The Employee Benefit Research Institute and Greenwald Research have released a new report on American workers and retirees’ attitudes surrounding their retirement prospects. This year’s report, marking the thirty-fifth iteration of the Retirement Confidence Survey (RCS), has a particular focus on the financial status of Black Americans.
The 2025 RCS included a sample of 2,767 Americans ages 25 or older. To better understand the unique challenges facing Black Americans, the survey included an oversample of 520 Black workers and 481 Black retirees. In analyzing their results, the study authors found Black Americans were more likely to report lower incomes, higher likelihoods of problematic debt, and lower satisfaction with their retirement lifestyles compared to non-Black Americans.
Overall, Black Americans view retirement similarly to others with comparable financial means. Regardless of race, the survey revealed confidence in having enough money to live comfortably in retirement increased with income levels. However, lower-income Black Americans were more likely to be confident about their retirement prospects and their ability to manage their day-to-day finances than their non-Black counterparts.
Among Americans with incomes over $75,000, 63 percent of Black Americans considered debt a problem for their household, compared to 45 percent of non-Black households. Similarly, high-income Black Americans were less likely than high-income non-Black Americans to report having saved for retirement, at 77 percent and 87 percent, respectively.
Among Americans who have saved for retirement, Black retirement plan participants were most likely to say they took a loan or withdrawal from their plan to cover day-to-day expenses. In contrast, non-Black Americans were more likely to do the same to buy a home, car, or other large expense. Black Americans were also more likely to seek help from financial advisors for questions regarding reducing debt, life insurance, and estate planning, while non-Black Americans were more likely to look for help with retirement planning.
Black and non-Black retirees reported different experiences in their retirement lifestyles, with Black Americans less likely to report spending money how they want and more likely to have overall higher expenses in retirement than expected. Among those who retired earlier than planned, 44 percent of Black retirees did so because of a health problem or disability, compared to 32 percent of non-Black retirees. Furthermore, two-thirds of Black retirees stated they had to work for pay during retirement to make ends meet, compared to 35 percent of non-Black retirees.
