How badly is COVID-19 hurting Americans on the cusp of retirement? Maybe worse than we thought.
In an interview, economist Teresa Ghilarducci, a professor at The New School in New York City and one of the nation’s leading experts on retirement, said that half—that’s right, half—of Americans aged 55 and up will retire in poverty or near poverty.
“Our data is showing that, because of the COVID recession, about 50% of workers over the age of 55 will be poor or near-poor adults when they reach 65,” she said.
How poor is that? “A person who’s 65 will be near-poor or poor if they’re living on less than $20,000 a year,” she said. “I think we could all agree that means chronic deprivation for the rest of your life.”
But if a new wave of COVID-19 prompts a new wave of layoffs, more people may draw down those savings, meeting their present needs at the expense, perhaps, of their future retirement security. Most vulnerable now: people in their late 50s suffering permanent job losses but too young to collect Social Security or Medicare. Millions of people could fall between the cracks.