Lies, damned lies and statistics.
FactCheck.org took Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., to task for a tweet last week that claimed, “more than half of older workers have no retirement savings.”
But, as the website notes, that figure includes retirees, not just “older workers,” and does not include workers with pension plans.
“In all, 73 percent of older workers—age 55 to 64—have defined-contribution plans, such as 401k plans and IRAs, and/or defined-benefit plans, such as employer-provided pensions, according to a 2015 report the Government Accountability Office produced at the request of the senator,” it adds. “But in his tweet, Sanders refers only to ‘older workers,’ and the GAO says 59 percent of ‘workers approaching retirement’—households headed by those between the ages of 55 and 64—have “some retirement savings.”
Further, the GAO’s definition of “retirement savings” differs from Sanders’ claim and includes only assets accrued in “defined contribution (DC) plans such as 401(k) plans as well as individual retirement accounts (IRA).”
It “does not include savings held outside of a retirement account,” and it does not include “defined benefit (DB) plans, ‘traditional’ pension plans that provide benefits based on a formula.”
Sanders Clarified
To their credit, the Sanders staff clarified once contacted by FactCheck.org, and updated the tweet accordingly, but it’s an example of how metrics are skewed in the retirement plan coverage debate to achieve desired ends.
“We meant to write ‘more than half of older Americans’, not workers,” Sanders spokesman Josh Miller-Lewis, said.
Congressional and/or administration action on retirement security and coverage had been expected for some time.
Several bills to promote multiple employer plans (MEP) were introduced in Congress, with a flurry of activity occurring last summer to make it easier for small employers to establish 401ks through MEP use, capped by the president’s executive order signed in September.
With more than 20 years serving financial markets, John Sullivan is the former editor-in-chief of Investment Advisor magazine and retirement editor of ThinkAdvisor.com. Sullivan is also the former editor of Boomer Market Advisor and Bank Advisor magazines, and has a background in the insurance and investment industries in addition to his journalism roots.
