Podcast on Retirement & Low-Wage Work
To: Media Covering Low-Wage Work Issues The Fairness Initiative on Low-Wage Work (www.lowwagework.org) is posting another informational podcast for the media today. It reports on a new working paper by the Washington-based Pension Rights Center. The report characterizes our current system as a “failure” that is a patchwork of private pensions, savings and Social Security. Most low-wage workers are unlikely to benefit from either private pensions or savings for retirement. The Pension Rights Center is launching Retirement USA as a result. The initiative will set forth principals for a new American retirement system to protect the typical worker. “The retirement system in this country – apart from social security – has failed most Americans, because people are retiring without enough money. What we’re basically saying is, if you create a new system, one that has shared responsibilities, where all the risks and responsibilities aren’t on individuals, and all the risks and responsibilities aren’t on employers, where employers and employees are pitching in, and also the government is subsidizing those lower-end workers, because they have a hard time doing it on their own, then you’re going to have a system that works,” declared Karen Friedman of the Pension Rights Center. ###
