August 2021
03Aug

It’s time to give essential workers the protections they deserve

The world's essential workers have kept things running during the pandemic. But many still lack the protections they deserve, such as maternity pay, pensions or paid sickness leave. An upcoming summit, Essential for Recovery, will give these workers a voice and a space in which to address corporate and social leaders. Justina Kgoele has been picking waste in South Africa for the last 25 years. Her income sustains her family, and her work helps to protect children in her community from picking...

August 3, 2021
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02Aug

2 billion workers of world population are in the informal sector – IMF

The informal economy is a globally widespread and pervasive phenomenon, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has noted. The IMF added that 2 billion workers or 60 percent of the world population participate in the informal sector. Although most prevalent in emerging and developing economies, it is also an important part of advanced economies. Whereas workers and firms may choose to operate in the informal sector to avoid taxes or regulations, 85 percent of all informal workers around the world are in precarious employment in...

August 2, 2021
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July 2021
23Jul

Joint Retirement of Couples: Evidence from Discontinuities in Denmark

By Esteban García-Miralles & Jonathan M. Leganza We study how social security influences the retirement behavior of couples. First, we exploit over two decades of full-population data and a discontinuity design to document sizable retirement spillovers to spouses when individuals reach pension eligibility age. Next, we explore underlying mechanisms. We find age differences within couples to be a fundamental determinant of joint retirement, which is driven by older spouses working longer. Accounting for these age differences reveals a strong gender...

July 23, 2021
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21Jul

China to allow tax deductions for care of small children to help boost births

China will allow tax deductions for expenses on children under three as part of a major relaxation in child-bearing policy to stem a dramatic decline in births in the world's most populous country, an official document showed on Tuesday. Beijing announced on May 31 that it would permit married couples to have up to three children, rather than just two. It scrapped a decades-old one-child policy in 2016 in favour of a two-child limit to try and stave off risks to...

July 21, 2021
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19Jul

Fewer women than men will regain employment during the COVID-19 recovery says ILO

The inequalities between women and men in the world of work that have been exacerbated during the COVID-19 pandemic will persist in the near future, according to the International Labour Organization (ILO). A new policy brief finds there will be 13 million fewer women in employment in 2021 compared to 2019, while men’s employment will have recovered to 2019 levels. Even though the projected jobs growth in 2021 for women exceeds that of men, it will, nonetheless, be insufficient to...

July 19, 2021
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02Jul

The Economics of Ageing and the Political Economy of Old Age

By William A. Jackson Economic discussion of ageing has been largely neoclassical in approach. Ageing has become a specialism within population economics, which is itself a specialism within the neoclassical mainstream. An alternative view has come from authors in sociology and social policy, who have produced their own 'political economy of old age'. In contrast with neoclassical individualism, sociological depictions of aging have stressed the social construction of old age and the structured dependency of the elderly. Non-neoclassical economists have...

July 2, 2021
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June 2021
25Jun

US. Secure Act 2.0 Is Popular, but Not Perfect, Retirement Experts Say

The Secure Act 2.0 provides important benefits to help boost Americans’ retirement savings, but the huge retirement bill does have drawbacks, retirement experts told House lawmakers. Secure Act 2.0 — officially, the Securing a Strong Retirement Act — was part of a review of the nation’s retirement system during a hearing held Wednesday by the House Health, Employment, Labor and Pensions Subcommittee. On May 5, the House Ways and Means Committee passed the Secure Act 2.0, which raises the required minimum...

June 25, 2021
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24Jun

How flexible working could affect pension savings

As the UK continues to ease Covid-19 lockdown restrictions and more employees return to work, the debate about the future of work goes on. If the move to more flexible arrangements continues, the impact on retirement planning could be greater than expected. The most obvious point is that if people work fewer hours – because they choose to shift to part-time working, for example – they will almost certainly be paying less into their pension. Under the auto-enrolment pensions system,...

June 24, 2021
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17Jun

US. Despite Market Rebound, Rising Unemployment Hurt Public Pensions

Although cuts to state and local employment in response to the COVID-19 pandemic had only a minor impact on public pensions’ funded ratios, they did cause a rise in the required contribution rates, according to a recent report from the Center for Retirement Research (CRR) at Boston College. The report said that despite better-than-expected revenue for state and local governments during fiscal year 2020, a “dramatic reduction” in the size of the state and local workforce has negatively impacted public...

June 17, 2021
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10Jun

UK. Employers Feeling More Responsibility in a Post-Pandemic Workforce

Lasting impacts brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic have caused major barriers for employees to reach financial wellness and retirement readiness goals. As a result, BlackRock says, more plan sponsors are taking steps to tackle the changing environment for their workers. The 2021 “BlackRock DC Pulse Survey” found that 61% of the 225 large defined contribution (DC) plan sponsors surveyed said at least half of their employees faced negative impacts with their retirement readiness. Fifty-two percent of employers also noted...

June 10, 2021
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