Bailey Childers is executive director of the National Public Pension Coalition. In this Quick 5 interview, she talks about the retirement crisis in the U.S.
1. Bailey, the National Public Pension Coalition recently released a report titled Why Pensions Matter. What did the report examine and what were some of the findings?
The report looks at the long history of public pensions in the United States from their origins in the late 19th century up through the present day. Public pensions have provided a reliable source of retirement security for teachers, firefighters, and other public employees for more than a century. Unfortunately, the shift to 401(k) retirement plans in the private sector over the past 30 years has been detrimental to most working families. It is becoming increasingly clear that 401(k)s have failed to meet the retirement income needs of most working people. This, coupled with nearly half of working Americans receiving no retirement plan through work has left us with a retirement security crisis in America.
