Changes in accumulated retirement savings, particularly in employer-sponsored defined contribution (DC) plan balances, differ by worker’s earnings levels. Earnings shocks, portfolio diversification, and employer contributions to worker’s DC plans affect retirement savings for lower earners...

In this Public Policy Brief, Barry Bluestone and Teresa Ghilarducci argue for the need to establish "wage insurance" in the current environment of stagnating wages, increasing income instability, and rising adult poverty. The War on Poverty has succeeded in reducing the poverty rate for elderly...

Barry Bluestone of the University of Massachusetts and Teresa Ghilarducci of the University of Notre Dame show that although the poverty rate for elderly Americans has declined over the past three decades, the total number of persons in poverty has grown and the number of poor nonelderly adults...