Association for Public Policy Analysis & Management

Recent research has shown that Hispanics are less knowledgeable than the general U.S. population about the basics of retirement preparedness, such as understanding their Social Security benefits or the importance of contributing to a retirement savings plan. Yet, U.S. Hispanics have higher life expectancies at age 65, lower median earnings and wealth, and lower amounts saved for retirement than the general U.S. population. So, it is crucial that effective retirement preparedness outreach be developed and delivered to this population group. Earlier research with Hispanic focus groups found differences across Hispanic subgroups—Hispanics of Mexican, Puerto Rican, and Cuban descent as well as Hispanics who are English-speaking vs Spanish- speaking—in what they know about Social Security and retirement savings and how they preferr to receive information about these topics. These differences, if replicated in larger, nationally representative surveys, suggest that targeting by descent or language spoken might be more effective in reaching out to the Hispanic community than a more general one-size-fits-all approach. Thus, in this study, we use the Understanding America Study (UAS), with its 6000-person Internet panel maintained by the Center for Economic and Social Research at the University of Southern California, to assess whether the differences noted in the earlier focus groups can be found in a larger nationally representative survey. The UAS panel participants were asked the same questions about Social Security and retirement preparedness as the focus group participants, allowing for a comparison of these responses for Hispanics overall with those of the focus groups. In addition, this Internet panel is large enough to ensure adequate numbers of Hispanics of Mexican, Puerto Rican, and Cuban descent for a more detailed breakdown in our study. Our findings should be of interest to researchers, practitioners and policymakers interested in improving the retirement security outcomes for Hispanics in the United States.