Consumer Confidential: Working into our 80s; Cadillac recall announced

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Here’s your fashion-plate Friday roundup of consumer news from around the Web:

-- Hope you love your job, because you might have to work it longer than you think. A new study from the Employee Benefit Research Institute says many Americans will have to keep on working well into their 70s and 80s to afford retirement. It’s worst for low-income workers. Those who earn an average $11,700 per year would need to defer retirement until age 84 before 90% of those households would have just a 50% chance of affording retirement. Those who earn between $11,700 and $31,200 will need to work until age 76 to have a 50% chance of covering basic expenses in retirement. Those who earn between $31,200 and $72,500 will need to work to age 72 to have a 50% chance, and those who earn more than $72,500 get to stop working at age 65 to have a 50/50 chance of funding their retirement. What can you do? Save more, obviously. But also set aside those dreams of spending your sunset years kicked back on the beach. Chances are, ain’t gonna happen.

-- Heads up: General Motors is recalling about 50,500 Cadillacs because the front-passenger airbag does not work as intended. The recall affects 47,401 vehicles in the United States, with the remainder in Canada and Mexico. GM says there are no reports of crashes or injuries related to the issue. The recall covers 2011 Cadillac SRXs in North America because that is where the automatic occupant-sensing system is used. Export models use a key to disable the passenger-side airbag. GM says the SRX is programmed to turn off the passenger-side, roof-rail airbag when it detects an occupant in the front passenger seat. But the owner’s manual says the airbag will deploy whether or not the seat is occupied. The mismatch violates federal safety standards.

-- David Lazarus