With Washington leaders continuously debating the future of Social Security, it can be easy to forget just how important the program has become to retired Americans.
The truth is that the bottom 80 percent of Americans have stashed little away in retirement savings programs, like 401(k)s and Roth IRAs. As a result, most Americans rely largely on Social Security for their relatively small retirement nest egg, according to Ross Eisenbrey, a vice president at the Economic Policy Institute.
By contrast, the top 20 percent of earners have more than $308,000 on average stashed away for retirement -- in part because wealthy Americans get somewhere between 70 and 80 percent of the tax subsidies intended to boost Americans’ retirement holdings, Eisenbrey said. In other words, wealthy Americans are likely the only group not relying heavily on Social Security during their twilight years.
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