Decline in employer-provided pensions

Lack of company-provided retirement funds

Nature

There has been a rapid demise of company-provided pensions in the private sector, with the responsibility transferred onto the employee.

Incidence

Pension coverage, after gradually increasing in the USA since 1945, has been declining since the early 1980s. During the 1980s, some 6 million worker lost their pension coverage. In 1992 about 39% of workers are enrolled in a company-run pension plan, down from 48% in the late 1970s. According to the American Academy of Actuaries, some 42,000 employers, large and small simply terminate their pension plans between 1989 and 1991. The Pension Benefit Guarantee Corporation considers another $40 billion worth of pension plans underfunded.

Claim

Many are not paying into voluntary employee pension plans and this trend will dramatically increase the number of people who cannot make ends meet in retirement. This is particularly true of the "baby boomers", who are using their money for what they see as more pressing needs than providing for their retirement. To use retirement assets to fund current consumption is leasing from your future standard of living.