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 […]
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.
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
The test of time
In my work here at the Pension Rights Center, one of my responsibilities is to update the list of companies that have suspended matching 401(k) contributions. This week I’ve had to add more than 15 companies to this list. Even worse, some of these companies are suspending matching 401(k) contributions and freezing their traditional pensions, […]
Taking a few steps back
A new report from the Congressional Research Service shows that we still have a long way to go when it comes to ensuring that American workers are covered by workplace retirement plans. In fact, we’ve taken a few steps back. According to the report: Fewer private-sector workers were offered a workplace retirement plan in 2006 […]
PRC letter to the U.S. Office of Personnel Management regarding spousal benefits for federal employees
February 2, 2009: In a letter to the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, the PRC requested that OPM send notices to federal employees warning them that their spouses could be in danger of losing survivor benefits. See OPM’s response.
