Archive for October, 2015

October 14, 2015

Spotlight on: Bruce Rauner

In today’s post, we continue to shine a spotlight on right-wing politicians and anti-worker ideologues who are leading the charge to gut public pensions. Today’s subject is Illinois governor Bruce Rauner. While relatively new to the office and without the …

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October 12, 2015

Phoenix Stands Up to John Arnold

We’ve written before about John Arnold, the former Enron energy trader turned hedge fund billionaire, who has made it his mission to gut public pensions across the nation. We’ve also highlighted one of his notable failures: his single-handed attempt to …

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October 9, 2015

Where Do Pensions Get Their Money?

Many people don’t understand how pensions work – unlike the loyal readers of ‘Defined Benefit’ – so here’s a short primer on how pensions get their money. Typically, it is from three sources: employee contributions, investment returns, and employer contributions. …

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October 7, 2015

Women and Retirement Security

Pensions provide retirement security to many workers, but one group that particularly benefits from the security of a reliable pension is women. On average, women in the U.S. make 78 cents for every $1 a man makes. This pay inequity …

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October 5, 2015

Spotlight on: Pennsylvania

Politicians in Pennsylvania have been trying to gut worker pensions for years. In this state-focused series at Defined Benefit, we’re going to give you the background on this battle to protect retirement security in Pennsylvania. Let’s begin with some history. …

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October 2, 2015

Defined Benefit vs Defined Contribution: the Basics

Many Americans believe that a retirement security crisis is looming; they feel it in their daily lives. Many Americans also believe that one of the benefits of a lifetime of hard work should be a secure retirement. The question for …

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