Money incomes of aged and nonaged family units, 1967-84

This article provides a detailed examination of changes in the income of the aged and of other age groups from 1967 to 1984. Levels of income, income inequality, the relative importance of selected types of income, and the poverty rates of various age groups are also analyzed. The data are from the Bureau of the Census Current Population Survey and annual money income before taxes is the measure of income. The relative income gains of the aged, compared with the nonaged, in 1967-84 reversed an earlier pattern in the post-World-War-II period: From 1947 to 1967, the incomes of the nonaged rose at a faster pace than those of the aged. Differences in their income growth were greater in 1979-84 than in 1967-79. Despite the substantial difference in the rates of income growth for the aged and nonaged units in 1967-84, the relationship between age and median income was altered only slightly. In 1984, aged family units continued to have relatively low median income, especially compared with the incomes of those in middle age.     

Changes in the incomes of age groups, 1984-89.

In terms of changes in the incomes of age groups, the 1984-89 period was very different from the periods that immediately preceded it. This summary focuses on changes for aged family units. During the 1984-89 period, the rate of growth of real median income of aged units was substantially lower than in other subperiods since 1967, the first year for which comparable detailed estimates are available. During the 1984-89 period, the ratio of aged to nonaged median incomes fell for 4 consecutive years, after generally rising since about 1970. The relative medians of almost all detailed aged age groups fell at least slightly from 1984 to 1989, after a period of substantial rises. The increases in income for aged units during 1984-89 were higher for high-income units than for low-income units, producing an increase in inequality. The percentage of aged persons who were poor fell slightly from 1984 to 1989, but that percentage remained above the rates for other adult age groups. A relatively high percentage of aged persons had income that was less than 50 percent above the poverty threshold. The increase in the real mean total income of aged units from 1984 to 1989 was the net result of substantial increases in earnings and pension income and a substantial decrease in property income. In contrast, the much larger increase in real mean total income for aged units from 1979 to 1984 was characterized by a large increase in property income, substantial increases in Social Security benefits and pension income, and a small decrease in earnings.     

The economic status of the aged.

This article discusses what is known about the economic status of the aged. Numerous complexities involved in the assessment of their status are discussed. Compared with most other recent assessments, this study finds a less favorable status for the aged relative to other age groups. The focus is on an examination of detailed age groups, rather than summary aged and nonaged groups--thus providing a more complete picture of age differences. More than most other assessments, this study stresses uncertainty about the relative status of the aged and emphasizes what we do not know. It stresses that better adjustments for differences in needs among age groups and other subgroups of the population are necessary. It emphasizes that consistency between the definition of resources and the specification of needs is essential. Also discussed is the vulnerability of the aged to economic risks. Major findings include: Median cash income is highest for middle-aged family units and lowest for the oldest and youngest units. The poverty rate for aged persons is above the rates for other adult age groups, but below the rate for children. When noncash income is considered in addition to cash income, the income of the aged tends to improve relative to that of the nonaged, but serious measurement problems exist. When wealth is considered in addition to cash income, the economic status of the aged improves relative to that of the nonaged.     

Economic security, 1935-85

The economic well-being of both working and retired persons has improved significantly since the Social Security Act was passed in 1935. More people are employed now than at any time since then, despite declining employment among the aged and more years of school attendance among the young. The ratio of non-workers to workers--a broad measure of dependency--is lower now than at any time since the 1930's. Social security has grown and matured to become a strong foundation of retirement income, and other work-related employee benefits have grown in tandem with social security. Employer contributions for social insurance and related employee benefits have grown from being about a 1-percent supplement to aggregate wages and salaries in 1929 to nearly 20 percent today. Social security and Medicare account for just over a fourth of employer contributions, while other public and private retirement systems represent just over another fourth. The balance of benefits for active workers includes group health and life insurance, unemployment insurance, workers' compensation, temporary disability insurance, and related benefits. Pay for holidays, vacations, and sick leave is estimated to have increased from less than 1 percent of aggregate pay in 1929 to about 10 percent today. The improved economic status of the aged has been documented by a series of surveys beginning in 1941-42 and carried out from time to time until 1972 and biennially since 1976. The earlier surveys were supplemented with estimates from record data and tables from the Bureau of the Census. The income of the aged as a whole has grown by about 75 percent over the past 2 decades after taking inflation into account. The income of the aged as a whole grew faster than that of the nonaged in the 1970's and early 1980's when real social security benefits increased faster than inflation and wages lagged behind it. New beneficiaries in 1982 were in better health and were more likely to retire because they wanted to than was true of their counterparts in the early 1940's. Not only have benefits continued to be the main component of income of the aged as total incomes have grown, but also benefits have become much larger in relation to average earnings than used to be the case. Retired workers are much more likely now than in the early 1940's to have other pensions or income from assets to supplement benefits.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)     

Application of experimental poverty measures to the aged

The U.S. Census Bureau recently released new, experimental measures of poverty based on a National Academy of Sciences (NAS) panel's recommendations. This article examines the effects of the experimental measures on poverty rates among persons aged 65 or older in order to help inform policy debate. Policymakers and analysts use poverty rates to measure the successes and failures of existing programs and to create and defend new policy initiatives. The Census Bureau computes the official rates of poverty using poverty thresholds and definitions of countable income that have changed little since the official poverty measure was adopted in 1965. Amid growing concerns about the adequacy of the official poverty measure, a NAS panel undertook a study of the concepts, methodology, and data needed to measure poverty. The panel concluded in its 1995 report that the current measure no longer provides an accurate picture of relative rates of poverty for different groups in the population or of changes in poverty over time. The panel recommended changes in establishing the poverty thresholds, defining family resources, and obtaining the required data. The Census Bureau report shows how estimated levels of poverty would differ from the official level as specific recommendations of the NAS panel are implemented individually and how estimated trends would differ when many recommendations are implemented simultaneously. It computes nonstandardized and standardized poverty rates. (The latter constrains the overall poverty rate under the experimental measures to match the official rate.) This article reports poverty rates that have not been standardized and provides considerably more detail than the Census report about the effects of the experimental measures on poverty among the aged. It examines the effects of changing the poverty thresholds and the items included or excluded from the definition of available resources. It also explores the effects of the experimental measures on persons aged 65 or older by age group, gender, race and ethnicity, and marital status. Results indicate that: Poverty rates in 1997 for persons aged 65 or older under the experimental NAS poverty measure are 17.3 percent, compared with 10.5 percent under the official poverty measure. This 65-percent increase is largely driven by the NAS-based measure's subtraction of medical out-of-pocket (MOOP) expenses from resources. Under the NAS-based measures, poverty rates increase for all major groups of older persons, and increase the most for groups for whom the incidence of official poverty is the lowest. The experimental NAS poverty measure shows narrower differences between genders, racial and ethnic groups, and among persons of different marital statuses than the official poverty measure. For example, white Hispanic women aged 65 or older have poverty rates that are 450 percent higher than those for white non-Hispanic men under the official poverty measure and 181 percent higher under the NAS measure. The NAS-based measure's subtraction of MOOP expenses from resources has a disproportionate effect on poverty rates among non-Hispanic whites and men as compared with other groups. However, changes in relative poverty between groups appear to be most influenced by the NAS midpoint equivalence scale. Because this scale decreases poverty rates for persons who live alone or with unrelated individuals and increases them for persons who live with others, poverty rates differ meaningfully under the NAS and official measures among demographic groups. This article highlights issues concerning the elements of the experimental NAS poverty measure that are particularly important to the measurement of poverty among the aged population. Results suggest that the research community's future efforts to refine, enhance, and build upon the NAS panel's recommendations will yield important insights about poverty among the older population.     

Income of new disabled-worker beneficiaries and their families: findings from the New Beneficiary Survey

In 1982, disabled workers who came on the social security disability insurance rolls from mid-1980 to mid-1981 had median monthly incomes of less than $500 if they were unmarried and less than $1,300 if they were married. These median monthly income levels, which include the income of a spouse and minor children if present, are roughly half those of the noninstitutionalized population aged 25-64. Social security benefits are the most important source of income for disabled workers and their families: They account for 40 percent of the total family income of married disabled workers and 65 percent of the total income of unmarried disabled workers. Social security benefits provide at least half of all income for more than 80 percent of unmarried disabled-worker beneficiaries and for 50 percent of the married beneficiaries. For married disabled-worker beneficiaries, earnings of the spouse are the second most important income source. Spousal earnings account for 28 percent of total income. Pensions and asset income each account for about 10 percent of total income for these married beneficiaries. Earnings are not an important source of income for unmarried disabled-worker beneficiaries for whom they amount to only about 3 percent of total income. Pensions, asset income, and public transfers each account for about 10 percent of total income of the unmarried beneficiaries.     

Institutions and the convergence hypothesis: The cross-national evidence

DeLong and others have shown that cross-country convergence in per capita incomes is limited to samples of currently-industrialized nations, or universal-literacy nations. In particular, income dispersion has failed to decline in groups of ex ante rich nations. This study finds strong convergence in per capita incomes among nations with institutions (namely secure property rights) conducive to saving, investing, and producing. Incomes are shown to converge even within ex ante rich samples when measures of institutional quality are held constant.     

Interstate migration,income and public school expenditures: An update of an experiment

This article re-examines the relative importance of per capita income and net out-migration (Weisbrod's welfare-maximization hypothesis) as determinants of expenditures for public primary and secondary education. A repetition of Weisbrod's experiment shows that the existence of a high correlation between per capita income and migration in the 1950s would have made it difficult to distinguish between their relative importance. An update of the experiment yields results contrary to the hypothesis that communities (states) are welfare maximizers. They support the contention that per capita income is a primary determinate of educational expenditures.     

The increasing labor force participation of older workers and its effect on the income of the aged

The labor force participation rates of men and women aged 62-79 have notably increased since the mid-1990s. The result is a dramatic increase in the share of total money income attributable to earnings. For persons aged 65-69, the earnings share of total income increased from 28 percent in 1980 to 42 percent in 2009. For this age group in the late 1980s and early 1990s, Social Security benefits and earnings were roughly equal shares of total money income (about 30 percent); the earnings share is now more than 12 percentage points larger. When we focus on aged persons who receive Social Security benefits, earnings shares have increased markedly throughout the 62-79 age range since the early 1990s. We show that for aged persons with labor market earnings, those earnings have a large effect on their relative position in the distribution of annual money income of older Americans.     

An investigative research on the status of urban residents' psychological security

The objective of this study was to investigate the status of the psychological security of 224 urban residents by using a self‐made questionnaire. The results show that the overall psychological security of urban residents is in the medium–low level. There are significant differences among residents with education background or with household per capita monthly income (F = 4.192, F = 4.545, p < 0.05). People with high psychological security scores are highly educated or come from families with high per capita monthly income. In regards to the factors of common sense of security, the results show significant differences (F = 4.98, p < 0.01) among people with different educational background and people with bachelor's degrees or above scores higher than less‐educated people (from high school or community college). In regards to the factors of certainty feeling, there are significant variations among people with genders and economic background (F = 11.28, F = 7.75, p < 0.01), males higher than females, while people with per capita monthly income of more than 2000 RMB feel more certainty than those with less than 2000 RMB. On the sense of calmness, factors such as education and family per capita income significantly affected scores (F = 4.67, p < 0.05, F = 5.20, p < 0.01). People with high school degree feel less calm than those with college degree or above; individuals with per capita monthly income of 2000 RMB feel less calm than those with income higher than 2000 RMB of above. For another dimension, the sense of relaxation, there is a significant difference among different age groups (F = 8.92, p < 0.001, groups below 40 scoring higher than groups over 40). Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The economics of having children

When populations grow rapidly, per capita incomes rise less rapidly, because investment and technology cannot keep pace. Reduced fertility would reduce the ratio of dependent children to work age adults, increasing possible savings. Maximizing future incomes per capita means having completed families smaller than parents usually desire. In the United States if parents typically had 2.1 surviving children altogether, the net reproduction rate would fall to unity and a zero population growth might be achieved in a.d. 2060 at 345 millions. The political-social-economic problem is that each couple wants more children for itself than all couples collectively want other couples to have. The State may need to encourage fewer births per family through taxes and subsidies.     

SSI at its 25th year.

Beginning in January 1974, the three previously existing State adult assistance programs were amalgamated into the Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program, to be administered by the Social Security Administration. This change was made to provide a nationwide floor of income for needs-based assistance, and to make such payments more efficiently by working through SSA's existing network of field offices. This article traces the 25-year patterns of growth and changes in the number of persons applying for assistance, the number and proportion of those applicants who were awarded payments, and the overall number of persons who received SSI. Three major age groups are considered separately: those aged 65 or older, disabled adults aged 18-64, and children age 18 and younger. The last group was newly eligible under SSI for payments based on their own blindness or disability and not, as was the case previously, because they were a member of a needy family.     

England's New Scheme for Funding Higher Education through Student Fees: ‘Fair and Progressive’?

From September 2012 most home undergraduates at English universities are being charged fees of £9,000 per annum. These are funded by a government loan, which attracts interest from the moment they start their course; after three years their accumulated debt exceeds £30,000. They can also borrow to cover their living costs, on the same terms, so that those studying in London can graduate with a debt of more than £50,000—although those from low‐income families can obtain grants and universities are encouraged to provide bursaries and other support to students from underrepresented groups. Graduates start repaying their debts once their annual income exceeds £21,000—at a rate of 9% of the difference between their income and that figure: until the debt is fully repaid it continues to attract interest, by as much as three percentage points above the current inflation rate. Using data from a calculator on a government website, this paper shows that the highest‐paid graduates pay back less than those on middle incomes: the ‘squeezed middle’ pays back more not only than those on low incomes but also the better‐paid and those whose incomes increase more rapidly. This has differential effects according to occupation—and sex; and middle‐income groups also contribute more to the costs of widening participation programmes, which all universities charging more than £6,000 per annum are required to fund.     

Income of new retired workers by age at first benefit receipt: findings from the New Beneficiary Survey

Using data from the New Beneficiary Survey (NBS) of the Social Security Administration (SSA), this article examines how income sources and total monthly income received by newly retired social security beneficiaries vary with the age at which the first benefit check was received. The NBS respondents who received a first benefit at age 65 or older were better off economically than were those who received a first benefit at ages 62-64. At the time of the interview, 18-30 months after receiving a first benefit, these older beneficiaries had higher levels of total income and were more likely to have income from earnings and assets. Pension receipt rates did not vary by the age at which the first social security benefit was received except for married women retired workers, for whom the rate was higher at the older ages. The largest proportion of aggregate income (slightly more than one-third) was derived from social security benefits. More than 90 percent of the NBS Medicare-only respondents--a sample of nonbeneficiaries who were eligible for monthly cash benefits but had established their entitlement only for the purpose of enrolling in the Medicare program--reported earnings income. They had lower rates of pension receipt and higher rates of asset income receipt than the retired workers. The Medicare-only respondents had substantially higher incomes than did retired workers, and most of their aggregate income was from earnings. The NBS retirees were generally in better financial condition than a group of social security beneficiaries aged 65 or older from all benefit categories in the Current Population Survey Income Supplement with whom they were compared.     

Income and assets of Social Security beneficiaries by type of benefit

The SIPP data have provided a first look at the relative economic status of various types of Social Security beneficiaries. They have shown that the different types of Social Security beneficiaries face very different economic circumstances. Retired workers and wife beneficiaries have the highest family incomes adjusted for family size. Aged widows and minor children have the lowest family incomes, with high proportions of poor or near poor. And disabled workers are in between, but also have high proportions of poor or near poor. Retired-worker and wife beneficiary households also have considerably more asset holdings than disabled-worker or widow beneficiary households. Beneficiaries with high family incomes are very likely to live with relatives and to rely heavily on the relatives' income. The high-income families tend to have non-means-tested sources of family income other than Social Security amounting to substantial proportions of their total income and to have high asset holdings. Conversely, beneficiaries with low family incomes are very likely to live alone or with nonrelatives, to rely heavily on Social Security and means-tested benefits, and to have low asset holdings. A majority of ever-poor beneficiaries (with the exception of widow beneficiaries) are poor in only some months of a year. This situation is not consistent with the stereotype of beneficiaries living on fixed incomes. But the change in poverty status is often due to a change in the income of other family members rather than of the beneficiary. And in some cases, a change in poverty status occurs with little or no change in income as the cost of living rises.     

Income of the population aged 55 and older, 1976.

This article inaugurates a biennial series of reports on the income of persons aged 55 and older. The survey on which it is based updates information on the broad economic picture for a cross-section of this population and forms the basis for an analysis of trends in the financial status of the group as a whole. In 1976, persons aged 55--61 were generally working full-time, not receiving income from pensions, and married. Those aged 73 and older were predominantly not working, mostly recipients of retirement pensions, and likely to be widows. Most persons aged 65 and older were receiving social security benefits; those with neither earnings nor a second pension constituted the largest subgroup and had the lowest median income. Married couples, as a group, were substantially better off financially than nonmarried persons because they were younger, two-person rather than one-person units, and had one member who was a man. Blacks were less likely than whites to receive pension income other than social security benefits, and their median benefits and earnings were both lower.     

This is not your parents' retirement: comparing retirement income across generations

This article examines how retirement income at age 67 is likely to change for baby boomers and persons born in generation X (GenX) compared with current retirees. We use the Social Security Administration's Modeling Income in the Near Term (MINT) model to project retirement income and assets, poverty rates, and replacement rates for current and future retirees at age 67. We find that, in absolute terms, retirement incomes offuture cohorts will increase over time, and poverty rates will fall. However, projected income gains are larger for higher than for lower socioeconomic groups, leading to increased income inequality among future retirees. Finally, because postretirement incomes are not expected to rise as much as preretirement incomes, baby boomers and GenXers are less likely to have enough postretirement income to maintain their preretirement standard of living compared with current retirees.     

LABOR FORCE PARTICIPATION AND POVERTY STATUS AMONG RURAL AND URBAN WOMEN WHO HEAD FAMILIES

This paper examines differentials in the propensity to be living in poverty among women who head families with minor children. Characteristics of mothers are examined for four subgroups: residents of central cities, suburbs, small towns, and rural areas. Using Public Use Microdata Sample data from the 1980 Census, results are presented using Multiple Classification Analysis. After controlling for the effects of mother's race, marital status, education, work status, and ages of her children, single mothers in central cities and smaIl towns have the highest rates of poverty (48% and 45% respectively), closely followed by those in rural areas (41%). Suburban single mothers are least likely to live in poverty (33%).
Results show that employment status is the strongest predictor of poverty, followed by education and marital status. A subanalysis of women who work full-time reveals major differences in earned income, with suburban women earning the highest incomes, followed by women living in central cities, then rural areas and, finally, small towns. A decomposition of this difference reveals that about two-thirds of the difference is due to pay scales, and only one-third due to the structure of occupational opportunity.     

Disabled-worker beneficiaries under OASDI: comparison with severely disabled PA recipients.

The 1972 Survey of Disabled and Nondisabled Adults found that more than 1 million severely disabled persons aged 20-64 were receiving payments under Federal-State public assistance programs. To determine the reasons why most of these individuals did not qualify for disabled-worker benefits under the social security program, their characteristics were compared with those of the approximately 1.5 million disabled-worker beneficiaries. The public assistance recipients were found to be younger and less well educated than their disabled-worker beneficiary counterparts. A greater proportion of them were women and more were members of minority races. Public assistance recipients became disabled at an earlier age and had been disabled longer. Compared with disabled-worker beneficiaries, they had held less skilled jobs, had earned less money, and had had a weaker attachment to the labor force. These characteristics greatly reduced their chances of qualifying for disabled-worker benefits. Lack of knowledge about the program was also an important contributing factor.     

Postwar changes in the income position of the aged

Since the war the relative number of aged persons with income from employment has declined, while the proportion with income from social insurance benefits has increased. Despite the fact that social insurance benefits yield a lower average income than do earnings, the averaged aged person's income in 1952 was higher in both current dollars and dollars of stable purchasing power than it was in 1945. The improvement is the result of several factors, including larger earnings by aged workers, increased benefits paid retired workers and their aged survivors under social insurance and related programs higher old-age assistance payments and the rise in the relative number of persons with money income. The growth in the average aged person's income, however, has been at a rate lower than that of the average income of the population as a whole. As a result the average person has had a smaller share in total consumer income in each of the years since 1945 that he had in that year.