New York State Senate

Solving New York City's Looming Retirement Crisis

These days it’s not just the baby boom generation that’s feeling ill prepared and apprehensive about retirement—Gen Xers are feeling even more stressed about how they’ll fare in old age, according to a new AARP survey of New York City voters.

And that's no surprise, given the financial situation facing many New Yorkers. The AARP report found that some 38 percent of New Yorkers in both generational cohorts, or those between the ages of 35 to 69, have no retirement savings account whatsoever. The median retirement account balance for all working age households is $3,000, and it is only $12,000 for near-retirement age households.  

Those who are part of Generation X carry nearly six times more debt than their parents did, according to a 2014 report from the Pew Charitable Trusts, perhaps a contributing factor to this younger cohort’s heightened anxiety. And yet six in 10 Gen Xers still expect to retire at 65, a fact that suggests a “perceptual gap,” according to the AARP report, which serves as a companion publication to a statewide survey release by the AARP in May.

“We call it ‘faith-based retirement planning,’” said Teresa Ghilarducci, an economics professor at The New School with an expertise in retirement security.

The implications are potentially dire, not just for the large swath of New Yorkers who face the prospect of working well past the retirement age of 65 and a diminished quality of life, but also for society as a whole, which will have to bear the brunt of health care costs and living expenses that an increasing number of people simply will not be able to afford. But while gridlock in Washington, D.C. means there isn’t likely to be a solution coming down from our nation’s capital anytime soon, states and cities are beginning to move on the issue—understanding that the cost of inaction would be higher than the price of implementing new retirement programs for private sector workers.

How to go about doing this was the topic under discussion at a panel hosted Wednesday by the AARP and City & State, in which public servants and policy analysts weighed in on what New York can do to avert the impending retirement challenges.

“We have a retirement security problem in this country and it’s worse in New York City than almost any place else,” said John Adler, director of New York City's Office of Pensions and chief pension investment advisor. “New Yorkers are substantially below the median in terms of access to workplace retirement plans, levels of savings and levels of retirement income.”

According to Adler, three-quarters of American workers rely “completely or overwhelmingly” on Social Security for their retirement income, which provides a median benefit of about $15,000 a year—hardly enough to subsist on alone. Adler said the Social Security system must be strengthened, and emphasized that, contrary to some right-wing rhetoric, it is on solid ground and should remain so for decades to come.

But the real key, according to Adler and other panelists, is first ensuring universal access to retirement plans in the workplace. Other states are already moving to do this.

“Starting with Massachusetts and California in 2012, there has been a blizzard of activity across the country, helped immeasurably by the way, by the efforts of AARP,” Adler said. “Four states have now passed laws to create state-sponsored retirement programs, at least six states are conducting studies, and legislation has been introduced in at least 15 other states.”

Both Illinois and Washington state, for example, recently implemented state-facilitated retirement plans for private sector workers whose jobs do not offer any pension or 401k plan. 

“It’s not about intricacies of the plan and which plan is the best … We’re talking about very basic things,” said Scott Evans, chief investment officer at the New York City Comptroller’s Office. “The first thing we want to focus on with regards to this is ensuring that all New Yorkers have access to employer-based retirement plans. Those are table sticks. That shouldn’t even be up for debate.”

Panelists also stressed the need to figure out how best to encourage workers to opt into retirement plans, once available.

“One of the things that seems to work really well—creditors are really good at setting up automatic deductions or automatic payments,” said Angela Houghton, a senior research advisor at AARP. “If we’re talking about some sort of universal access to retirement or savings, that feature—sort of an automatic—right out of your paycheck it goes into a savings account—that’s sort of a quick win and it seems to work pretty well.”

Both Evans and Ghilarducci of The New School are currently part of a panel convened by city Comptroller Scott Stringer to investigate strategies options to provide access to retirement plans for all New Yorkers.

“We’re working behind the scenes, away from the political environment, to try and develop three options for the city to take a look at,” Evans said. “Fifty-seven percent of New Yorkers have no access whatsoever. We have to fund a solution—the private sector cant find a solution—the public sector needs to look at that.”

 View the AARP report below:

2015 NYC Survey of Gen X Boomer Voters REPORT Final

X
This website uses cookies to enhance user experience and to analyze performance and traffic on our website. We also share information about your use of our site with our social media, advertising and analytics partners. Learn More / Do Not Sell My Personal Information
Accept Cookies
X
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Do Not Sell My Personal Information

When you visit our website, we store cookies on your browser to collect information. The information collected might relate to you, your preferences or your device, and is mostly used to make the site work as you expect it to and to provide a more personalized web experience. However, you can choose not to allow certain types of cookies, which may impact your experience of the site and the services we are able to offer. Click on the different category headings to find out more and change our default settings according to your preference. You cannot opt-out of our First Party Strictly Necessary Cookies as they are deployed in order to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting the cookie banner and remembering your settings, to log into your account, to redirect you when you log out, etc.). For more information about the First and Third Party Cookies used please follow this link.

Allow All Cookies

Manage Consent Preferences

Strictly Necessary Cookies - Always Active

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data, Targeting & Social Media Cookies

Under the California Consumer Privacy Act, you have the right to opt-out of the sale of your personal information to third parties. These cookies collect information for analytics and to personalize your experience with targeted ads. You may exercise your right to opt out of the sale of personal information by using this toggle switch. If you opt out we will not be able to offer you personalised ads and will not hand over your personal information to any third parties. Additionally, you may contact our legal department for further clarification about your rights as a California consumer by using this Exercise My Rights link

If you have enabled privacy controls on your browser (such as a plugin), we have to take that as a valid request to opt-out. Therefore we would not be able to track your activity through the web. This may affect our ability to personalize ads according to your preferences.

Targeting cookies may be set through our site by our advertising partners. They may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on other sites. They do not store directly personal information, but are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising.

Social media cookies are set by a range of social media services that we have added to the site to enable you to share our content with your friends and networks. They are capable of tracking your browser across other sites and building up a profile of your interests. This may impact the content and messages you see on other websites you visit. If you do not allow these cookies you may not be able to use or see these sharing tools.

If you want to opt out of all of our lead reports and lists, please submit a privacy request at our Do Not Sell page.

Save Settings
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Cookie List

A cookie is a small piece of data (text file) that a website – when visited by a user – asks your browser to store on your device in order to remember information about you, such as your language preference or login information. Those cookies are set by us and called first-party cookies. We also use third-party cookies – which are cookies from a domain different than the domain of the website you are visiting – for our advertising and marketing efforts. More specifically, we use cookies and other tracking technologies for the following purposes:

Strictly Necessary Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Functional Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Performance Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Social Media Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Targeting Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.