Financial Security Program

Thrift Savings Plan-Like 401(k)s Are the Key to Closing the Small Business Coverage Gap

By combining a TSP-like fund lineup and a low-cost administration services provider, employers can offer a highly-efficient 401(k) plan with an all-in fee that’s far below 401(k) plan averages.

Income Volatility in the Service Sector: Contours, Causes, and Consequences

This new EPIC research brief enhances our understanding of the connections between income swings and family outcomes for hourly retail workers.

New Findings Reveal the On-Demand Economy Plays Key Role in Improving People’s Financial Stability

FSP’s Joanna Smith-Ramani sat down with Steven King, a Partner at Emergent Research, to discuss the results of the second On-demand Workforce survey.

Small Enough to Fail: Sizing Up the Global RegLab Movement

Regulatory innovation is indeed emerging in financial centers around the world as central bankers, prudential regulators, and market conduct authorities rush to make sense of the proliferation of new financial technologies (FinTech) and their transformative potential not just for individual consumers but for the financial system as a whole.

Increasing Retirement Saving: Reforming Tax Incentives and an All-of-the-Above Approach

Numerous studies find that millions of Americans are under-saving for retirement, and psychology and behavioral economics have taught us that there are well-understood problems in decision-making that can cause people to not put enough away for retirement and other needs. The question is how to correct these failures and avoid the considerable hardship that can come with not having enough savings.

The Saver’s Credit: A Case Study About a Little-Known Tax Credit That Pays to Save for Retirement

It’s hard to imagine that there’s a tax credit that can lower a taxpayer’s bill if he or she saves for retirement in a tax-favored retirement account. This may sound to be too good to be true. But it is true. The IRS has a tax credit that pays people to save for retirement.

State Innovation on Retirement Security Should Be Celebrated, not Stymied

If this Obama-era retirement regulation is halted, millions of hard-working Americans could lose out on a great opportunity to save for their future.

Worker power: A critical component of fair scheduling

Unpredictability. Fluctuating hours. On-call work. Lack of input into schedules. Early dismissal without pay. One of the threads that ties together these and other scheduling challenges commonly experienced by low-wage workers is the fact that millions in the U.S. feel profoundly disempowered in the workplace.

Stable and Predictable Scheduling as Antidote to Income Volatility

This brief synthesizes the current research on scheduling instability, chronicles the most promising responses by the institutions best positioned to act – employers, government, and technology companies – and recommends principles for further reform.

How Can People Lift Themselves Out of Poverty?

Over three million people lifted themselves out of poverty in 2015. Experts tell us how to make it continue.