Rebuilding Workers’ Retirement Security: A Labor Perspective on Private Pension Reform

This chapter surveys the issues facing policymakers and workers’ organizations thinking about rebuilding a viable retirement security system in the United States, in the context of declining defined benefit coverage and persistent serious flaws in defined contribution plans. The chapter lays out principles for a universal system of supplemental retirement income coverage based on mandatory contribution levels, mandatory portability, limitations on early withdrawals, and annuitization. The structure outlined envisions continued participant and employer choice of both investment strategy and benefit design, with incentives built in for collective asset management.