Private pensions in the United States: Gambling with retirement security

1973 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-12
Author(s):  
Merton C. Bernstein
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Collective Bargaining ◽  
Las Vegas ◽  
The United States ◽  
Pension Plans ◽  
Private Pension ◽  
Private Pensions ◽  
Retirement Security

Reputedly some Las Vegas casinos set their roulette wheels so that overall ‘the house’ never loses although many play and some players win. In effect, the house sets the odds which remain unknown to the players. So it is with private pension plans in the United States, with the important difference that employees cannot decide whether to play or not; the decision is made for them by their employer or through collective bargaining.

Dual private pension households and the distribution of wealth in the United States

2002 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 131-155 ◽  
Author(s):  
NANCY AMMON JIANAKOPLOS ◽  
VICKIE L. BAJTELSMIT
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Wealth Distribution ◽  
The United States ◽  
Household Wealth ◽  
Private Pension ◽  
Private Pensions ◽  
Net Worth ◽  
Consumer Finances ◽  
Using Data ◽  
The Impact

Using data from the 1998 Survey of Consumer Finances, this paper examines the impact of dual private pension households on the distribution of household wealth in the United States. This paper builds on three lines of previous research: inquiries into ‘assortative mating’, i.e., the tendency for people with similar characteristics to marry; studies emphasizing the importance of pensions as a component of household wealth; and recent research examining how wives' earnings alter the distribution of household income. Evidence of ‘assortative private pensions’, i.e., the tendency for people with private pensions to be married to people with private pensions, is presented. Estimates of the expected value of private pension and social security wealth are added to measures of household non-retirement net worth to obtain the value household wealth. These data indicate that wives' private pensions in dual private pension households contribute marginally to greater equality in the wealth distribution.

Pension Enhancements and the Retention of Public Employees

ILR Review ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 70 (2) ◽  
pp. 519-551 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cory Koedel ◽  
P. Brett Xiang
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Public Sector ◽  
Employee Retention ◽  
Cost Effective ◽  
The United States ◽  
Pension Plans ◽  
Public Employees ◽  
Public School Teachers ◽  
School Teachers ◽  
Public Pension Plans

The authors use data from workers in the largest public-sector occupation in the United States—teaching—to examine the effect of pension enhancements on employee retention. Specifically, they study a 1999 enhancement to the benefit formula for public school teachers in St. Louis, Missouri, that resulted in an immediate and dramatic increase in their incentives to remain in covered employment. To identify the effect of the enhancement on teacher retention, the analysis leverages the fact that the strength of the incentive increase varied across the workforce depending on how far teachers were from retirement eligibility when it was enacted. The results indicate that the St. Louis enhancement—which was structurally similar to enhancements that were enacted in other public pension plans across the United States in the late 1990s and early 2000s—was not a cost-effective way to increase employee retention.

scholarly journals Models of the pension system: international experience and local practice

2020 ◽  
pp. 43-51
Author(s):  
O. Cheberyako ◽  
V. Bykova
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Hong Kong ◽  
Great Britain ◽  
Social Insurance ◽  
Pension System ◽  
The United States ◽  
Asian Countries ◽  
Private Pensions ◽  
Foreign Countries ◽  
National Models

The article substantiates the nature of the national models of the pension system and its structure in accordance with the concept of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). The basis of the national models of pension system are two well-known models of social security: Bismarck and Beveridge Social Insurance Systems. Thus, authors prepared the comparison of this models. The features of pension system in the countries of Europe (Germany, Great Britain, Sweden, Poland), the United States and Chile are analysed. The analysis of the national models of the pension system in Asian countries identifies three institutional patterns: the statist pension system (Taiwan and China), the dualist pension system (Japan and Korea) and individualist pension system (Hong Kong and Singapore). Based on trends of development of pension provision in foreign countries, authors determine the main tasks and ways to improve the domestic system, namely, introduction mandatory funded pension system and reforming the voluntary private pensions insurance.

Physician Strikes and Trust

2000 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 504-512 ◽  
Author(s):  
RODGER L. JACKSON
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
South Carolina ◽  
New Jersey ◽  
New Hampshire ◽  
Las Vegas ◽  
Sufficient Conditions ◽  
The United States ◽  
Medical Providers ◽  
Collective Work

Physician strikes in the United States have been relatively rare, although this has not been the case in other countries nor with other members of the healthcare community, such as nurses. This situation, however, could change. More physicians are either joining unions or seriously discussing doing so. The National Guild for Medical Providers, for example, is actively trying to expand its membership of 11,000 doctors in Michigan, Pennsylvania, and New Hampshire into Illinois, California, New Jersey, Colorado, Texas, and South Carolina. The Federation of Physicians and Dentists, with 2,500 members in Florida and Connecticut, is trying to establish itself in Seattle, Las Vegas, Tucson, and Philadelphia. Although unions are neither necessary nor sufficient conditions for strikes, if physician unions do become more prevalent, the potential for collective work actions, including strikes, increases.

Anglo-Saxon Occupational Pensions in International Perspective

2006 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steven Sass
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
The Elderly ◽  
The United States ◽  
Pension Plans ◽  
International Perspective ◽  
The State ◽  
Pension Scheme ◽  
Anglo Saxon ◽  
Occupational Pensions ◽  
Second Tier

Occupational pensions are today a major ‘second tier’ in Anglo-Saxon retirement income systems, providing benefits to a significant portion of the elderly population atop the basic ‘first tier’ benefits provided by the state. In the United States, for example, employer plans provide one-fifth of the income of the elderly — one-quarter if earnings from work are excluded — half the amount provided by public plans. By the end of the 1930s, employer pension plans had become standard in governments and mature big businesses throughout the industrial world. They had become critical tools for strengthening, then severing, relationships with workers. Britain took a different tack to strengthening employer plans. It primarily leveraged the contracting-out provisions in the State Earnings-related Pension Scheme (SERPS), introduced in 1978.

scholarly journals Retirement Security in an Aging Population

2014 ◽  
Vol 104 (5) ◽  
pp. 1-30 ◽  
Author(s):  
James M. Poterba
Keyword(s):  
Well Being ◽  
Pension Plans ◽  
Support Program ◽  
Standard Of Living ◽  
Defined Benefit ◽  
Defined Contribution ◽  
Private Pensions ◽  
Elderly Individuals ◽  
Income Sources ◽  
Retirement Security

Elderly individuals exhibit wide disparities in their sources of income. For those in the bottom half of the income distribution, Social Security is the most important source of support; program changes would directly affect their well-being. Income from private pensions, assets, and earnings are relatively more important for higher-income elderly individuals, who have more diverse income sources. The trend from private sector defined benefit to defined contribution pension plans has shifted responsibility for retirement security to individuals. A significant subset of the population is unlikely to be able to sustain their standard of living in retirement without higher pre-retirement saving.

scholarly journals Public Employment, Collective Bargaining and the Conventional Wisdom : Canada and U.S.A.

2005 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
pp. 406-435
Author(s):  
W. B. Cunningham
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Collective Bargaining ◽  
Private Sector ◽  
Public Service ◽  
Industrial Relations ◽  
The United States ◽  
Conventional Wisdom ◽  
Public Employment ◽  
The Public ◽  
State Of Affairs

The author states that the conventional wisdom has viewed collective bargaining in the public service as unnecessary, impractical and illegal. And he adds that, in general, and until recently, the prevailing practices in the United States and Canada have been in close harmony with the conventional wisdom. But the restless change of events threatens the existing state of affairs, described by the conventional wisdom, with progressive obsolescence. And the author answers the two following questions: Can the industrial relations system of the private sector be applied to public employment? To what extent does the nature of government employment raise unique problems? The enemy of the conventional wisdom is not ideas but the march of events. J.K. GALBRAITH, « The Affluent Society »

scholarly journals Collective Bargaining Attitudes of Registered Nurses in the United States and Canada: A Wisconsin-Ontario Comparison

2005 ◽  
Vol 34 (3) ◽  
pp. 576-591 ◽  
Author(s):  
Allen Ponak ◽  
T. P. Haridas
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Collective Bargaining ◽  
Registered Nurses ◽  
The United States ◽  
Low Rate

This paper compares the attitudes to collective bargaining of a sample of Ontario and Wisconsin registered nurses. Contrary to expectations (in view of the general low rate of American nursing unionism), the Wisconsin nurses who where surveyed viewed collective bargaining at least as favourably as their Ontario counterparts.

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