TY - JOUR
T1 - Changes in Firm Pension Policy
T2 - Trends Away from Traditional Defined Benefit Plans
AU - Kapinos, Kandice
N1 - Funding Information:
This research reported herein was pursuant to a grant from the U.S. Social Security Administration (SSA) funded as part of the Retirement Research Consortium (RRC). The findings and conclusions expressed are solely those of the author and do not represent the views of SSA, the Department of Veterans Affairs, any agency of the Federal Government or the RRC. I am grateful to a Steven H. Sandell Grant from the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College. I also thank Charlie Brown, Robert Costrell and seminar participants the Labor and Employment Relations Association for comments on an earlier version of this paper. This research uses data from the Census Bureau's Longitudinal Employer Household Dynamics Program, which was partially supported by the following National Science Foundation Grants SES-9978093, SES-0339191 and ITR-0427889; National Institute on Aging Grant AG018854; and grants from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.
PY - 2012/3
Y1 - 2012/3
N2 - In light of the recent concerns regarding the solvency of Social Security's Old-Age, Survivors and Disability Insurance (OASDI), private pensions may play an increasingly important role in retirement welfare of US retirees. However, the private pension landscape has evolved in ways that may result in lower private pension wealth for retirees. One recent such phenomenon involves the conversion of traditional defined benefit pension plans to cash balance plans, which results in lower pension benefits for many workers. In this study, I investigated how characteristics of the firm's workforce influenced whether the firm converted their traditional pension plan to a cash balance plan and how these characteristics related to the firm's pension plan policy more generally. Using the Longitudinal Employer-Household Data and pension plan data from the Department of Labor/Internal Revenue Service and the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation, I found little evidence of workforce age distribution effects on the likelihood of DB plan conversion to a cash balance plan in the 1990s. More generally, I consistently found positive associations between firms with older and more female workforces and defined contribution plans during the same time.
AB - In light of the recent concerns regarding the solvency of Social Security's Old-Age, Survivors and Disability Insurance (OASDI), private pensions may play an increasingly important role in retirement welfare of US retirees. However, the private pension landscape has evolved in ways that may result in lower private pension wealth for retirees. One recent such phenomenon involves the conversion of traditional defined benefit pension plans to cash balance plans, which results in lower pension benefits for many workers. In this study, I investigated how characteristics of the firm's workforce influenced whether the firm converted their traditional pension plan to a cash balance plan and how these characteristics related to the firm's pension plan policy more generally. Using the Longitudinal Employer-Household Data and pension plan data from the Department of Labor/Internal Revenue Service and the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation, I found little evidence of workforce age distribution effects on the likelihood of DB plan conversion to a cash balance plan in the 1990s. More generally, I consistently found positive associations between firms with older and more female workforces and defined contribution plans during the same time.
KW - Cash balance plans
KW - Defined benefit plans
KW - Defined contribution plans
KW - Pension plans
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U2 - 10.1007/s12122-011-9126-5
DO - 10.1007/s12122-011-9126-5
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84857191518
SN - 0195-3613
VL - 33
SP - 91
EP - 103
JO - Journal of Labor Research
JF - Journal of Labor Research
IS - 1
ER -