The Racial Aspects of Retirement Income Adequacy
Racial disparities are evident in virtually all indicators of economic and social well-being in the United States. The COVID-19 pandemic has laid bare the racial disparities in health that have long plagued the country. But serious and very marked disparities in the economic well-being of retired and soon-to-retire American households are evident as well. To cite just two indicators, the median income of White households aged 55 to 64 is twice that of Black households, and total assets of White households aged 55 to 64 are seven times those of Black households (Bhutta et al. 2020). Although general retirement preparedness is not the subject of this essay, many studies have found that the preparedness of many American households, regardless of race, is dubious.
This essay seeks to shed light on racial disparities in retirement. It will emphasize both the issues of method that arise when we grapple with this difficult issue, and the policies that could be considered to ameliorate racial inequities. The essay relies on statistics from the Federal Reserve’s triennial Survey of Consumer Finances (Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System [Federal Reserve Board] 2020) for the year 2019 to buttress and support its arguments.