Pensions Freezing Out Younger Workers

[lovuian]

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Pensions Freezing Out Younger Workers



Jul 24, 2005 : 3:34 pm ET

NEW YORK -- Companies looking to cool their pension problems are freezing benefits for the workers least likely to complain.

This means cutting off new employees, or a combination of new employees and workers of a certain age -- often those under 40. Only people ages 40 and over are covered by federal age-discrimination labor laws, an area of growing concern to employers who are still reeling from age-discrimination lawsuits over so-called cash-balance plans.

Hewlett-Packard Co. is the latest in what appears to be a growing number of companies freezing their pensions for select workers. Earlier this week, the technology giant said it will freeze pension benefits based on age and tenure starting next year. Workers whose combined age and tenure equal a minimum of 62 keep their pension benefits intact. The pension freezes for everyone else, who retain the benefits they have already accumulated but lose the potential for further accruals. Federal law protects workers from losing a benefit they have already earned, but not from losing the promise of future benefits.

Companies that have taken similar actions in recent years include NCR Corp., Sears Holding Corp., International Business Machines Corp. and Motorola Inc. NCR froze pension benefits for workers under age 40 starting last September, and stopped offering its pension to new hires. Sears also stopped benefits for new workers and current employers under age 40 in 2004, but then changed course after its merger with Kmart. It announced this year that it will freeze plan benefits for all employees starting in 2006. IBM and Motorola, meanwhile, both shut their pension plans to new workers at the start of 2005.


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The day of the Pension is over but the Big Companies have been abusing this whole system for years and now its time to pay up and they can't. The biggest fraud of this country!!!

[roguevalley]

1. amazing how this happens under repugs and not others. Welcome

to the brave new world, my young friends. I am SO DAMNED glad I'm retired.

[cornermouse]

2. Greed, nothing but greed.

That's all you ever get from republicans.