IT'S A BLACK THANG: DEFENDING AND STRENGTHENING SOCIAL SECURITY

Social Security provides protection to families if a worker retires, becomes disabled or dies. As 2022 rolled to a close, the total number of beneficiaries numbered 66 million. The average monthly benefit clocks in at $1,688, with the annual cost of the program running at around $1.2 trillion. While older adults comprise 7.4 out of every ten beneficiaries, another healthy chunk of beneficiaries is comprised of those receiving Social Security Disability Insurance (13.4%) and Survivor Benefits (8.9%), respectively.

Enacted in 1935 as part of the New Deal, the initial legislation excluded domestic workers and farm workers and, as result, 65% of Black workers nationwide were ineligible for coverage, with the ineligibility percentage topping even that in Southern states.

Yet, as one recent report notes, the Social Security program "has evolved into a critical source of income for African-American families and has reduced the economic disparities between African-American and white families."

As this brief notes highlight, social security is absolutely critical to the economic well-being of the working class.

And it’s especially critical to Black workers who, because of a history of class, gender, and racial oppression, experience higher degrees of economic fragility, even—and perhaps especially— as they enter retirement.

In fact, let me just go ahead and put my conclusion out there from the get-go:

One of the Blackest things you can do is to defend Social Security from the attacks of the apostles of austerity.

WHY IT’S A BLACK THANG

Here’s the deal: Social Security is critical to the economic well-being of families and, bottom line, it’s particularly critical to African-American households, especially older Black households.

In that sense, defending and strengthening Social Security is a Black Thang.

Don’t think so? Well, consider these basic facts:

• Social Security Raises Millions Above The Official Poverty Line: According to one recent study, Social Security lifted more than 22 million persons above the official poverty line. 16 million of these were older adults (65+) and a million were kids under eighteen years of age. That same study indicates that. without Social Security, the poverty rate for Black seniors from 9% to 38%.

• Social Security’s Progressive Benefit Formula Aids Low-Wage Workers: Social Security benefits kick in when workers leave paid employment due to retirement, experiencing a disability, and death. These benefits, though, don’t replace 100% of lost or foregone earnings. But the formula used to calculate benefits is progressive and, therefore, replaces a higher percentage of lost earnings for those who had labored at the lower end of the wage scale. For a low earner who retired at 65 in 2021, social security benefits replaced 48 cents for every dollar “lost” due to retirement. At the other extreme, in contrast, the replacement rate was lower for the highest earners, returning about 30 cents for every dollar given up due to retirement. Given the history of race, class, and gender subjugation in this country, Black folk—and especially Black women— are disproportionately concentrated on the lower paying rungs of the economic ladder. Thus, African-Americans especially gain from Social Security’s progressive benefit formula.

• SOCIAL SECURITY PROVIDES CRITICAL AID TO THE DISABLED: It’s easy to forget that Social Security is not only a retirement program but that it also provides some much need income protection in the form of life and disability insurance. More specifically, in addition to retirement benefits, workers earn disability insurance (SSDI) by making social security payroll tax contributions. Compared to Whites, Blacks are more likely to be employed in the lowest paying and most dangerous jobs. It’s hardly surprising, then, that studies show that African-Americans experience a higher rate than White folk of injuries on the job. The relatively higher Black disability rate makes Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) particularly important to economic security of Black workers.
  

• SOCIAL SECURITY PROVIDES INSURANCE AGAINST EARLY DEATH: It’s easy to forget that, in addition to retirement and disability, Social Security also provides some payments to the spouse and children of a covered worker who dies prior to reaching retirement age. Because of such things as racial domination, lack of access to quality health care, and environmental racism, the life expectancy of Black folk is considerably less than that of their White counterpart. Because of racial differences in life expectancy, Social Security survivors benefits are an especially important source of financial stability for Black families.
  

• Social Security Has A Mitigating Effect On The Racial Wealth Divide: Economist Edward Wolf estimates that the present value of the projected stream of social security benefits for the typical White and Black households are $223,416 and $107, 811, respectively. The Social Security “wealth” of the typical White household, then, is twice as large as that of the typical Black household. In contrast, though, the level of pension and IRA wealth held by the typical White household is ten times as large as that held by their Black counterparts. Thus, Social Security has a mitigating effect on the racial wealth divide.

WRAPPING UP

Let’s keep it one hundred, though: None of this means that Social Security is perfect and beyond the need for any changes.

I’ll talk about such changes in a separate blog. Just know that’ll be changes that strengthen the program’s ability to be a critical part of an overall policy regime that treats families with dignity by ensuring that their able to meet their basic needs—and thrive—throughout their life cycle.

But in the meantime, keep hold of this: Social Security is critical to shoring up the economic security of millions of families— and this is especially so for Black families.

This is why defending and strengthening it is a Black Thang—and a thang that also delivers tangible benefits to all members of working class families.