price":"","_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_header":"","_tribe_default_ticket_provider":"","_tribe_ticket_capacity":"0","_ticket_start_date":"","_ticket_end_date":"","_tribe_ticket_show_description":"","_tribe_ticket_show_not_going":false,"_tribe_ticket_use_global_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_global_stock_level":"","_global_stock_mode":"","_global_stock_cap":"","_tribe_rsvp_for_event":"","_tribe_ticket_going_count":"","_tribe_ticket_not_going_count":"","_tribe_tickets_list":"[]","_tribe_ticket_has_attendee_info_fields":false},"categories":[25],"tags":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nclnet.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2964"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nclnet.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nclnet.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nclnet.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nclnet.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2964"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/nclnet.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2964\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11425,"href":"https:\/\/nclnet.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2964\/revisions\/11425"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nclnet.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2964"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nclnet.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2964"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nclnet.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2964"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}