Blogs & Newsletters
Older Americans Month
Today, May 1, marks the start of Older Americans Month. What better a day to discuss the retirement security of older Americans? Not so long ago retirement security was thought of as a three-legged stool, consisting of employer-sponsored pensions, personal savings and Social Security. Today the only leg of that stool that remains intact is Social Security. More […]
Mother Jones for Mother’s Day
With Mother’s Day approaching, it seems only fitting that I put in a plug for the current edition of Mother Jones magazine. Its cover asks, “Who Ran Away With Your 401(k)?” and the issue is required reading for anyone interested in the future of retirement income. In the lead story, “Who Shredded Our Safety Net?“, […]
Unequal Pay = Unequal Pensions
Today, April 28, is Equal Pay Day, in recognition of the fact that on average women earn less than men. For women, as former Congresswoman Patricia Schroeder once noted, this discrimination throughout their lives “strikes its cruelest blow at the end.” The Lily Ledbetter Equal Pay Act of 2009 will not only help close the […]
Pension information for automotive industry retirees
Are you a retiree from the auto industry? The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation, the federal agency that guarantees pensions, has provided helpful information for retirees of Ford, General Motors, Chrysler, and other car companies. The PBGC guarantees pension benefits up to a certain limit for retirees of companies that have gone bankrupt and are unable […]
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.
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. […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
