Congress Considers Cutting Pension Benefits to Current Retirees
We typically like to end the week on a high note with exciting job market news but alas, we need to make an exception based on the latest headline.
Congress may actually cut pension benefits to current retirees. Come again?
The proposed legislation would amend a $1.1 trillion spending bill by cutting benefits for multi-employer plans most commonly found in the grocery, trucking and construction industries. Fingers crossed media is not in there but it still negatively impacts retirees who’ve worked in industries with employers as well as unions.
Per Nasdaq, the bipartisan agreement was announced on a conference call earlier this week. And Joyce Rogers, senior vice president for AARP, said in a statement:
“After a lifetime of hard work to earn their pensions, retirees don’t deserve to receive a bad deal, in which they have had no say, cut behind closed doors and secluding the very people who would be impacted the most.”
Here’s the kicker — approximately 10 million workers have participated in multi-employer plans. This equates to about 25 percent of all workers who belong to defined benefit plans. These plans have guaranteed a monthly payment based on earnings and they’ve been sponsored by the employer.
Rogers added, “It’s going to lead to a society where nobody can depend on anything.”
