For Younger Workers, Creeping Doubts

This article was first published in the 2015 Fall Edition of AFSCME Works. Click here to download the full magazine. Once upon a time, there was retirement security... If that sounds like the opening of a fairy tale, it's not: More and more, it's the story a new generation of workers is telling their children about a time when a majority of Americans had retirement pensions. Real pensions are still common in the public sector, even though only 18 percent of private-sector workers are covered by these "defined-benefit" plans. But ever since the Great Recession of 2008, when many state budgets were in the red, pensions in the public sector are under attack. In cities and states across the nation, corporate-backed politicians would like nothing better than to usher in a new era of uncertainty for the middle class — and big profits for Wall Street — by doing away with real pensions and replacing them with risky "defined-contribution" savings plans, like 401(k)s. Pensions Are Still Hip Isaac Harry, AFSCME Local 371 Many employers would like us to believe that pensions are for a bygone generation. They say young people crave the flexibility of a 401(k), taking it with them as...

By: AFSCME Blog Feed