The Defined Benefit

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  • The “Pension Crisis” is a Myth, Part Five
    teacher pensions

    Since the Great Recession in 2008, warnings of an impending pension crisis have been splashed across the business pages of newspapers across the country. Despite these boisterous decrees, America’s public pension funds are stable. We explore the roots behind the…

  • Maine Could Vote to Improve Pension Funding
    Maine public pension funding

    Next month Maine will vote on a state question that would amend the state constitution to improve public pension funding. State Question 4 would increase the amortization period for the pension plan to recover investment losses from 10 years to…

  • Corporate Giveaways Exceed Public Pension Costs
    corporate giveaways

    In many states, the amount given away in subsidies and tax breaks to big corporations exceeds the amount needed to fund public pensions each year. That is the conclusion of a new report from Good Jobs First, a nonpartisan economic…

  • Pensions Keep Teachers in the Classroom
    teacher pensions

    The overwhelming majority of public school teachers in the United States participate in traditional defined benefit pension plans. This year, however, Michigan and Pennsylvania both made significant and harmful changes to their pension plans for teachers and other public school…

  • Women and Retirement: Some Things to Consider
    Women and retirement

    Women typically enter their golden years with less retirement income than men. According to a report last year from the National Institute on Retirement Security (NIRS), women are 80 percent more likely than men to be impoverished at age 65…

  • Retirement Savings Struggles for Low-Income Workers
    Saving for retirement

    It’s well-known that low-income working Americans struggle to save for retirement and have less retirement income than middle-class and wealthy Americans. It shouldn’t be this difficult. The main goal in retirement planning is to achieve what the experts call an…

  • Kentucky Spends More on Corporate Giveaways Than on Public Pensions
    Kentucky corporate giveaways

    Kentucky gives away millions of dollars in corporate subsidies and tax loopholes, an amount that far exceeds the annual cost of funding public pensions. That is the conclusion of a new report released yesterday by Good Jobs First, a national…

  • San Jose Offers a Lesson about Pensions for Kentucky
    San Jose pensions

    There are plenty of differences and a few thousand miles between Frankfort, KY, and Silicon Valley. Despite these differences, San Jose, CA, offers lessons for Kentucky legislators about the mistakes made by the anti-pension activists who tried to gut pensions…

  • What is the New Hampshire Decennial Retirement Commission?
    New Hampshire Decennial Retirement Commission

    This autumn the New Hampshire Decennial Retirement Commission is meeting to consider the future of the New Hampshire Retirement System (NHRS), the state’s public pension plan. The commission is supposed to issue a report by November 1 detailing their recommendations,…

  • An Update on Secure Choice Retirement Savings Plans
    Secure Choice retirement savings plans

    We first discussed Secure Choice plans back in March of this year. At the time, Congress was moving forward with repealing Obama-era regulations that would have made it easier for states to establish these plans. Unfortunately, Congress passed and President…

  • This Missouri City Just Switched to a Pension
    Webster Groves pension

    The narrative promoted by anti-pension ideologues is that defined benefit pensions are a thing of the past. These pension critics falsely claim that cities and states are abandoning pensions. One city in Missouri is proving them wrong. The city of…

  • Spotlight on Kentucky Governor Matt Bevin
    Kentucky Governor Matt Bevin

    Public pensions are the hot topic of conversation in Kentucky these days. Governor Matt Bevin has pledged to call a special legislative session this fall, most likely in October, to address the challenges facing the state’s public pension systems. Bevin…