Data and Research June 16, 2022

LGBTQ Workers Have Lower Retirement Confidence

The EBRI 2022 Retirement Confidence Survey also found LGBTQ Americans carry more debt than non-LGBTQ individuals.

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Across income groups, LGBTQ workers are less confident in having accumulated enough savings to live comfortably in retirement, according to the 2022 Retirement Confidence Survey from the Employee Benefit Research Institute.

The survey included an oversample of LGTBQ individuals for an analysis of the retirement readiness challenges faced by LGBTQ workers. Compared to other retirees and pre-retirees, LGBTQ Americans have lower incomes and are less confident that they will have accumulated sufficient assets to live comfortably in retirement.

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Higher income levels are closely correlated to elevated retirement confidence, said Craig Copeland, director of EBRI’s wealth benefits research, during “EBRI Focus on LGBTQ Americans – Results from the 2022 Retirement Confidence Survey,” a webinar on the study’s results. 

“The more income you have, the more likely you are to be confident that you and your spouse have enough money to live comfortably throughout your retirement years,” he explained. “But in each income group LGBTQ community members are less confident. It still goes up with income, but within each income level LGBTQ community members are less likely than non-LGBTQ community members to be confident that they will have a sufficient amount of income to live comfortably through their retirement years.”

Among upper-income groups represented—those with $75,000 annual household income and above—89% of non-LGBTQ Americans are confident about retirement, compared with 76% of LGBTQ Americans, data show. In this group, 32% of LGBTQ individuals are very confident they will be able to live comfortably in retirement, compared with 39% for non-LGBTQ workers.

At the lowest income group EBRI studied—less than $35,000 annually—among LBGTQ workers, 62% are not confident, 27% somewhat confident and 10% very confident about retirement, whereas for non-LGBTQ workers 54% are not confident, 32% are somewhat confident and 14% are confident about retirement.

Additionally, LGBTQ workers have less assets than non-LGBTQ counterparts, data show. The survey found that—outside of assets including a primary residence and defined benefit plan—66% of LGBTQ individuals who earn $35,000 and below have less than $1,000 in savings and investments, compared with 54% of non-LGBTQ individuals.

“Even when we control for income, non-LGBTQ Americans are more likely to have assets outside of a DB [defined benefit] plan and a home of $250,000 or more than LGBTQ community members, so there are clearly more assets for those in the non-LGBTQ community than for LGBTQ,” Copeland said.

For LGBTQ workers earning between $35,000 and $75,000, 29% have less than $1,000 in savings and investments versus 18% of non-LGBTQ workers, while 12% of LGBTQ workers in the middle-income group have $250,000 or more in savings and investments compared to 24% for non-LGBTQ individuals.

The disparity continues up the income ladder, as among workers earning $75,000 or more annually, 39% of LGBTQ workers have $250,000 or more in savings and investments versus 55% of non-LGBTQ workers who have $250,000 in savings and investments.  

LGBTQ workers also carry more debt than non-LGBTQ individuals. Among LGBTQ workers who earn $35,000 or less, 30% described their levels of debt as a major problem, compared with 24% of non-LGBTQ individuals.

“LGBTQ Americans are more likely to consider debt to be a major or minor problem for their household than non-LGBTQ Americans, across each income group,” the report states. “In the upper-income group, 64% of LGBTQ Americans consider debt a problem versus 39% of non-LGBTQ Americans. As a result, LGBTQ Americans are more likely to say debt is impacting their ability to save for retirement or emergencies.”

The 2022 EBRI survey included 2,677 Americans. It was conducted through an online panel from January 4 through January 26 of this year. All respondents were ages 25 or older. The respondents comprised 1,545 workers and 1,132 retirees, including an oversample of 807 surveys among LGBTQ Americans—639 workers and 168 retirees. The data were weighted by age, sex, LGBTQ status, household income and race/ethnicity, to provide nationally representative estimates.

Deals and People June 16, 2022

The ERISA Industry Committee Promotes Two, Announces Priorities

Following a two-day planned meeting where the organization discussed its priorities for the year, the committee has named a new president and chief operations officer.

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The ERISA Industry Committee announced today that James Gelfand, currently executive vice president, has been promoted to co-lead the association as president. Annette Guarisco Fildes, ERIC’s president and CEO since 2015, will remain as the organization’s CEO.

Additionally, Kathleen Carr-Smith, vice president of membership and strategic partnerships, will become the organization’s first chief operations officer.

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The promotions of Gelfand and Carr-Smith are effective on June 16, following the ERIC board’s two-day planning meeting this week.

In his new role, Gelfand will be responsible for leading ERIC’s public policy and legal advocacy work, as well as its membership, strategic partnerships and public affairs activities. He will work with the CEO to manage all aspects of the association.

Throughout his tenure with ERIC, Gelfand has worked with member companies to develop and advance public policies to support their ability to design and administer health plans, including legislative and regulatory advocacy at the federal, state and local levels. Gelfand has participated in leadership of the association, building relationships within the benefits community while working to advance ERIC’s mission and values.

Early in his career, Gelfand worked as a lobbyist for ERIC. He returned in April 2016 after leading the federal affairs team at the March of Dimes Foundation, where he advanced policies to improve the health of women and children. He previously led health policy efforts for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and served as counsel to former Senators Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, and Tom Coburn, R-Oklahoma, covering an array of issues. He earned his J.D. at George Washington University Law School and his undergraduate degrees in political science and legal studies at Northwestern University.

Carr-Smith has been responsible for setting and guiding ERIC’s strategy for membership and strategic partnerships. In her new role, she will be responsible for ERIC’s internal operations efforts, while continuing her role involving membership and strategic partnerships. Before joining ERIC, Carr-Smith was executive vice president of communications with the National Ready Mixed Concrete Association, where she led the group’s membership, sponsorship and branding efforts. Previously, she was director of meetings and conventions for the Council for Responsible Nutrition and served as director of membership and meetings at Jewish Women International.

Plotting the Course for the Remainder of the Year

At its meeting this week, the ERIC board approved the organization’s short- and long-term priorities that support the ability of large employers to design and administer benefits for their workforces.

Moving forward, ERIC’s policy priorities are centered around protecting the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 and working to ensure national uniformity. According to the organization, large employers who operate in multiple states need the consistency and certainty provided by ERISA to ensure that they can offer uniform, national benefits to their employees, employees’ families and retirees.

ERIC will continue to work to shape rules and legislation to help large plan sponsors efficiently provide generous benefits in a cost-effective way. It will also work to change what it calls “well-intentioned but counterproductive rules” that harm workers and retirees with “inflexible directives and limits on efficiently using benefit plan resources.”

In the area of health care, ERIC sees the need for functioning markets and affordable costs as its primary challenges. The organization says it will work through federal and state advocacy to build and restore competitive markets. It supports reforms to the health care system that will drive value for patients and for the employers who sponsor their health benefits, whether that involves telehealth, prescription drug policies, payment reforms, safety, transparency or mental health support.

On retirement and compensation, the organization says issues of flexibility, costs and administrative burdens—and helping participants—are paramount to ERIC and its member companies. As such, ERIC will work to promote policies that reduce barriers and increase opportunities to make the most from retirement savings.

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