401(k)s are a sham: Duped by a DIY retirement dream, elderly face staggeringly low living standards

[still_one]

139. That report has a lot of information to digest, and will take me some time to go through.

Few workers have access to a retirement plan that will provide guaranteed payments for the rest of their lives. Less than a third (31 percent) of employees were offered a traditional pension at work in 2010, and only 28 percent participated, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Those who belong to a union are more likely offered a pension at work verses nonunion employees. However, that has changed since reagan, and to some part due to many of the union members voting for reagan, which was actually the start of deregulation, and the dismantling of the unions.

Majority of state and local government workers are offered a traditional pension, not so much in the private sector.

It used to be if you worked for a large company, odds are you would be part of a pension plan. If you worked for a small company, it was probably never offered to you. 401Ks actually provided smaller companies to offer a retirement vehicle to their employees at low cost and hassle. However, now large companies are following suit, and phasing out their pension plans. The same thing is happening in public sector jobs, and WI is one of the best examples. Again, with the help of the voters in the case of WI. but Wisconsin sure isn't the only state.

The jobs least likely to offer pensions are food service, etc.

Pensions are a two way sword also. Most pension plans are designed to reward long-term employees. If you don't attain vesting in the plan, you lose any retirement payout. I worked for a company for 9 years, and when they closed the division I lost all vesting by 6 months. Things have changed now, and most companies now offer a 5 year vesting period. However, if someone is in an industry where they move from one job with one company to another job with a different company, if you get any pension, it most likely will be very small.

As far as I am aware only a full time employee is qualified to participate in a retirement plan.

In addition it depends the area you live and work at. Employers in general offer retirement benefits that are competitive with other companies in the same geographic area and industry. Private sector pensions are most common in the mid Atlantic and Northeaster US, while workers in the southern states are least likely to have access to pensions.

Saying the government created this is not the full picture. The government allowed 401k plans, IRAs, and other retirement instruments, but it is the corporations who decided to phase out their pensions