When Wages Are Not Enough for Retirement Savings

How to avert an ‘elderly poverty epidemic’

Elderly person taking coins out of purse

This is a summary of a story that originally appeared on Duke Law’s website.

As more than 10,000 Americans turn 65 each day, the nation is heading toward a milestone with serious economic consequences. With longer life expectancies and stagnant wages for millions of workers, Duke Law professor Sara Sternberg Greene warns that the U.S. is approaching an “elderly poverty epidemic.”

Greene argues that the country’s longstanding narrative of personal responsibility of “just save more” ignores the roadblocks that make saving nearly impossible for low‑income workers.

Many Americans who work full-time still rely on public benefits to meet their basic needs, says Greene. Yet those same programs often penalize savings. For example, households can lose access to food assistance or cash support if they accumulate more than a few thousand dollars. In some states, it can be as low as $1,000.

“Simply telling them to save isn’t going to cut it, partly because we don’t provide realistic structural opportunities for them to do so,” says Greene.

Greene calls this contradiction the “savings mirage.” Her research highlights how various laws, such as asset limits, occupational licensing rules, and even driver’s license suspensions for unpaid court debt, trap people into long‑term financial instability.

Despite the bleak outlook, Greene sees a path forward. Loosening asset limits, creating savings incentives for low‑wage workers and modernizing Social Security could help millions age with dignity. To avoid a future in which growing numbers of seniors face deepening poverty, Greene argues the nation must confront existing laws that keep people from saving at all.

“We must pull out of this false narrative that behavioral interventions are the most promising way forward because savings opportunities are available for low-income workers but often squandered. Once we do so, there is much that can be done,” Greene says.

For more information, go to Duke Law’s website.