Our nation's retirement income security system has often been described using the metaphor of the three-legged stool. One leg is the federally mandated Social Security program, which provides a monthly benefit for retired and disabled workers and their families and survivors of deceased workers. Protection under Social Security is earned by paying taxes on one's employment and almost all workers are covered. Another leg of the stool is employer-provided pensions, which is an employment-based benefit negotiated under the contract of employment between an employer and an employee. In 1996,about 41% of the elderly receive an employer-provided pension. They include 30% who receive pensions from private sector employers. The others receive pensions from federal, state or local government jobs. The third leg is personal savings. It is true that many people, primarily those with low incomes, have not. saved any money for their retirement because they need all of their income to meet current expenses. In recognition of this problem, the Social Security program has a weighted benefit formula which replaces a higher portion of pre-retirement earnings for those with low incomes than for those with higher incomes.

Women who may have sporadic work histories and minorities who may have lower earnings on average benefit from this provision.

12.2 Are women and others who are in and out of the work force penalized by years of no earned income?

The redistributive aspects of the Social Security benefit formula are especially' valuable to women, who generally have periods of low or no earning due to providing care to children and elderly family members.. As a group, women still earn about 80% of what men do in similar jobs with one of the results being lower lifetime earnings. The higher replacement rate for low-income earners than for middle-and higher-income earners is very important to women and is an aspect of Social Security that would not be part of a "privatized" system. One proposal that has been considered over the years is that years of no or low earnings due to taking care of children would not be counted in determining benefits. This proposal would increase the costs to the system. Women's issues under Social Security are the types of concerns that might be raised with your Congressional Representative and Senators.

12.3 What, if anything, is being done to rectify the particularly low, and sometimes negative, rates of return for African-Americans?

It is essential that all Americans, in cities and towns across the country, participate in the discussions about Social Security form. Everyone, young and old, rich or poor, from all ethnic backgrounds, should know how Social Security works for them now and ask questions about how proposed changes will affect them in the future.

A good place to start is an agreement on the facts about the current Social Security program and its long-term financial impact on African-Americans. Some information being distributed about African-Americans is clearly inaccurate. Several features of the system that need to be understood are critical to the cornerstone of the financial foundation that Social Security provides for African-American workers who retire or become disabled, and to their survivors when they die.

The progressive nature of Social Security makes a particular difference to African- Americans. Benefit calculations are weighted to ensure that individuals with fewer years in the workforce and/or lower wages receive a greater proportion of benefits when compared to the taxes they have paid into the system. Since, today, average earnings for African-Americans are lower than for whites, African-Americans who receive all types of Social Security benefits are more likely to receive a higher relative rate of return.

Because African-Americans have a lower life expectancy, the Social Security survivors' insurance program is especially important. African-Americans make up approximately 12 percent of the American population, but fully 23 percent of survivors' benefits are paid to African-American children.

African-American families are more likely to receive benefits from the disability programs. African-Americans comprise nearly 20 percent of people receiving disability benefits (including disabled workers and their dependents).

12.4 Are there plans to correct the gender inequalities and take into consideration the change in women's work patterns and lower wage earnings?

The redistributive aspects of the Social Security benefit formula are especially valuable to women who generally have periods of low or no earning due to providing care to children and elderly family members. As a group, women still earn about 80% of what men do in similar jobs, with one of the results being lower lifetime earnings. The higher replacement rate for low-income earners than for middle-and higher-income earners is an aspect of Social Security which is very important to women and is an aspect of Social Security that would not be part of a "privatized" system. One proposal that has been considered for the years of no or low earnings while caring for a child would be not counting these years in determining benefits. This proposal would increase costs to the system. Women's issues under Social Security are the types of concerns that might be raised with your Congressional Representative and Senators.

1 want recognition for the economic contribution to family income made by so-called non-working wives and mothers. The economic contribution is really made to the working spouses income level on which Social Security contribution and benefits are based. This is a gender equity question.

The current Social Security benefit structure does provide retirement and survivor protection for the "non-working" spouse. A spouse may, at the full-benefits retirement age (currently, age 65) receive a retirement benefit equal to one-half of the working spouse's benefit. As a survivor, a widow(er) would receive benefits if caring for a child up to age 16 or a child disabled before age 22 receiving benefits. Reduced -retirement benefits are available at age 60 to a widow and to a disabled widow at age 50. Additional recognition of the contributions of a "non-working" spouse as part of reform efforts is an example of the type of issues that might be raised with your Congressional Representative and Senators.

12.5 What is the racial impact of the current system- that is, are workers of color benefiting from the same system to the extent white workers are? What could be done to make this more equal in impact? I notice that, at this ADSS forum, the vast majority of the participants are white, even though Buffalo, is a diverse community. What are you doing to include people of color in this discussion process? What would the racial impact of various reforms be?

If one takes into consideration all factors including education, economics, etc., one would find that the rates are very similar. Also, because workers of color have a higher mortality rate, benefits such as Disability and Survivors benefits become more important.