02/25/2026: Retirement Inequality and Older Workers

Wednesday, February 25, 2026

10 - 11 AM HST | 12 - 1 PM PT | 2 - 3 PM CT | 3 - 4 PM ET

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About the webinar:

While the U.S. retirement system has amassed record-breaking assets, most households approaching retirement age face a significant shortfall in assets. The first part of this presentation will highlight changes in the three core pillars of the U.S. retirement system — Social Security, pensions, and private savings — since the 1980s, including their impact on overall wealth inequality. The second part of the presentation focuses on how economic resources, gendered care demands, and health status shape and constrain labor market participation among older adults.

Learning Objectives

At the completion of this activity, the learner will be able to:

  • Explain the three primary pillars of the U.S. retirement system and describe how each pillar has changed in the past four decades.

  • Evaluate the current distribution of U.S. retirement wealth, including differences across income levels, educational attainment, race, and gender.

  • Identify and describe three material constraints that shape work/retire choices among adults aged 55+; describe how labor market participation rates among older adults have changed in the past four decades.

Speaker: Nari Rhee, Ph.D.

Nari Rhee, Ph.D. has served as Director of the Retirement Security Program at the UC Berkeley Labor Center since 2014. She employs both quantitative and qualitative methods to investigate policy issues related to worker economic security. Dr. Rhee's research focuses primarily on the U.S. retirement crisis, including policy solutions to preserve and enhance retirement benefits for low- and middle-wage workers amid declining pension coverage. Her analysis of retirement wealth disparities has informed state and national policy debates. She also conducts research on the long-term care sector; unpaid family caregiving; social insurance and safety net programs affecting aging; older workers; and workforce development. Dr. Rhee was appointed by the California state senate to the CalSavers Retirement Savings Board in July 2025 and has been a member of the National Academy of Social Insurance since 2014. She holds a Ph.D. in Geography from UC Berkeley (2007), an M.A. in Urban Planning from UCLA (1998), and a B.A. in Anthropology from UC Santa Cruz (1996).

ACCREDITATION

The Center for Occupational and Environmental Health designates this activity for a maximum of 1.0 Contact Hour. Participants should claim only the credit commensurate with the extent of their participation.

Certificates of Completion

Certificates of Completion will be available to webinar participants who are present for the complete, live webinar, and logged in with their registered email address. Call-in attendees are not eligible for certificates at this time - Please download the Zoom app to log in via email on your smartphone whenever possible.

In order to receive your Certificate of Completion, qualified learners must complete the post-webinar evaluation within 7 days of the webinar. A link to the evaluation will be emailed to qualified learners 24 hours after the webinar via no-reply@zoom.us. Qualified learners who submit their evaluation will receive a Certificate of Completion via email, and can also print/save the certificate from their browser after submitting their evaluation.

If you're not able to attend the live presentation, no problem! We record most presentations and will host them on our website provided we have permission to do so. Presentation recordings are not eligible for Certificates of Completion.

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About the California Labor Lab

The California Labor Lab is a collaboration among investigators at UCSF, UC Berkeley, and the California Department of Public Health. The Lab is housed at the Philip R Lee Institute for Health Policy Studies at UCSF. Our mission is to extend the pursuit of health and safety for workers in traditional employment to those in a wide range of alternative arrangements in partnership with affected communities.

Click here to learn more about the Labor Lab.

ACCESSIBILITY:

If you require an accommodation for effective communication (ASL interpreting/CART captioning, alternative media formats, etc.) to fully participate in this event, please contact Will Bellamy at (510) 642-8365 or wbellamy@berkeley.edu(link sends e-mail) with as much advance notice as possible and at least 7-10 days in advance of the event.