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Fast Facts on Retirement Insecurity

Are People Ready for Retirement?

  • Each generation is projected to retire poorer than the last: 55% of young workers age 25-44 have projected retirement incomes below 200% of the federal poverty level (a commonly used threshold for economic hardship), compared to 39% of workers age 45-54 and 33% of workers age 55-641.
  • Among households age 55 and older, nearly one-third have no retirement savings or pension assets2.
  • The median retirement assets for all working households ages 25-64 is just $3,0003.
  • As of 2020, over one-fourth (25%) of non-retired adults did not have any form of retirement savings4.

Access to Workplace Retirement Savings Plans

  • 7.5 million private-sector workers in California (about 57%) lack access to a workplace retirement plan (includes both full- and part-time workers)5.
  • Access to workplace retirement plans makes individuals with incomes between $30k and $50k fifteen times more likely to save for retirement; the likelihood rises to twenty times when a workplace retirement plan has an auto-enrollment feature6.

Benefits of CalSavers

  • Almost 40% of CalSavers participants could delay claiming Social Security by a year or more, increasing their monthly benefit7.
  • Young workers earning the bottom 50% of wages in their age cohort could increase their retirement incomes by roughly half as a result of the state’s new minimum wage law and participation in CalSavers8.

Retirement Insecurity by Race & Ethnicity

  • In California, 68% (3.5 million) of Latino workers, 50.5% (936,882) of Asian workers and over half of African American workers ages 18-64 lack access to a workplace retirement plan9.
  • The median retirement account balance of all working Latinos age 21-64 is $010.
  • About 75% of Black households ages 25-64 have less than $10,000 in retirement savings11.

Women and Retirement

  • 58% (3.4 million) of female workers in California between the ages of 18-64 are not covered by workplace retirement savings plans12.
  • Women are 80% more likely than men to live in poverty in retirement13.

Young People and Retirement

  • Two-thirds (66.2%) of working Millennials have nothing saved for retirement14.
  • Over half of workers age 25-44 have projected retirement incomes below 200% of the federal poverty level (a commonly used threshold for serious economic hardship)15.
  • Almost 65% (3.5 million) of California workers between the ages of 18-34 are not covered by a workplace retirement plan16.