Women and Minorities Left Behind by Retirement Savings Policies

The systemic issues keeping women and people of color from saving as much for retirement as their White counterparts will remain unsolved under state and federal policy proposals favored by the Biden administration, experts and researchers are finding.

Automatic-401(k) enrollment and savers-focused tax credits touted by then-presidential candidate Joe Biden don’t address labor market discrimination that has historically depressed savings among those minority groups. Women on average save about 20% less than men, and median savings among Black and Latino workers has remained less than half of White workers for the past decade.

“We’ve had an employee benefit law since ...