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Tuesday, August 3, 2010

Keeping Up, and Down, with the Joneses � The Quick and the Ed

Keeping Up, and Down, with the Joneses � The Quick and the Ed

Keeping Up, and Down, with the Joneses

Public- and private-sector workers’ retirements used to be structured similarly. Not that long ago, both groups were likely to have access to defined benefit pension plans that guaranteed monthly payments until death. Both sets of workers retired at about the same ages.
These things have changed over the last 25 years as private-sector employers have abandoned DB plans, private-sector workers have been retiring at older ages, and public-sector workers, including teachers, have been retiring younger. By 2009, only one in five private-sector workers had access to a DB plan, compared to 89 percent of teachers and 84 percent of all state and local government employees who are still

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