If companies find conversion too onerous, he notes, they'll simply terminate their defined-benefit plans altogether.
States also have good reasons for wanting charter schools to participate in defined-benefit pensions.
If that continues, companies will surely become even more reluctant to stick with their defined-benefit schemes.
Defined-benefit pension funds are anyway being consigned to the dustbin, in favour of defined-contribution schemes.
More and more (including The Economist) have shut their defined-benefit plans to new entrants.
In Japan today all the problems are coming from defined-benefit pledges that cannot be met.
Such programs, known as defined-benefit plans, pay retired workers a monthly stipend as long as they live.
In 1995 some 5m private employees were building up entitlements in defined-benefit schemes open to new members.
Once women began to work, typically part-time, and once employees began to switch jobs, defined-benefit schemes became inequitable.
Less than a fourth of private-sector workers are still covered by defined-benefit plans today, down from 39% in 1975.
As with 401(k)s, lower-cost, off-the-shelf defined-benefit plans have started to hit the market.
They do not understand why they should now pay to maintain the more generous defined-benefit pensions of public-sector employees.
The biggest setback has been in private defined-benefit schemes, which pay pensions linked to years of service and final salaries.
How long can we keep government employees on defined-benefit pension plans while the rest of us scramble to fund our 401(k)s?
Legislation eventually righted some of those wrongs, but defined-benefit schemes are not well suited to the pattern of many people's lives.
Parents of the post-war generation are probably going to be fine, having social safety nets like defined-benefit pensions, Social Security and Medicare.
Obama administration officials have been wrestling with the challenge of funding retirement across lengthening lifetimes and amid dwindling traditional "defined-benefit" pension plans.
And it's not just people at old-line companies with legacy, defined-benefit pensions.
In 1942 laws were passed restricting the amount in classic pensions that provided a set payment, known as defined-benefit plans, to 10%.
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Only 21% of private workers enjoy a defined-benefit (DB) pension, which guarantees retirement income based on years of service and final salary.
The guarantee implied in a typical defined-benefit scheme is not the sort of risk that a company should be expected to incur.
In 1991 West Virginia lawmakers ended their defined-benefit plans for new teachers.
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But most importantly, governments must move away from the defined-benefit model and shift employees to defined-contribution retirement options like 401(k) and 403(b) plans.
For pilots, it sponsors a defined-benefit pension plan, a defined-contribution plan and gives access to a 401(k) that doesn't include any company match.
If you have younger employees, a custom-designed defined-benefit plan will allow you to put away big bucks for yourself, and little for them.
Most defined-benefit schemes have either a set retirement age or a mandatory number of contribution years before a full pension can be drawn.
With defined-benefit pension plans falling by the wayside, a growing number of buyers are turning to longevity policies to serve as pension substitutes.
ESOPs are, by and large, more likely to offer employees traditional, defined-benefit pension schemes, which insulate workers from the vagaries of share-price movements.
Although some firms may dip into profits to plug newly exposed gaps, many more will continue the trend of junking defined-benefit schemes altogether.
The alternative was to see the private sector's assault on defined-benefit pensions escalate into the public sector, the last safe bastion of such benefits.
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