Soc 400 Retirement Research Paper

The first retirement plan created in the United States, is one that the majority of us are familiar, the Social Security Act, signed under law in 1935. Up until 1939, Social Security only paid retirement benefits to primary workers, which for the most part were men. Age 65 was chosen as the retirement age because individuals who survived past childhood were likely to live past 65. However, not everyone benefited from such assistance, even after age 65—agricultural and domestic workers were excluded from coverage (DeWitt, 2010). The excluded group consisted of roughly half of workers contributing to the economy, which the majority were African Americans. According to Larry DeWitt, a public historian from the Social Security Administration, exclusion of such groups was due to tax-collection procedures and not due to racial bias. Although it may seem as though Social Security was meant to be the only form of retirement plan for qualified retirees, it was not. During such time, many individuals strongly depended on their savings as well as on their family.

For this paper, two separate interviews were conducted with two retirees. One, M.Q., is a 66 year-old white woman who lives in a beach area. The other was JH, a 78 year-old African-American man who lives in a very rural area. Both interviews were conducted over the phone, as M.Q. is recuperating from a bilateral knee replacement and JH lives several states away. These two were chosen because they are complete opposites. While both currently live in the Southern United States, M.Q. was raised north of the Mason-Dixon line, while JH has lived south of the Mason-Dixon line his entire life. The only similarity they share is that they are retirees living on the East Coast. Because they are complete opposites, interviewing the two of them as opposed to a married couple, two sisters, or something of the like, I was able to get a more complete picture of what it means to be retired. This gave me more information, and a better idea of what I needed to look for in the articles I used.

The design of workers’ compensation is that of a wage replacement system, and not a retirement supplement system. Yet, while receiving workers’ compensation benefits, federal employees do not contribute to their retirement account, thereby impeding their ability to develop a retirement strategy for financial support during their retirement years. Given that currently workers’ in receipt of compensation benefits are not contributing towards a retirement pension makes it infeasible to ask or require these workers’ to switch from the receipt of workers’ compensation benefits to collecting their OPM retirement upon reaching retirement age without adjusting the formula for calculating the retirement benefits.

The United States’ Social Security system was implemented by Franklin D. Roosevelt on August 14, 1935 as a part of the New Deal during the Great Depression “to frame a law which gives some measure of protection to the average citizen and his family against the loss of a job and against poverty-ridden old age." Although the system has proven to be one of the most popular programs ever established, its future has been questionable for some time. According to the Social Security Administration (2008), “People are living longer, the first baby boomers are nearing retirement, and the birth rate is lower than in the past. The result is that the worker-to-beneficiary ratio has fallen from 16.5-to-1 in 1950 to 3.3-to-1 today. Within 40 years it will be 2-to-1. At this ratio there will not be enough workers to pay scheduled benefits at current tax rates” (Social Security Administration [SSA], 2008). This issue concerns many citizens, especially younger generations, and continues to be a hot topic of debate amongst politicians. Many ideas have been proposed about how to reform the current system. The most popular of these ideas is to create an entirely new system consisting of mandatory pension accounts which would allow individuals to accumulate a balance over time with investment options such as stocks, bonds, or mutual funds. This argument will show why Social Security should not be replaced by a mandatory private pension system.

This report will explain what demographic and personality factors among retirees that are correlated with the

ØThe issue of pensions being deferred payment, created a whole new look at Occupational Pension Schemes. The following issues were

The old private pension system was created in the 1920’s and expanded throughout the 30’s and 40’s (McDonnell). Private pensions were considered one of the three income sources for retired elderly. Originally, private pensions had defined benefits. The employer and employee would agree to a percentage of salary that the employee would receive from the company annually during retirement. Contractually obligated, this placed the liability onto the employer. Estimates say that employees could receive around 40% of their last year’s salary as annual income with defined benefits. In the 1990’s, the pension plans gradually changed from defined benefits to defined contribution. The employees, rather than negotiating retirement salary now determine the amount of their salary that will be saved in a retirement fund. Retirement income is a burden on the employee rather than employer (Ghilarducci 8). In order to equal the income of the old plans, employees give their retirement savings to mutual funds that invest in the stock market. While a key aspect of retirement, the system has evolved like most economic institutions, favoring the wealthy and established. Furthermore, the private pension system contributes to a market bubble, putting money into the stock market regardless of market strength. These two problems cause the modern pension system to be flawed and unstable. The program must undergo drastic reform in order to save private pensions.

Allen, S. G., Clark, R. L., & Ghent, L. S. (2004). Phasing into retirement. The Industrial & Labor Relations Review, 58(1), 112-127. Gelfand, D.E., & Bechill, W. (1991, Summer-Fall). The evolution of the older Americans act: a 25-year review of the legislative changes. Generations, 15(3), 19-22. Zastrow, C. H., & Kirst-Ashman, K. K. (2010). Understanding Human Behavior and the Social Environment (8th ed.). Mason , Ohio: Brooks Cole/Cengage.

The Society for Human Resource Management article discusses the challenge many companies face of finding qualified workers and the importance of engaging and retaining mature workers to help meet that challenge. A recent Gallup poll found that Traditionalists and Baby Boomers are actually more engaged while at work than their younger counter-parts Gen x and Gen Y (Gallup, 2013). While their engagement percentage is higher, we shouldn’t get too encouraged by that; it is still a shockingly low number: 42% of Traditionalists and 32% of Baby Boomers (Gallup, 2013). That means the remaining 58% and 68% respectively could either decide to retire or could be adding more value.

Throughout much of history the U.S.’s economy has always experienced upward mobility. This deeply rooted cultural expectation of high living standards is starting to create an unrealistic demand for higher retirement income. In a 2012 poll conducted by National Institute on Retirement Security found 86% of Americans said the nation is facing a retirement crisis, of that number 74% said they are concerned with retirement security (National Institute on Retirement Security, n.d.). I would have to agree with the masses that we are facing a failed system if we don’t change now. A Gallup pole showed that most Americas belief that we are facing a failed system is predicated on two keen points policymakers do not understand the plight and they should give more attention to retirement issues.

This study looks at the relation between age and occupations, and what occupations are supported sociopolitical conditions. In their findings, they concluded that ageism determines how and when people retire, what their occupational possibilities were, and how the sociopolitical view supported their occupational possibilities. This article is useful to our project because it focuses on Rudman’s main area of research, and it is one of the first articles that was written on the relation between occupations and ageism.

as it exists today have pointed out to the rigidity of retirement practices. Retirement is

For this case study the focus will be shined upon the rising and current crisis and panic in the United States over the two main risks that are associated with retirement. Those two issues are “The first is the possibility that the individual may have accumulated insufficient assets by the time he or she reaches retirement age. The second is the possibility that the individual may outlive the assets that he or she has accumulated (334)”. In the event that an individual has accumulated a sufficient amount of assets to provide an adequate standard of living after retirement, the risk of uncertainty concerning the life expectancy is still relevant and a potential issue regarding the share of the accumulation that should be properly consumed

Mark and I for years have been talking a lot about how things aren’t like they used to be. That applies to a lot of things in life, like technology, healthcare, standard equipment in automobiles and yes even retirement planning. Some of these changes have made planning for life a little harder, but many have made planning, preparing, and enjoying retirement a lot better. In our column and on our radio show over the next two weeks we will explore the changing story of retirement.

After World War II, as life expectancy reaches lengths American government couldn’t have imagined, United States started struggling with government pension plans they can no longer afford. Therefore, private plans became more common.