Welcome to the latest edition of This Week in Pensions! As we do most weeks, we have gathered the best stories about pensions and retirement security from the previous week. This is the news you need to know in the fight for a secure retirement.
Here are this week’s top stories:
- ‘I hope I can quit working in a few years’: A preview of the U.S. without pensions by Peter Whoriskey: the Washington Post profiles a group of former employees at a factory in Tulsa, OK, who lost their full pension benefits when the factory was closed. Now in their seventies, many of these people are still working, some full-time, just to pay the bills.
- Walker Stapleton wrong about pensions by Michael Merrifield: a state senator responds to an editorial by the Colorado Springs Gazette that praised the attacks on pensions by State Treasurer Walker Stapleton. Merrifield argues that Stapleton is using his attacks on PERA, the Colorado public pension plan, as an issue in his campaign for governor. As he says, “Stapleton isn’t a “financial whiz” – he’s a political opportunist who sees an opening by attacking PERA.”
- Legislators: Don’t fall for ‘reforms’ that make Ky., retirees poorer by Lexington Herald Leader editorial board: the editorial board argues that state legislators should resist the temptation to panic and make harsh and sweeping changes to Kentucky’s public pension systems. “Lawmakers must not allow themselves to be manipulated into enacting ‘solutions’ that will leave Kentucky and Kentuckians poorer.”
- Happy 40th Anniversary to the 401(k) by Annalyn Kurtz: 2018 marks the 40th anniversary of the Revenue Act, which created section 401(k) of the tax code. In the decades since, many companies have abandoned traditional pensions and switched to offering 401(k)s. This has weakened retirement security for working families. Monique Morrissey, an economist at the Economic Policy Institute, is quoted in the article: “These accounts are accidents of history that were never designed to replace pensions, and it should come as no surprise that they have not worked for the majority of people.”
Be sure to check back next week for the latest news in the fight for a secure retirement!
