As one of only 2 Black women CEOs in the Fortune 500, I'm often asked about how to close the US's racial wealth gap. The key is helping people save for retirement.

• Thasunda Brown Duckett is the president and CEO of financial-services firm TIAA.
• She is one of only two Black women CEOs in the Fortune 500.

Closing the wealth gap for people of color in America is one of the toughest issues we face as a nation, and it's one of the issues I have been asked about most often since becoming one of two Black women CEOs in the Fortune 500 last year.

My answer draws heavily from the teachings of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. on breaking the cycle of poverty. In fact, he originally intended his "I Have a Dream" speech as a call for an end to economic and employment inequality for all people. Dr. King continued to push for reforms that would increase access to work for people vulnerable to economic dislocations.

In speech after speech and through his writings, he urged U.S. policymakers and business leaders to create a path to financial stability for people who were drowning in debt, barely able to get by from one payday to the next, and utterly unable to save for the future.

We still have a tremendous amount of work left to do at a time when 83% of older Americans who are Black do not have enough savings to retire; when 1.8 million women — many of them women of color — have dropped out of the workforce due to COVID-related family needs and may never make up for lost earnings and retirement savings. And those inadequate savings sometimes have to last for decades, since half of those retiring at age 65 can expect to live past age 85.

All of this means we have to think harder about how to replace our income in retirement.

These issues are even more of a struggle in the Black community.

If you have suffered pay inequities throughout your lifetime, and you haven't been able to save enough for retirement, it's hard to take care of yourself.

When we can't cover our own bills in retirement, we often have to rely on our children, our younger family members, and then we are taking away resources they could be saving for their own future or their children. It's a cycle we have to break.

Every American is entitled to a secure, dignified retirement. As employers strive to create good jobs and opportunities for promotion for more people of color, especially women, I would implore my fellow leaders to also give employees access to retirement savings plans, the ability to save for guaranteed lifetime income, and the tools to provide the information we all need to know: "Am I on track? If not, what do I need to do?"

It's critically important for employees from all walks of life to understand that these opportunities, from financial education to saving for retirement, are for them.

My own father did not save enough through his company's retirement plan because no one explicitly told him about it, and he didn't think that information was relevant for him. That ignited a spark in me to get everyone better access to the information they need to achieve retirement security.

I believe that public policymakers and corporate leaders can work together to be the change.

The first step is working more systematically to increase access to opportunities for career advancement that can increase pay and savings. I am hopeful that we can continue to accelerate progress in educational and employment opportunity — including expanding the pipeline to good jobs through systematic measurement and tracking, seeking talent from new sources, and recognizing ways in which we inadvertently impede progress, such as requiring years of experience unlikely among otherwise qualified applicants.

When it comes to saving for retirement, I find hope in the leadership demonstrated by Congress with the SECURE Act in 2019, which paved the way for employers to offer investments that would provide lifetime income in retirement. Now, lawmakers are considering ways to make it even easier, possibly even letting employers match employees' student-loan payments with retirement contributions.

These are the kinds of critical actions we must take to ensure that all US workers can effectively save for the future with the peace of mind they deserve.

As Dr. King wisely observed in a 1963 letter from a Birmingham jail, "injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere." Lacking resources to live out your final years in dignity inarguably is an injustice.

So many are struggling to support themselves and their extended families two years into the pandemic. Let's be the change needed to ensure that their burdens don't last a lifetime.

Thasunda Brown Duckett is the president and CEO of TIAA.