Sunday, July 28, 2013

A Pension Deficit Disorder: The Massive CEO Retirement Funds and Underfunded Worker Pensions at Firms Pushing Social Security Cuts

This report analyzes the retirement policies of the U.S. corporations leading the “Fix the Debt” campaign, which is calling for reduced spending on senior citizens’ benefits as part of a deal on the national debt.
A major player in the national debt debate, the “Fix the Debt” campaign, is arguing that cuts to Social Security and Medicare are necessary to avoid economic disaster. Meanwhile, the corporations leading this campaign are contributing to Americans’ retirement insecurity by funneling enormous sums into their CEO retirement accounts while underfunding their employee pension funds.
Key findings:
• The 71 Fix the Debt CEOs who lead publicly held companies have amassed an average of $9 million in their company retirement funds. A dozen have more than $20 million in their accounts. If each of them converted their assets to an annuity when they turned 65, they would receive a monthly check for at least $110,000 for life.
• The Fix the Debt CEO with the largest pension fund is Honeywell’s David Cote, a long-time advocate of Social Security cuts. His $78 million nest egg is enough to provide a $428,000 check every month after he turns 65.
• Forty-one of the 71 companies offer employee pension funds. Of these, only two have sufficient assets in their funds to meet expected obligations. The rest have combined deficits of $103 billion, or about $2.5 billion on average. General Electric has the largest deficit in its worker pension fund, with $22 billion.
IPS — Institute for Policy Studies
A Pension Deficit Disorder: The Massive CEO Retirement Funds and Underfunded Worker Pensions at Firms Pushing Social Security Cuts
Sarah Anderson and Scott Klinger
Contributors include Brent Soloway
(h/t MoveThroughIt in the comments)

Hypocrisy?

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

"Hypocracy?"

Or just an overt attempt to reclaim spending power that they were forced to waste on workers. They get to hold on to all that money while the rank and file go through a deflationary spiral, culminating in journeymen getting a wage of ~$35/wk, just like in the good old days. I wonder what the ROI would be on that maneuver?

googleheim said...

AGAIN AS WE SAW LAST MONTH WITH WALMART WHO OUTSOURCES THEIR BENEFITS TO THE FEDS AND STATES VIA MEDICARE, MEDICAID, CHIP, GOLD CARDS, AND SO FORTH.

THE CAPITALIST SYSTEM REALLY IS NOT SO STRONG AS TO BE ABLE TO PROVIDE BENEFITS FOR THE WORKERS.

OUTSOURCE TO THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT AND THEN KICK THE FEDS FOR RUNNING UP A DEFICIT.

Roger Erickson said...

“Fix the Debt” ?

is that a euphemism for "Defraud the Fix" ?

Roger Erickson said...

Those hoarding these huge sums of fiat already don't know what to do with all that currency.

It's right out of Aesop's Fable of the Manger/Dog/Ox

What kind of fool tries to save fiat?

That's literally an attempt to save public initiative.

How do you "save" sitting on your butt? The goal is to accumulate a bigger butt?

Guess what, we're succeeding!

However, it's neither a pretty sight NOR a benefit. It's a huge liability as both physical & social dimensions of inactivity spiral, along with their compounding, indirect costs.