The state of Connecticut is one step closer to passing its Retirement for All CT bill or Senate Bill 249, which would create a public retirement option that would provide employers and workers with a low-risk alternative to plans offered by the insurance industry. A labor committee public hearing is set for March 11 in Hartford.
The plan would not require the employer to become a fiduciary or take on any liability, but it would allow those not covered by retirement plans to put a percentage of their pay into a trust fund administered by the state. The accounts would be portable, allowing workers to continue to save for retirement when they change employers.
About 740,000 Connecticut residents do not participate in employer-sponsored retirement plans, according to the Schwartz Center for Economic Policy Analysis study released last year. According to the National Institute on Retirement Security, only 52 percent of working-age employees nationwide had access to a retirement plan on the job, the lowest share since 1979, and a full 48 percent or 44.5 million Americans lack access.
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The lack of retirement security among people of color is particularly bad. Forty-six percent of black workers and 62 percent of Latino workers lack access to a workplace retirement plan, compared with 38 percent of whites. A large majority of black and Latino working age households, 62 percent and 69 percent respectively, do not own assets in a retirement account. Retirement accounts are also sharply concentrated in the top half of the income distribution, NIRS found.
By creating a public retirement plan, Connecticut would attempt to fix the state's retirement crisis and become a national model in providing workers a secure retirement.
Supporters of the Retirement for All CT bill include the Connecticut Alliance for Retired Americans, Council 4 AFSCME, the Connecticut AFL-CIO, Connecticut Working Families, SEIU Connecticut, the Permanent Commission on the Status of Women, Connecticut Association for Human Services (CAHS), the Spanish American Merchants Association (SAMA), CT National Organization for Women (NOW), the United Auto Workers (UAW) and the CSEA.
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