Access to wealth among older workers in the 1990s and how it is distributed: Data from the Health and Retirement Study

Older American laborers' access to financial assets is investigated. Data from the Health and Retirement Study are analyzed to determine whether older workers had access to wealth and how financial assets were distributed among older working Americans. Three categories of wealth for older working Americans are identified: home equity, social security compensation, and employer pensions. Several findings regarding (1) the connection between wealth distribution, poverty, and income; (2) the occupational and racial characteristics of wealth deciles; (3) discrepancies in the asset holdings across wealth deciles; (4) changes in the wealth accumulation of older working Americans between 1992 and 1996; and (5) changes in income mobility over the same period. Several methodological recommendations for future research on wealth distribution are offered, eg, taking the size of one's household into consideration since the head of household may not have access to all of the household's wealth. 17 Tables, 1 Figure, 1 Appendix. J. W. Parker