Pensions

[|Glossary] Glossary terms: Pension Fund An account established by a business to fund retirement benefits for its workers. Pension funds invest in stocks, bonds, mutual funds and real estate. Interest Money paid regularly, at a particular rate, for the use of borrowed money. Rate of Return Earnings from an investment, stated as a percentage of the amount invested; usually calculated on an annual basis. Retirement Accounts Accounts such as IRAs (Individual Retirement Accounts), SEPs (Simplified Employee Pension Plans) and Keogh Plans that allow individuals to save money toward retirement on a tax-deferred basis. Simplified Employee Pension (SEP) Plan A qualified, tax-deferred retirement plan for an individual with a small business.

Social Security A federal system of old-age, survivors', disability and hospital care (Medicare) insurance which requires employers to withhold (or transfer) wages from employees’ paychecks and deposit that money in designated accounts.

Social Security Tax A tax levied on employers and employees to finance public Social Security benefits. Search terms pensions teachers AND pensions Articles Subject headings: [|Defined benefit pension plans] Articles Citaton:**Title:** [|Sweating the Golden Years] //"Dignified retirement is still a cherished part of the American dream, but for some that dream is only a fantasy. A rickety retirement system means more U.S. workers have to stay on and on at the job."// An amount of money automatically subtracted from an employee's gross pay for taxes, insurance, retirement benefits, etc. 3 things I discoved -1. "5 percent of workers in the highest quartile of income are offered a pension plan and nearly all of those participate" 2."the number of private-sector workers covered by defined-benefit plans has plummeted to one in five. This dramatic shift widens the already great divide between the haves and have-nots in retirement." 3."The United States deliberately created the Social Security system during the Great Depression to provide only a bare-bones level of support. By the 1950s, everyone assumed that personal savings and employer pensions would be available to supplement their Social Security" 2 things you found interesting: 1. "39 percent--rely on Social Security for 90 percent of their retirement income." 2."As more and more employers shift to 401(k) plans, middle-class Americans may also come up short. The government reports that only 39 percent of families with incomes between $25,000 and $49,000 participate in a 401(k) or defined-contribution plan. Americans who do have plans aren't putting enough into them: The median amount of money in a 401(k) plan for individuals ages 55 to 64 is only $23,000. It will require savings of $200,000 to $300,000, in addition to Social Security, for the average American to have a secure retirement, according to Alicia Munnell, director of the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College." and 1 question you still have. What will it take to make assemble a clear collection of information? I think this is scattered.
 * Source:** Wilson Quarterly Vol. XXX, No. 2
 * Author:** Beth Shulman
 * Publication Date:** Spring 2006
 * Page Number:** 57-61
 * Database:** SIRS Researcher
 * Service:** SIRS Knowledge Source
 * Payroll Deduction**

Title: The Broken Promise Source: Time Vol. 166, No. 18 Author: Donald L. Barlett and James B. Steele Publication Date: Oct. 31, 2005 Page Number: 32+ Database: SIRS Researcher Service: SIRS Knowledge Source //" It was part of the American Dream, a pledge made by corporations to their workers: for your decades of toil, you will be assured of retirement benefits like a pension and health care. Now more and more companies are walking away from that promise, leaving millions of Americans at risk of an impoverished retirement. How can this be legal? A TIME investigation looks at how Congress let it happen and the widespread social insecurity it's causing."// 3 things I discovered-1."It began in the 1980s with the elimination of middle-class, entry-level jobs in lower-paying industries-"..."The transition is well under way, eroding efforts of the past three decades to eliminate poverty among the aging"...in the same time that union memebership declined - there is also a concerted effort to dismantle public collective safety nets. 2."Congress's role has been pivotal. Lawmakers wrote bankruptcy regulations to allow corporations to scrap the health insurance they promised employees who retired early--sometimes voluntarily, quite often not. They wrote pension rules that encouraged corporations to underfund their retirement plans or switch to plans less favorable to employees. They denied workers the right to sue to enforce retirement promises. They have refused to overhaul America's health-care system, which has created the world's most expensive medical care without any comparable benefit. One by one, lawmakers have undermined or destroyed policies that once afforded at least the possibility of a livable existence to many seniors, while at the same time encouraging corporations to repudiate lifetime-benefit agreements. All this under the guise of ensuring workers that they are in charge of their own destiny--such as it is." - WHO FUNDS THE CONGRESS - WHO IS PAYING FOR THE RE-ELECTION CMPAGINS FOT HE CONGRESS? T.C. remarked that economics is just for the rich - and G.T. thought that welfare entitlements was driving this country into bankruptcy - is it? Are the rich pushing all the risk onto us and removing their responsibility to the public good? " The shift away from guaranteed pensions was encouraged by Congress, which structured the rules in a way that invites corporations to abandon their defined-benefit plans in favor of defined-contribution plans, increasingly 401(k)s, in which employees set aside a fixed sum of money toward retirement. Many companies also contribute; some don't. Whatever the case, the contributions will never be enough to match the certain and long-term income from a defined-benefit plan. What's more, once the money runs out, that's it. If people live longer than expected, get stuck with unanticipated expenses or suffer losses of other once promised benefits, they will have little besides their Social Security to sustain them." 3."plans offered by corporations has plunged from 112,200 in 1985 to 29,700 today. Since 1985, the number of active workers covered in the private sector declined from 22 million to 17 million. They are the last members of what once promised to be the U.S.'s golden retirement era, and they are fast disappearing. From 2001 to 2004, nearly 200 corporations in the FORTUNE 1000 killed or froze their defined-benefit plans" I'm glad I got some statistics 2 things I found interesting-The role of congress in this - how the government works to help corporations and not necessarily the people. "he stepped down as head of CSX Corp.--operator of the largest rail network in the eastern U.S.--to take over Treasury, Snow was given a lump-sum pension of $33.2 million. It was based on 44 years of employment at CSX. Unlike most ordinary people, who must work the actual years on which their pension is calculated, Snow was employed just 26 years. The additional 18 years of his CSX employment history were fictional, a gift from the company's board of directors."-this is an example of a group of rich people doing things tohelp out other rich people and letting the rest of us fight over pennies. 1 question I still have-Is there a way I can formatn the statistics to make it more interesting and easier to read(in a table) and then each statistics cell in the table can be linked to the article I found it.