Recent economic turmoil has led state and local governments to seek new paths to offset budget shortfalls.  Among other things, one widely discussed policy option is state employee pension reforms.  These proposals seek to cut pension benefits, and, moreover, to increase the retirement age.  State and local government employees generally are able to access full […]

Introduction: Legislators have recently expressed support for raising the normal retirement age (NRA) to as high as 70.  Under current law, the normal retirement age — the age at which full retirement benefits are payable — is already scheduled to increase from 66 to 67 in two-month increments from 2017 to 2022.  The current law […]

The share of workers with health insurance fell from 93.5 percent in 1979 to 83.3 percent in 2008.  If health-insurance rates in 2008 had remained at their 1979 levels, an additional 12.6 million workers would have had health insurance in 2008.  The main reason for the decline in overall coverage rates was the steep drop […]