Retirement Security: Blog
Young workers' retirement hopes dwindle with retirement options
November 16, 2012
Younger Americans in their late 30s are now the group most likely to doubt their ability to retire with dignity, a major shift from three years ago when baby boomers nearing retirement age expressed the greatest worry.
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Ask Mitt About Social Security
October 15, 2012
Whether he's telling donors his true thoughts about working people or shaking hands with seniors on the campaign trail, Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney doesn't talk about how to strengthen Social Security.
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Memo to Gov. Jerry Brown: Please sign this bill.
September 28, 2012
The New York Times joined California workers, lawmakers and retirement policy experts in urging Gov. Jerry Brown to sign the California Secure Choice Retirement Savings Program, SB 1234 into law.
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Still Fighting for Retirement Security
August 31, 2012
As we celebrate the many hard-fought battles of the Labor Movement, SEIU remains committed to working with its allies and elected officials to deliver retirement security to all workers as part of a broader agenda to fight for social and economic justice for America's 99%.
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Coalition of SEIU members and allies lobby for retirement security for all in California
August 13, 2012
On Tuesday August 7 and Wednesday August 8, SEIU members from locals 1000, 521, 1021, and 99 lobbied key members of the California Assembly Appropriations Committee and the California Assembly Speaker to ask their legislative representatives to support SB 1234, legislation sponsored by Senator Kevin DeLeon that will open a secure retirement savings vehicle for California workers who currently lack access to a portable, secure, reliable retirement savings account.
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$5 A Day?
July 25, 2012
Nearly half of middle class workers can expect to live off a food budget of just $5 a day when they retire.
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VP Joe Biden Stands Behind Medicare & Medicaid to Ensure Retirement Security
July 23, 2012
July 30th marks the 47th anniversary of Medicare and Medicaid. This week, Vice President Joe Biden, in an address to 100 community leaders representing millions of seniors and their families from across the country, reinforced President Obama's commitment to preserving these two programs on which we all rely.
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Baltic or Boardwalk: What Does the Future Look Like for Millennials?
July 9, 2012
What will happen to Millennials if the government doesn't explore new retirement models to provide more workers with protection against outliving their savings for retirement?
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Marriage Equality Efforts Should Include Retirement Security
June 29, 2012
As we reflect on marriage equality victories during LGBT Pride Month, we must remind ourselves to do more to ensure same-sex couples also have the right to retire with dignity.
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Five Things to Consider Before Cutting Pension Benefits
June 25, 2012
While America's confidence in the ability for all workers to retire with dignity continues to decline, voter support of public pension plans is also dwindling. Unfortunately for public service workers like police, firefighters and teachers, they may begin to see significant cuts to their retirement benefits.
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Is Your Retirement Plan A Gas Guzzler?
June 13, 2012
A new report from Dēmos, "The Retirement Savings Drain: The Hidden and Excessive Costs of 401(k)s," urges Americans to trade in their old 401(k)s for a new, more efficient retirement model.
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Private Sector Workers Need Retirement Help
June 6, 2012
This year, state Sen. Kevin De León and Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg introduced SB 1234, which would allow private-sector workers to enroll in a modest, state-operated retirement program similar to CalPERS.
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Retire in Poverty or Work Until You Die?
May 24, 2012
According to the UC Berkeley Center for Labor Research and Education, about 62 percent of working Californians - that's more than 7 million people - do not have access to an employer sponsored retirement plan. If the state's workers put just 3 percent of their wages into a retirement fund, they'd grow a pot of $6.6 billion in one year.
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Retirement Security for Mother's Day
May 10, 2012
As you look for the perfect card to get for Mother's Day, bear these facts in mind: 60% of mothers do not feel prepared for retirement and nearly half don't know how to achieve their retirement goals, according to a recent study on women's retirement.
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Let's Bury the Rhetoric; Not Social Security
May 7, 2012
The 2012 Social Security Trustees Report should be used as motivation to get serious about solving the actual problems facing Social Security; not as a reason to bury Social Security.
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A Stronger Nation Calls for Stronger Retirement System
April 19, 2012
Although retiring with dignity remains an integral part of the American Dream, it turns out the United States isn't doing as well as its peers when it comes to retirement security. Many economists view public retirement benefits in the U.S., including Social Security, as less generous compared to other wealthy nations.
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Social Security and the 1%
March 20, 2012
Last week, the top 1% of wage earners in America stopped paying Social Security tax -- so our SEIU members set out to educate the public about the unfair tax cap.
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Let's Strengthen Social Security and Make Everyone Pay Their Fair Share
March 15, 2012
What if we told you that starting this week, the top 1% of wage earners in America get a boost to their paychecks, but yours would remain the same? Sounds unfair, doesn't it?
In essence, that's what's happening, and for 99% of us, it's a raw deal.
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Joshua Gotbaum: "Don't Ignore Retirement Insecurity"
March 13, 2012
Worried about your retirement plans? You're not alone. A recent Gallup survey found that 83% of Americans were concerned about retirement, and more Americans are worried about retirement than health care costs or monthly bills.
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And If You're Not Like Margaret Mead...
March 8, 2012
One of the world's most famous anthropologists, Margaret Mead, once said "sooner or later I'm going to die, but I'm not going to retire."
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50 Years Later, Still Fighting for Equality
March 2, 2012
Dr. L. Toni Lewis, geriatrician and Healthcare Chair of SEIU, recently wrote an op-ed on the fight for income equality and retirement security among the African American community. We wanted to share the beginning of it with you here, and encourage you click through to read the entire piece at The Root.
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Retirement Security Crisis Must Be Addressed for Minority Workers
February 22, 2012
Dr. L. Toni Lewis, geriatrician and Healthcare Chair of the 2.1 million member Service Employees International Union (SEIU), issued the following statement today in response to the University of California Berkeley Labor Center's new report "Black and Latino Retirement (In)Security" revealing minority workers are more likely to live in poverty as retirees.
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The Golden Years: One Step Forward or Several Steps Back?
February 21, 2012
While African American workers finally saw a drop in the unemployment rate last month, many still have a reason to be concerned about their economic future -- including the possibility of retiring in poverty after a lifetime of work.
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Workers Putting In More, Earning Less from Risky Retirement Plans
February 16, 2012
New reports show that while workers put more money into their 401(k)s last year, many people didn't reap the anticipated rewards.
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The Retirement Security Crisis in Black America
February 7, 2012
As we reflect on the historical contributions of African Americans during Black History Month, we also acknowledge that many of our Civil Rights leaders are now facing another struggle for economic equality as retirees.
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SEIU: Traditional Pensions, Not Cuts, Help States Save Money
February 1, 2012
Eileen Kirlin, Executive Vice President of the 2.1 million member Service Employees International Union, issued the following statement in response to new findings released today by the Center for American Progress that reveal modest reforms to traditional defined-benefit pension systems, rather than complete overhauls, are the most cost effective option for taxpayers.
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California State Workers Want to Retire With Dignity
October 27, 2011
On Wednesday, the California State-Assembly Conference Committee on Public Employee Pensions met at the City of Carson council chambers to discuss public pensions in advance of Governor Jerry Brown's proposal for reform. As a member of Californians for Retirement Security, Jesus E. Hernandez urged the Committee to remember workers like him when considering pension fixes and reforms.
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The Retirement Security Challenge in the New Age of Insecure Retirement
October 12, 2011
If California is any example for the rest of the country, a secure retirement is becoming much harder to attain for the average American. As corporations and government move more economic risk onto the backs of American families, middle class and low-income workers are struggling to keep afloat leading up to and during retirement.
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Another Reason for our Stalled Economy: Retirement Insecurity
September 30, 2011
Could the private sector's lack of pensions be hurting the economy? A lack of secure retirement means many Americans aren't spending their money, and others are forced to rely on taxpayer-funded services just to survive.
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California to Invest $800 Million in Infrastructure Through Public Pension Funds
September 13, 2011
SEIU has long called for public infrastructure investments that could help create jobs and stimulate local economies, including using public pension assets to fund such projects. Now California, home of the nation's largest public pension fund, is seeking greater opportunities to spur economic growth by doing just that.
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Asking the Right Questions About Pension Reform
September 6, 2011
An article last week in the Sacramento News & Review takes a closer look at public pension woes in California and begs the question -- rather than choosing between a secure retirement for public workers or a fiscally sound state budget, shouldn't we be finding a way to accomplish both?
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Want to Boost the Economy? Don't Cut Pensions
July 22, 2011
If it were up to them, Republican lawmakers would have you believe that public pensions are bringing the country down, framing public employees as greedy Americans who retire into wealth on the backs of taxpayers. We've already addressed how these ideas are flat out wrong. Now recent reports argue an additional case for how public pensions benefit the country - by supporting not just retirees, but entire communities as well.
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Defending Public Pensions
July 6, 2011
If we don't start having serious, honest conversations about our retirement security systems, we could put future retirees at risk and left wondering why we ever attacked a retirement system that has adequately served millions of Americans for decades. So says a recent column featured at ABC News written by Earl Pomeroy, a former U.S. Representative from North Dakota, and Cathie G. Eitelberg, a Senior Vice President at The Segal Company and an expert in public pension design and finance.
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Speaking Out: The Good News About Public Pensions
June 23, 2011
Last week the Manteca Bulletin published a letter to the editor by California resident Kathy Souza, entitled "The good news about public pensions." That title may strike some readers by surprise, especially after hearing lawmakers rail against public pensions for months. But Kathy's letter not only highlights the growing recovery that public pensions have made nationwide, it also squashes the arguments being made that public employees would be better off with risky private-sector style retirement plans.
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The High Cost of Killing Public Pensions
June 13, 2011
The city of San Diego may want to get a head start on hiring this year. They may have trouble finding applicants after a new measure that Republican and business interests plan to place on next June's ballot, which seeks to get rid of the current traditional pension plans for new employees and stick them with a risky 401(k) style plan with no guarantee of an adequate retirement.
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Viewpoints: Pension 'reformers' distort facts on benefits
June 6, 2011
Martha Penry, a special education teacher's assistant in the Twin Rivers school district of Sacramento, California, recently had a column featured in The Sacramento Bee that addresses retirement security for public employees in California. Martha explains how proposals to overhaul California's public pension system will not fix the state's current budget shortfall, and may actually make fiscal problems worse.
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The Myth of the "Generous" Public Pension System
May 25, 2011
Can we put a moratorium on the use of the phrase "generous public pensions"? Lawmakers are using the phrase at every turn, implying that America's public employees are retiring in riches and burdening the economy. The former nurses, school employees, college professors and child protection workers who are currently averaging less than $23,000 a year in benefits would probably beg to differ.
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Banks, corporations and lawmakers' message to the middle class: 'Sacrifice your retirement security to clean up our mess'
May 6, 2011
As many states rush to balance their budgets and cut spending, some lawmakers have misdiagnosed the problem entirely. Instead of closing the tax loopholes that let profitable corporations and banks avoid paying their fair share, they'd rather place the blame for the budget crisis squarely on the middle class. As a result, public workers are now struggling to maintain their voice on the job and hold on to a secure retirement.
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