Tyler Bond is the Research Director at the National Institute on Retirement Security (NIRS), a nonprofit focused on strengthening retirement security in the U.S. He breaks down how federal policy decisions—and looming Social Security shortfalls—could impact millions of future retirees. As America faces a retirement crisis, Bond’s insights are more urgent than ever.
🔗 nirsonline.org
📱 @NIRSonline on Twitter/X, Facebook & LinkedIn
#RetirementCrisis #SocialSecurity #FutureOfWork #NIRS #Pensions #RetirementSecurity
🔗 nirsonline.org
📱 @NIRSonline on Twitter/X, Facebook & LinkedIn
#RetirementCrisis #SocialSecurity #FutureOfWork #NIRS #Pensions #RetirementSecurity
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Good morning, and welcome to Insight, a show about empowering
our community. I'm Lorraine Balladmorrow, we'll be telling you about
a great campaign sponsored by our sister station Power ninety
nine E powered by Chase on our hometown heroes. Once
a month with one thousand dollars, we'll celebrate Greater Philadelphia
Health Action, providing quality healthcare for fifty five years, and
will tell you about a couple of friends who greed
(00:21):
at a foundation to help under resourced communities. But first
we raise the red flag on the future of social security.
When you finally are at the age to retire, will
there be social security? What will retirement look like? Well,
we're being joined today by Tyler Bond, research director at
the National Institute on Retirement Security, a nonprofit research and
(00:42):
education organization dedicated to securing a financially stable retirement for
all Americans. So we're going to be talking about retirement
and social security. Tyler, thank you so much for joining
us here today, and I'm going to ask you what
are the most pressing financial threats to social security's long
term solvency under current federal law and how soon should
(01:03):
we realistically expect intervention such as tax increases or benefit adjustments.
Speaker 2 (01:08):
Well, thank you for having me, Lorraine. So the Social
Security Trustees report that was released just a few weeks
ago showed that, as in last year's Trustees report, the
Old Age and Survivor's Insurance Trust Fund, which provides retirement benefits,
is projected to be depleted in twenty thirty three. So
(01:32):
in about eight years from now and in twenty thirty three,
if the trust fund is depleted, ongoing revenues in the
program would be sufficient to cover seventy seven percent of
total scheduled benefits, So there would be nearly a quarter
(01:54):
of benefit cut for all current and future Social Seas
Security beneficiaries if we get to the point where the
trust fund is exhausted.
Speaker 1 (02:05):
How might the changing workforce patterns like the rising gigwork,
part time employment, or delayed retirement affect Social Securities revenue
streams and benefit payoffs over the next decade?
Speaker 2 (02:17):
So I would say largely changes like an increasing gigwork
have at most negligible impact on Social securities finances. There
really are longer, much broader trends at work here. Certainly,
one factor is the decline in what actuaries call the
(02:40):
total fertility rate. Basically, people are having fewer kids these days,
and that trend is projected to continue. But also importantly
for social securities finances, Social Security benefits are subject to
what people often refer to as the tax max. There's
a ceiling on the amount of someone's earnings that are
(03:03):
subject to Social Security taxes, and any earnings they have
that's above what again is often called the tax max,
is not subject to Social Security taxes. They don't earn
benefits on the earnings that are above the tax max,
but they also don't pay contributions based on that. The
(03:23):
last time Social Security was reformed in nineteen eighty three,
the contribution rates covered about ninety percent of earnings in
the US, but because there's been such high levels of
income growth at the top of the income range, it's
now only about eighty two or eighty three percent of
(03:45):
earnings that are subject to the contribution rate for Social Security,
and in fact, in the Trustees' report, one of the
sources they cited for the decline in the the ability
of the trust Fund to continue to pay benefits is
that they've lowered the assumed long term share of GDP
(04:08):
that workers would get from their earnings from their.
Speaker 1 (04:12):
Pay Well, moving on to something a little bit differently,
we know that we're not really a nation of savers,
and a lot of folks say their saving for retirement
but don't save nearly enough. Given the persistent retirement savings shortfall,
what role could automatic enrollment in employers sponsored four oh
one CA style plans or even a national AUTOIRA play
(04:33):
and what are the key policy barriers to implementing such measures.
Speaker 2 (04:37):
Having access to a retirement plan makes a huge difference
in someone's ability to save. We've seen in recent data
that people who have access to a plan are saving
at higher levels than ever before. A lot of that
is because of features like automatic enrollment into the plan,
(04:57):
but also automatic escalation of their contribution rates. A lot
of people just start saving at a higher level now
than when they did in the past. But that's all
for people who have access to a plan. It's still
the case today that about half of working Americans don't
have access to a retirement plan through their employer. We
(05:20):
have seen some states, including Oregon, California, Maryland, Virginia, that
have implemented state programs to establish automatic IRA savings for
workers whose employer doesn't offer a retirement plan. I think,
you know, we may see additional states implement those programs
(05:43):
in the coming years, and that will certainly help to
close that access gap. You know, a national four to
one K program certainly is discussed here in Washington, d C.
And there are multiple pieces of legislation that would establish
such a program. But in today's political environment, it's so
challenging to establish any large national programs like that. I
(06:08):
don't expect that to pass in the near future.
Speaker 1 (06:12):
If retirement is becoming more financially precarious, what should federal
policy makers prioritize, including strengthening Social Security, expanding supplemental income
supports like retirement tax credits, are incentivizing private savings. What
combination of policies would best serve retiring well being in
the near term.
Speaker 2 (06:31):
I mean, I think generally and all of the above
approach would probably be the most effective. Certainly at a
foundational level, addressing the financing gap facing social security is
critically important, and it's important to recognize that the American
people are not divided about what they want happen with
(06:55):
social security. My organization Nerves was part of project with
a few other groups earlier this year. Where we did
public opinion research and we asked the American people what
they would do in order to improve social securities financing gap,
and they were very clear that they want more revenues
(07:17):
into the program. They don't want higher benefits. There are
a few targeted benefit improvements, such as offering a credit
to people who take time out of the workforce to
raise young children. There's some targeted improvements like that they support,
but generally they want to keep benefits at the level
they are now, but they want the increased revenues to
(07:41):
prevent indiscriminate across the board benefit cuts, which is what
we're facing in the twenty thirties if Congress fails to
act before then.
Speaker 1 (07:52):
Tyler, So, the bottom line, what would your organization, the
National Institute on Retirement Security, recommend to preserve and ensure
that social security remains at the level that will sustain
itself and in addition to that, encourage people to save
more for retirement.
Speaker 2 (08:10):
Well, NERDS doesn't advocate, We don't take positions on pieces
of legislation. We certainly from the data that we've looked at,
we've seen clearly over and over again how important social
security income is to older Americans in retirement, and we
would certainly support improving the financing of the program to
(08:33):
maintain that essential retirement income. Beyond that, we've looked at
issues that would enable private sector employers to strengthen or
start offering defined benefit plans, which have largely a lot
of employers have moved away from in the private sector. Certainly,
(08:53):
any efforts that would expand access to retirement savings plans
among private sector employers are going to help to improve
that broad level of retirement savings.
Speaker 1 (09:06):
If anyone out there is interested in finding more and
actually being well informed about all the things that your
organization is paying attention to, what resources do you provide
on your website and what is your website? So?
Speaker 2 (09:20):
Our website is nervesonline dot org inirsonline dot org. All
of our research is publicly available on our website. We
usually produce seven or eight research reports a year. We
also often produce fact sheets with state specific data to
accompany some of our reports. We also regularly host monthly
(09:45):
webinars on different topics related to retirement security, and all
of those webinars, again are available on our website.
Speaker 1 (09:55):
And I guess my final question is what can the
average citizen do. Certainly everyone is concer learned about the
possibility of the Social Security Fund running out or reducing
its benefits. What's the average person to do about that?
Speaker 2 (10:09):
I think first thing to do is to contact their
members of Congress, let them know that they want Congress
to take action now on Social Security or pulling that
we've done it. Ners finds that ninety percent of Americans,
and this is true of Republicans, Democrats, and independents, all
(10:31):
want Congress and the administration to act sooner rather than
later to resolve the financing gap facing Social Security.
Speaker 1 (10:40):
Yeah, call your congress person important, let them know how
you feel for sure. And if you want to find
out more about what's happening regarding retirement, you want to
want to check the National Institute on Retirement Security. Ners.
Tyler Bond is the research director at the National Institute
on Retirement Security. Thank you so much for shedding lte
on this very critical issue. Appreciate you.
Speaker 2 (11:03):
Thank you for inviting me, Lorraine.
Speaker 1 (11:04):
We'll have more insight after these messages.
Good morning, and welcome to Insight, a show about empowering
our community. I'm Lorraine Balladmorrow, we'll be telling you about
a great campaign sponsored by our sister station Power ninety
nine E powered by Chase on our hometown heroes. Once
a month with one thousand dollars, we'll celebrate Greater Philadelphia
Health Action, providing quality healthcare for fifty five years, and
will tell you about a couple of friends who greed
(00:21):
at a foundation to help under resourced communities. But first
we raise the red flag on the future of social security.
When you finally are at the age to retire, will
there be social security? What will retirement look like? Well,
we're being joined today by Tyler Bond, research director at
the National Institute on Retirement Security, a nonprofit research and
(00:42):
education organization dedicated to securing a financially stable retirement for
all Americans. So we're going to be talking about retirement
and social security. Tyler, thank you so much for joining
us here today, and I'm going to ask you what
are the most pressing financial threats to social security's long
term solvency under current federal law and how soon should
(01:03):
we realistically expect intervention such as tax increases or benefit adjustments.
Speaker 2 (01:08):
Well, thank you for having me, Lorraine. So the Social
Security Trustees report that was released just a few weeks
ago showed that, as in last year's Trustees report, the
Old Age and Survivor's Insurance Trust Fund, which provides retirement benefits,
is projected to be depleted in twenty thirty three. So
(01:32):
in about eight years from now and in twenty thirty three,
if the trust fund is depleted, ongoing revenues in the
program would be sufficient to cover seventy seven percent of
total scheduled benefits, So there would be nearly a quarter
(01:54):
of benefit cut for all current and future Social Seas
Security beneficiaries if we get to the point where the
trust fund is exhausted.
Speaker 1 (02:05):
How might the changing workforce patterns like the rising gigwork,
part time employment, or delayed retirement affect Social Securities revenue
streams and benefit payoffs over the next decade?
Speaker 2 (02:17):
So I would say largely changes like an increasing gigwork
have at most negligible impact on Social securities finances. There
really are longer, much broader trends at work here. Certainly,
one factor is the decline in what actuaries call the
(02:40):
total fertility rate. Basically, people are having fewer kids these days,
and that trend is projected to continue. But also importantly
for social securities finances, Social Security benefits are subject to
what people often refer to as the tax max. There's
a ceiling on the amount of someone's earnings that are
(03:03):
subject to Social Security taxes, and any earnings they have
that's above what again is often called the tax max,
is not subject to Social Security taxes. They don't earn
benefits on the earnings that are above the tax max,
but they also don't pay contributions based on that. The
(03:23):
last time Social Security was reformed in nineteen eighty three,
the contribution rates covered about ninety percent of earnings in
the US, but because there's been such high levels of
income growth at the top of the income range, it's
now only about eighty two or eighty three percent of
(03:45):
earnings that are subject to the contribution rate for Social Security,
and in fact, in the Trustees' report, one of the
sources they cited for the decline in the the ability
of the trust Fund to continue to pay benefits is
that they've lowered the assumed long term share of GDP
(04:08):
that workers would get from their earnings from their.
Speaker 1 (04:12):
Pay Well, moving on to something a little bit differently,
we know that we're not really a nation of savers,
and a lot of folks say their saving for retirement
but don't save nearly enough. Given the persistent retirement savings shortfall,
what role could automatic enrollment in employers sponsored four oh
one CA style plans or even a national AUTOIRA play
(04:33):
and what are the key policy barriers to implementing such measures.
Speaker 2 (04:37):
Having access to a retirement plan makes a huge difference
in someone's ability to save. We've seen in recent data
that people who have access to a plan are saving
at higher levels than ever before. A lot of that
is because of features like automatic enrollment into the plan,
(04:57):
but also automatic escalation of their contribution rates. A lot
of people just start saving at a higher level now
than when they did in the past. But that's all
for people who have access to a plan. It's still
the case today that about half of working Americans don't
have access to a retirement plan through their employer. We
(05:20):
have seen some states, including Oregon, California, Maryland, Virginia, that
have implemented state programs to establish automatic IRA savings for
workers whose employer doesn't offer a retirement plan. I think,
you know, we may see additional states implement those programs
(05:43):
in the coming years, and that will certainly help to
close that access gap. You know, a national four to
one K program certainly is discussed here in Washington, d C.
And there are multiple pieces of legislation that would establish
such a program. But in today's political environment, it's so
challenging to establish any large national programs like that. I
(06:08):
don't expect that to pass in the near future.
Speaker 1 (06:12):
If retirement is becoming more financially precarious, what should federal
policy makers prioritize, including strengthening Social Security, expanding supplemental income
supports like retirement tax credits, are incentivizing private savings. What
combination of policies would best serve retiring well being in
the near term.
Speaker 2 (06:31):
I mean, I think generally and all of the above
approach would probably be the most effective. Certainly at a
foundational level, addressing the financing gap facing social security is
critically important, and it's important to recognize that the American
people are not divided about what they want happen with
(06:55):
social security. My organization Nerves was part of project with
a few other groups earlier this year. Where we did
public opinion research and we asked the American people what
they would do in order to improve social securities financing gap,
and they were very clear that they want more revenues
(07:17):
into the program. They don't want higher benefits. There are
a few targeted benefit improvements, such as offering a credit
to people who take time out of the workforce to
raise young children. There's some targeted improvements like that they support,
but generally they want to keep benefits at the level
they are now, but they want the increased revenues to
(07:41):
prevent indiscriminate across the board benefit cuts, which is what
we're facing in the twenty thirties if Congress fails to
act before then.
Speaker 1 (07:52):
Tyler, So, the bottom line, what would your organization, the
National Institute on Retirement Security, recommend to preserve and ensure
that social security remains at the level that will sustain
itself and in addition to that, encourage people to save
more for retirement.
Speaker 2 (08:10):
Well, NERDS doesn't advocate, We don't take positions on pieces
of legislation. We certainly from the data that we've looked at,
we've seen clearly over and over again how important social
security income is to older Americans in retirement, and we
would certainly support improving the financing of the program to
(08:33):
maintain that essential retirement income. Beyond that, we've looked at
issues that would enable private sector employers to strengthen or
start offering defined benefit plans, which have largely a lot
of employers have moved away from in the private sector. Certainly,
(08:53):
any efforts that would expand access to retirement savings plans
among private sector employers are going to help to improve
that broad level of retirement savings.
Speaker 1 (09:06):
If anyone out there is interested in finding more and
actually being well informed about all the things that your
organization is paying attention to, what resources do you provide
on your website and what is your website? So?
Speaker 2 (09:20):
Our website is nervesonline dot org inirsonline dot org. All
of our research is publicly available on our website. We
usually produce seven or eight research reports a year. We
also often produce fact sheets with state specific data to
accompany some of our reports. We also regularly host monthly
(09:45):
webinars on different topics related to retirement security, and all
of those webinars, again are available on our website.
Speaker 1 (09:55):
And I guess my final question is what can the
average citizen do. Certainly everyone is concer learned about the
possibility of the Social Security Fund running out or reducing
its benefits. What's the average person to do about that?
Speaker 2 (10:09):
I think first thing to do is to contact their
members of Congress, let them know that they want Congress
to take action now on Social Security or pulling that
we've done it. Ners finds that ninety percent of Americans,
and this is true of Republicans, Democrats, and independents, all
(10:31):
want Congress and the administration to act sooner rather than
later to resolve the financing gap facing Social Security.
Speaker 1 (10:40):
Yeah, call your congress person important, let them know how
you feel for sure. And if you want to find
out more about what's happening regarding retirement, you want to
want to check the National Institute on Retirement Security. Ners.
Tyler Bond is the research director at the National Institute
on Retirement Security. Thank you so much for shedding lte
on this very critical issue. Appreciate you.
Speaker 2 (11:03):
Thank you for inviting me, Lorraine.
Speaker 1 (11:04):
We'll have more insight after these messages.
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