November 8, 2009

20% of workers in USA covered by Pensions

Did you realize that 20% of the workforce in the US is covered by a traditional defined pension plan? Its true. Well at least as of 2007 when the latest data was published at the Census site.

When I say a traditional defined pension I mean the kind of pension where you work X years and then retire you'll then get Y dollars a month. This is different than a 401k or IRA where your retirement funds are based how much money you contribute and how your investments perform.

I believe the data includes government workers who probably represent a large portion of the people with pensions. I'd assume that many if not most of the people under traditional pensions have government jobs.

More Union workers have pensions. 67% of union workers have a pension but only 15% of non-union workers do. People in service industries or part time jobs are much less likely to have a traditional pension. Only 7% of service industry and 9% of part time workers have them.

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