Blogs & Newsletters
04/20/09

The Pension Rights Center steps into the world of Web 2.0!

Do you tweet on Twitter? We do! The Pension Rights Center has joined Twitter, a social networking platform that allows users to let their “followers” know what they’re up to on a regular basis. Check out the Center’s Twitter feed, @PensionRights, and sign up to follow our tweets.

Blogs & Newsletters
04/14/09

Time to Fix a Fiscal Mistake

Last week, the U.S. House of Representatives approved a Roth alternative in the Thrift Savings Plan for government employees. Roths are the antithesis of sensible tax and budget policy. Rather than expanding them to federal employees, Congress should scrap them. As most of us know, there are now two choices in both IRAs and 401(k)s. […]

Blogs & Newsletters
04/09/09

A company shows compassion

These days, it’s not often that we agree with the decisions companies make when it comes to pensions (take a look at our lists of companies that have frozen their pensions or that have cut their 401(k) matches), but an activist alerted us to one company that is actually doing the right thing. As reported […]

Blogs & Newsletters
04/07/09

News you can use

With tax day approaching, Andrea Coombes of MarketWatch.com has written a helpful column about the Making Work Pay credit, a 2009 tax credit given to all working Americans with earnings under a certain amount. To implement this credit, the I.R.S. has issued new tax withholding tables. However, as she notes, implementing the tax credit through […]

Comments & Letters
04/01/09

PRC letter to the Treasury Department regarding the “Make Work Pay” tax credit

April 1, 2009: The PRC sent a letter to the Treasury Department requesting that it clarify that the new “Make Work Pay” tax credit should not change the amount of money pension plans withhold from pension checks for tax purposes.

Blogs & Newsletters
04/01/09

Recommended Reading

In the uproar over the million-dollar bonuses given to AIG executives, AIG’s defenders claimed that the company was forced to give out these bonuses because of contracts it signed with the executives.  In Sunday’s St. Petersburg Times, columnist Robyn Blumner uses AIG and United Airlines to make a terrific point about the disgraceful inequities in […]

Blogs & Newsletters
03/30/09

How does your 401(k) measure up (or fall short)?

In the current economic climate, few of us want to open our 401(k) statements.  As we’ve written in the past, the faltering stock market, combined with employers eliminating their 401(k) matching contributions, has made retirement security quite a gamble.  But if you are one of the brave, a new tool can help you find out […]

Blogs & Newsletters
03/25/09

Stop scapegoating public workers

Since the beginning of the economic downturn we’ve seen a lot of stories in the news about the decline in the funding status of pension plans.  Given that pension plans are heavily invested in the stock market, real estate and other assets that have lost significant value in the economic downturn, it would follow suit […]

Blogs & Newsletters
03/20/09

The Office gets a 401(k) reality check

It isn’t uncommon to hear people comparing NBC’s hit television show, The Office, to their own workplaces.  Many of the events on the show mirror what happens in offices across the country.  But for many people last night’s episode hit a little too close to home. In case you didn’t catch the episode, a vice […]

Blogs & Newsletters
03/12/09

An Exciting Day for PRC

The Pension Rights Center had a very exciting day on Tuesday as we joined with three other groups to unveil a new initiative called Retirement USA. Together with the Economic Policy Institute, National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare, and Service Employees International Union, we presented principles that would provide the basis for a […]

Blogs & Newsletters
02/26/09

The Big 100: A somber milestone

Earlier this week, the Pension Rights Center’s list of companies that have suspended their 401(k) matching contributions reached 100. The companies on this list are big and small.  The list includes the Big Three automakers, various auto parts suppliers, a dry cleaning chemical manufacturer, a wave of newspaper publishers and even a small county in […]

Blogs & Newsletters
02/20/09

Retirement plan rules trump divorce decree

The Supreme Court recently ruled that a retirement plan could follow its own rules even if they were inconsistent with the terms of a divorce decree. The decision is an important one, not just because of the legal precedent that it sets, but also because it serves as an important warning to anyone who has […]