CA Event: Expanding Savings and Retirement Security

Every day, six million Californians, or roughly 43 percent of workers in the state, go to work for an employer that does not provide any type of retirement pension or savings plan. This lack of retirement savings opportunities puts California working families at risk. On Wednesday, May 21, Mark Iwry of the Brookings Institution presented on the current retirement savings crisis in America -- its causes and the continuing effect it will have on the financial security of working families as well as the state and national economy. Mr. Iwry also discussed state and national policy options to significantly encourage retirement savings and the accumulation of assets by lower- and middle-income workers.

Mark Iwry is former benefits tax counsel for the Treasury Department. He is an expert on employee benefits, pensions, retirement, savings, and health care, and frequently advises and testifies before Congress on these issues. At Treasury, where he oversaw national policy on tax-qualified pension and 401(k) plans, as well as other employee benefits, Mr. Iwry played a key role in developing many important reforms to the nation's pension system. Mr. Iwry is one of the originators of the concept of state portable retirement savings account for private sector workers.

This event was co-hosted by the New America Foundation, the Assets Policy Initiative of California and the California Research Bureau, in association with Assemblymembers Kevin De Leon (D-Los Angeles) and Joel Anderson (R-La Mesa).

Participants

• Mark Iwry
  Senior Nonresident Fellow, Brookings Institution
  Research Professor, Georgetown University
  Principal, The Retirement Security Project

• Olivia Calderon
  California Legislative Director, Asset Building Program,
  New America Foundation

Related Links

• Mark Iwry's Powerpoint Presentation (PDF, 24 pp.)