Fight the Chamber and Help 7 Million Low-Wage Workers Avoid Retirement Poverty
Fight the Chamber and Help 7 Million Low-Wage Workers Avoid Retirement Poverty
UPDATE: We won! We passed the bill in August of 2012 and the governor signed it. A study of the plan is required first, and that is underway.
Seven million Californians have no access to an employer's retirement plan, and many small businesses don't have the resources to support one. Half of middle-class workers will have to live on a food budget of $5 a day when they retire, if they can ever afford to do so. It's a looming tsunami of elderly poverty that will leave millions subsisting only on Social Security checks.
The California Secure Choice Retirement Savings Program (SB 1234) provides a solution by giving low-wage workers access to a modest state-operated retirement program. It won't cost taxpayers a penny, and it's an easy way for workers to safely put away a little bit of each paycheck. However, the Chamber of Commerce and other corporate lobbyists are attacking it because it's a threat to their monopoly.
Tell the California Legislature: "Don't be fooled by corporate lobbyists. Support SB 1234 and give hard-working Californians a simple way to save for retirement, while keeping taxpayers off the hook."