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U.S. Master Pension Guide, 2012 Edition
Part of CCH's Master Series of professional guidebooks. The book provides a comprehensive explanatory overview of qualified retirement plans and other retirement arrangements, reflecting up-to-date law changes and regulations. Benefit COLAs, calendars, and tables reflect the year 2012 figures.
Participation in employment-based retirement plans decreased by small amounts for most categories of workers in 2008, but those with the strongest connection to the work force experienced the smallest decline, according to a study released by the Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI).
The study, based on Census Bureau data, found that the percentage of all workers participating in an employment-based retirement plan decreased from 41.5% in 2007 to 40.4% in 2008, while the percentage of full-time, full-year wage and salary workers ages 21-64 (those most likely to be offered a retirement plan at work) decreased from 55.3% in 2007 to 54.8% in 2008. In 2008, wage and salary workers ages 21-64 had the biggest decrease, at 1.4 percentage points.
Participation tied to economic factors
Worker participation in a retirement plan is strongly tied to macroeconomic factors such as stock market returns and the labor market, the EBRI found. The better economic conditions of the late 1990s resulted in higher levels of participation, while the relatively worse conditions in the 2000s led to lower levels of participation.
"The economic crisis of 2008 clearly had an impact on the most recent participation data, and the full effect on participation from the recent downturn in the economy has yet to be measured," said Craig Copeland, senior EBRI research associate and author of the study. Other underlying factors also will affect future participation trends, such as the decline and freezing of defined benefit pension plans in the private sector, and the automatic enrollment provisions of the 2006 Pension Protection Act (PPA; P.L. 109-280) for defined contribution (401(k)-type) plans, which became effective in 2008, Copeland added.
Source: EBRI press release, November 5, 2009.
For more information on this and related topics, consult the CCH Pension Plan Guide, CCH Employee Benefits Management, and Spencer's Benefits Reports.
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