Earnings replacement rates and total income: findings from the retirement history study.

This article describes and reports on the degree to which Social Security and private pensions replaced preretirement earnings for a sample of individuals retiring in the early 1970's. Although simple in concept, replacement rates can be defined in many different ways. Because no one definition is best for all purposes, several are considered, and the contexts in which each might be utilized are discussed. Both Social Security and total replacement rates are presented for individual retired workers and married couples. Also presented are rough estimates of changes in total income at retirement.