Care burdens force Black workers into taxed hardship withdrawals and forfeited matches.

Evidence

These financial constraints don’t just leave black families with less disposable income; they leave them unable to make significant contributions to their retirement accounts—so even if an employer matches their contribution, they may not be able to maximize the benefit. They also mean that when black employees do have retirement accounts, they are more likely to make what’s called a “hardship withdrawal”—taking money out of the account before they retire in order to pay a bill or deal with some other pressing financial need. Hardship withdrawals are taxed aggressively—and in my opinion, paternalistically and unfairly. — Dorothy A. Brown, The Whiteness of Wealth, 395

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines ‘hardship withdrawal’ — taking pretax retirement money early for urgent bills — and its aggressive taxation.